Don’t be put off by the arcane, old-world premise of The Last Laugh: A pompous, aging doorman (a remarkable Jannings) at a luxury Berlin hotel is stripped of his prestigious uniform and demoted to handing out towels in the men's room. F.W. Murnau's tearjerker — with its ironic happy ending, groundbreaking camera work, and innovative lack of intertitles — was rightly praised by Alfred Hitchcock as ''almost the perfect film.'' Aside from a handsomely restored print, Kino's two-disc package includes a nifty doc demonstrating how cinematographer Karl Freund and the set designers achieved some of the movie's entrancing effects. A
Image credit: The Everett Collection
HARDY HAR HAR Emil Jannings stars in the 1924 flick The Last Laugh
EW's GRADE
ADetails Release Date: Sep 30, 2008; DVD Release Date: Sep 30, 2008; Movie Rated: Unrated; Genre: Drama; With: Maly Delschaft and Emil Jannings
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- Video Review The Last Laugh
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