For the Heck of It: March 2012

Thursday, March 22, 2012

F.W. Murnau's "The Last Laugh"

Murnau moves from Dracula to a doorman

We were privileged to watch F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh, on Super 8 film. When I started out on this hobby, I just wanted to fool around with film. Instead, film projection has opened up a world of features I just hadn't heard in the world of DVD, Blu-Ray and Streaming. For example, all I'd heard of Buster Keaton were The General, Sherlock, Jr. and other famous titles. There just was no mention of Cops. Where was Harry Langdon's Soldier Man? Where were Thelma and ZaSu? ..... I'd watched Nosferatu. But why was there no mention of The Last Laugh? Ha! It is on Super 8!

For me, the story of this livery obsessed doorman just edges out the tale of the blood thirsty Count. They say a classic rings true even today. If that is so, The Last Laugh must surely classify as a classic. Roger Ebert put it in his Great Movies list in 2000. What took you so long Ebert?

The questions it raises, ah! Why is one job better than the other? Why must not the poor and the rich eat the same food? Why do some feel shame in old age? Is luck the only way out for the poor? Finally, the most important question of all has to be: why didn't someone ask Mr. Pink , from Reservoir Dogs, to watch this film?

I watched this feature as, some sort of, homework for Abel Gance's Napolean. My idea was to watch a silent film, with a soundtrack, to psyche myself for the five-and-a-half hour feature. It is playing at the Oakland Paramount Theater in two days. Now F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh isn't as long, yet I feel charged for the epic of epics: Napolean.

A gentleman named Joseph Morrison sold me this feature at, what I consider, a low price. Thanks very much, Joseph!