The Last Laugh

Starring:Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie Kurz, Hans Unterkircher, Olaf Storm, Hermann Vallentin, Georg John, Emmy Wyda, Harald Madsen, Neumann-SchÃ¼ler, Carl SchenstrÃ¸m
Director: F.W. Murnau
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
One of the most influential silent films of all time, F.W. Murnau's street-drama tragedy (of an aging hotel porter who loses his job to a younger, more dashing man and suffers the humiliation of being demoted to washroom attendant) is a compendium of silent film techniques handled with a new sophistication. When the hearty, rather pompous Emil Jannings loses the dignified uniform of his station, he transforms into a scared little man scurrying through the shadows to hide his demotion from friends and family. Murnau captures the humiliation and calamitous fallout from the demotion (he loses not just his self-respect, but the esteem of his neighbors and even his apartment) in haunting, expressionistic images that magnify the petty events into tragic melodrama. The story seems a little extreme even for the genre but it's never less than a harrowing, subjective experience, even with the rather fanciful happy ending tacked on the end of it. Most famously, Murnau throws the camera into motion--one of his most famous shots takes the viewers up an elevator, through the grand hotel lobby, and out the revolving glass door in a single smooth shot--and it hasn't stopped moving since.

Amazon.com

One of the most influential silent films of all time, F.W. Murnau's street-drama tragedy (of an aging hotel porter who loses his job to a younger, more dashing man and suffers the humiliation of being demoted to washroom attendant) is a compendium of silent film techniques handled with a new sophistication. When the hearty, rather pompous Emil Jannings loses the dignified uniform of his station, he transforms into a scared little man scurrying through the shadows to hide his demotion from friends and family. Murnau captures the humiliation and calamitous fallout from the demotion (he loses not just his self-respect, but the esteem of his neighbors and even his apartment) in haunting, expressionistic images that magnify the petty events into tragic melodrama. The story seems a little extreme even for the genre but it's never less than a harrowing, subjective experience, even with the rather fanciful happy ending tacked on the end of it. Most famously, Murnau throws the camera into motion--one of his most famous shots takes the viewers up an elevator, through the grand hotel lobby, and out the revolving glass door in a single smooth shot--and it hasn't stopped moving since.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant.......2007-03-16

This beautiful brilliant film is ample proof of why F.W. Murnau was one of the finest directors of the silent era. He may not have churned out as many films as the likes of, say, Ernst Lubitsch or Thomas Ince, but he proved that quality can be more meaningful than quantity. He was more interested in pure artistic creative vision than in churning out a lot of films in a short timespan to make a lot of money and be hailed as a commercial success. What makes this film even more brilliant is the fact that it's told entirely devoid of intertitles, but for some writing on a cake, a letter, a newspaper article, and the text introducing the epilogue. And yet the film doesn't suffer at all from no explanatory intertitles or dialogue. Those would actually get in the way and interrupt the flow of this beautiful perfect story of a lonely old man dealing with an increasingly low point in his life. The best directors of the silent era tried not to over-rely upon intertitles for this very reason, and felt that a really good story could tell itself on its own merits.

The plot seems simple enough. An old doorman at the posh Atlantic Hotel, Emil Jannings, is very proud of his position and his imperial-looking uniform, though many of his neighbors feel he's too full of himself over his high position. Today one might not think of a hotel doorman/porter as being a very important job at all, but one has to remember that not only does he live in the poor side of town, but also what the economic situation in Germany was like during the Twenties. A hotel porter living in the slums would have been considered like a prince in this era of off-the-charts inflation and national depression and malaise over the heavy handed treatment it was being given after having lost the First World War. One day, however, he discovers that another man has taken his job, and finds himself demoted to the position held by the hotel's oldest employee, who has just retired--the lowly, menial, humiliating job of a bathroom attendant. (It's hard to believe that once such a position actually existed; it just seems lazy that anyone would expect someone to hand them a towel and soap and dry their hands and turn the water on for them instead of doing it themselves! This part of the plot also really hit home for me, since I had a temp job in an insurance company after graduating college but after only a month or so was told that the job I'd been doing was going to be finished by someone within the company, and my next temp job after that was cleaning the bathrooms in that very same building where I'd once had a more prestigious and less humiliating position.) This really depresses the old man, and he rankles under the treatment he gets from the people using the bathroom, but he doesn't want to tell his family the truth, so he pretends he's still working as the doorman. The ruse doesn't hold up, and when it's discovered, he becomes the laughingstock of the whole neighborhood. Emil Jannings does a super job at portraying this lonely anguished old man's heartbreaking poignant emotional journey. The ending is also fantastic; though it does rather go against everything that's been established in this poignant character study, to have just ended the film on the depressing note before the epilogue begins would seem wrong. Hasn't this poor old man already suffered enough slings and arrows? He deserves a happy ending and to have "the last laugh."

This film is easily one of the finest films of the silent era, for its brilliance in telling an entire story with nary an interruption for an intertitle but instead a constantly fluid camera doing the work, and possibly could also be considered one of the finest films period. It does so much with so little, and makes one wonder if film-making has really advanced that much since the Twenties. One does not need constant talk, be it through spoken dialogue or printed intertitles, to create a beautiful film with a convincing compelling understandable storyline.

The revolving door.......2006-04-06

Just the way Murnau shoots doors -- especially the Hotel Atlantic's revolving door -- makes this film worth watching. The title in German translates as "The Last Man" and a revolving door is a perfect metaphor for the story of a proud worker made expendable by his old age. It is really powerful as an image of the wheel of fate, or of time passing, and could also be seen as a metaphor for the movie camera itself. There are several shots where the spinning glass creates a fragmenting, kaleidoscope effect, especially in the doorman's drunken fantasy of superhuman perfection as a porter. Later we see the dejected man hiding behind the bathroom door in his new position as a washroom attendant and, after the shame of his demotion is revealed to his family, he is unable even to gain entry through the front door of his own home without ringing the bell and waiting in disgrace. My advice: ignore the tacked-on feel-good ending and get into the visual poetry of the acting and cinematography.

The Last Laugh.......2005-09-12

F. W. Murnau's THE LAST LAUGH is a remarkable movie about one of the least remarkable subjects you can imagine. An old hotel doorman, played by Emil Jannings, perhaps because of his age, is demoted from his prestigious job to that of washroom attendant. It's a character study of one man's solitary journey through lonely despair. If you can overcome the somewhat exaggerated acting style and the black-and-white silence - not even any inter-title cards in this one - it's a harrowing experience. Jannings is a brilliant silent actor, and the ability to tell a complex story without words is revelatory. It's obvious that by 1924 Murnau had the medium down cold.

With miniatures and some impressive recreations, Murnau built a realistic set of city streets on the studio back lots. He tells his story with a number of subtle camera techniques - long dollies in and out, spinning rooms, the famous opening shot on the descending glass elevator, distortion, and a camera that seemingly walks through a revolving door. All of it's common enough now, but it makes of this one of the supplest of silent movies. Murnau's camera is sinuous, and it pushed the art forward.

At the insistence of the studio Murnau adds an `Improbable Epilogue.' Thankfully he announces it with one of the few title cards in the movie. The epilogue is so at variance with what precedes it that it's practically sardonic. The real movie ends right before the epilogue. The print is in very good condition and the dvd includes a series of production stills and a deleted scene.

Silent Laugh.......2005-02-25

Murnau's 'The Last laugh' is a brilliant film. Though the storyline is simple, the visuals and acting make the experience totally enthralling. Silent films usually rely on subtitles to enable you to understand what the characters are saying. This film completely ignores that, elminates subtitles pretty much altogether, and relies on its actor's performances.

An older gentleman gets a job as a doorman in a high-class hotel. This is a great experience for him, considering he lives in the slums and is poor. The job almost gets to his head though, and he acts a little too full of himself after a while, causing some of his neighbors to dislike him. One day, he shows up to work only to find that someone new has replaced him and that he has a new job...as a bathroom attendent. His world comes crashing down from here on as the story continues.

The visual composition of this film is terrific for being made in the '20s. Murnau has an excellent visual style and also makes great use of lighting. This movie is a great example of taking a simple storyline and making it work through performance and style. A must-see!

Note: When the film was screened, Murnau was told he had to end the film differently because the original ending was too depressing. So, he added on to the ending what has become "the last laugh" to make the studio happy. This ending has a total fantasy-like feel to it, differing from everything that happened prior to it. Nevertheless, it does nothing to ruin the film itself.

So so movie with inadequate storyline.......2005-02-17

Look people! The damn movie's about a guy getting demoted from doorman to sinkroom attendant. So what!?! This isn't Metropolis or Gone With The Wind as far as a great story. The overated camera techniques look archaic and the only impressive bit is the way the big city set is created just on a UFA studio-backlot. I bought this film on KIno DVD and felt financially ripped off upon seeing it.

Average customer rating:

Definitely for little kids
Big let down
Just medium
Not the show I remember...
The Last Laugh gets them all!

Care Bears the Last Laugh
Starring: Noam Zylberman , Pauline Rennie , Jim Henshaw , Eva Almos , and Marla Lukofsky
Director: Jim Simon
Manufacturer: United American Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Release Date: 2003-03-11

Description

It's hard being the most loving, caring bears around! Especially when you have to save the world from that master of meanness, Professor Coldheart! But the Care Bears always find a way, and despite overwhelming odds, unmitigated malice and horrific heartlessness, our plucky heroes always manage to have the Last Laugh in this charming, never before on video collection.

Customer Reviews:

Definitely for little kids.......2005-10-29

I was 14 when the Care Bears came out. These episodes from the original TV series are exactly how I remember them - trite, sentimental and badly animated (think Thundercats). I bought this DVD for my son, who was 3 at the time, and he was absolutely glued to them. This DVD and the Bedtime stories DVD are definitely the better buy when compared to the newer 3-episode DVDs (Tenderheart Tales & Land of Enchantment, and overlap significantly (only one different episode on the 3-episode DVDs).

Big let down.......2003-12-29

This movie was a big let down to me.

As a giant fan of the Carebears, I had bought the original 2 Carebears movies, as well as some of the VHS tapes that come with the stuffed animals not too long ago.

Seeing this dvd in the store, I was thrilled to find another Carebear movie and of course bought it right away, along with the Bedtime Story dvd.

They were both a horrible disappointment to me though, and if I could I would have taken them back and gotten my money back! It didnt match up at all to the original Carebears movies and show, and several of the voices were quite awful! Nothing at all compared to the originals!

Original Carebears fans will not like this dvd at all.

My advice.... do not waste your money on any of the 3 dvd's in this set!

Just medium.......2003-12-28

This movie doesn't really portray the care bears in a way I think it should. The graphics are really bad, but the plot and morals are good. I still would prefer the 30 min. episodes over these short stories.

Not the show I remember..........2003-06-29

Although this movie is cute, the animation is not up to par with my memories of the carebears. In fact, it reminds me of the Japanese animation that has become so popular. The actual Care Bears movie kicks this DVD's butt(animation wise), however, the stories featured are cool and close to the stories I remember from the original show. My two year old little boy has become a Care Bears junkie like his mama, and he doesn't seem to notice the difference, so your kids probably won't either. Overall: decent film for an original care bears fan or a new one.

The Last Laugh gets them all!.......2003-06-17

This is a great video and should be considered by every parent to watch. Kids will love this fascinating tale that will keep them on the tips of their seats throughout the whole video. There is a moral to the story, so it is education and fun all at once. This video is not only entertainment, but educational too!

The F.W. Murnau Collection (Nosferatu/The Last Laugh/Faust/Tabu/Tartuffe)

Average customer rating:

Good transfers of great films

The F.W. Murnau Collection (Nosferatu/The Last Laugh/Faust/Tabu/Tartuffe)
Starring: Emil Jannings , Maly Delschaft , Max Hiller , Emilie Kurz , and Hans Unterkircher
Director: F.W. Murnau
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Release Date: 2003-11-11

Customer Reviews:

Good transfers of great films.......2004-07-14

The five titles in this collection are available separately, and you can find in-depth reviews for each. So I'll keep my review of the entire collection more general. Murnau, of course, was one of the giants of silent cinema, and four of these films are masterpieces. (Tartuffe is a bit weaker than the rest, IMO.) It's surprising how well these films hold up today as works of art AND as entertainments. Only the comedies of Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd are more compelling. Now for the discs:

Nosferatu: The best-looking North American transfer of Murnau's most famous film right now, with a longer running time and more accurate aspect ratio than most. The extras are skimpy; for example, the scene comparison is a good idea, but poorly executed since there isn't a clip from any other Dracula movie to compare it with! Best of all is the English-language trailer for Herzog's remake -- hidden as an Easter Egg. My only real complaint is that both music scores are terrible.

The Last Laugh: The earliest and poorest transfer of the bunch. My guess is that this was done before Kino's excellent restoration of Metropolis, when they started thinking more carefully about the DVD market. It's still acceptable, but the extras are even worse than Nosferatu's. At the very least, they could have provided a liner note essay!

Tartuffe: A fine transfer of the weakest film of Murnau's mature period. It will interest fans of his work, and the liner note essay offers a convincing analysis of the film-within-a-film framework. But the real gem is the 35-minute documentary on Murnau provided as an extra. Well worth checking out.

Faust: My own personal favorite, and the transfer is brilliant! There is a degree of decomposition and debris, but sections of the print appear almost pristine! Few extras (only a picture gallery), but who cares when the transfer of a silent film is this stunning?

Tabu: This is a Milestone/Image disc, not Kino. Surprisingly, it offers the most extras, including out-takes and a nice commentary track. The transfer is pretty clean, but unfortunately there is extensive cropping at the top of the frame throughout (something that Kino is much better at avoiding). The *original* music score definitely sounds its age, but isn't overly distracting.

Final words: Although I have reservations about the transfer of Last Laugh and Kino's lack of extras on its older discs, I highly recommend this collection. Value dictated my decision, and I bought the whole collection, which reduced the average cost per disc to a reasonable $21.50. The extras also come off better when taken as a whole.

Eddie Leeway's Haunted Hardcore, Vol. 1: Leeway's Last Laugh

Average customer rating:

Eddie Leeway's Haunted Hardcore, Vol. 1: Leeway's Last Laugh
Starring: Eddie Leeway
Manufacturer: Crash Music
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

Care Bears "Laugh And Dream" DVD 2 pack

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Product Description

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Care Bears & Christmas Fun 4 DVD pack

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Care Bears Daydreams (DVD)
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Product Description

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F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh [Import, All-region] (Dvd)

Average customer rating:

F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh [Import, All-region] (Dvd)
Director: F.W. Murnau
Manufacturer: Peterpan Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

One Of The Greatest And Most Influential Of Silent Films." - CINEMA: The Magic Vehicle
Has received an extremely rare "100" rating from ROTTEN TOMATOES, the clearinghouse of the nation's top critics.
This is the ORIGINAL theatrical release as envisioned by the director, F. W. Murnau (Nosferatu, Faust)
Import from Korea that can be played on dvd players in USA/Canada/Korea (NTSC, All-Region)

ASIN: B000N3LMRE

Product Description

The crowning achievement of the German expressionist movement and one of the most notable artworks to arise from the Weimar Republic is Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's The Last Laugh. Emil Jannings stars in the bleak fable of an aging doorman whose happiness and pride. Through Jannings's colossal performance, The Last Laugh becomes more than the plight of a single doorman but a mournful dramatization of the frustration and anguish of the universal working class, a phenomenon that was further enhanced by the contribution of the director and cinematographer Karl Freund. Murnau (Nosferatu) and Freund (cinematographer of Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula) tempered their realistic depiction of the laborer's downfall with sequences of bold expressionistic design, contorting the doorman's angst into a nightmarish spectacle of the mocking, leering faces and imposing tenement buildings that surround him on his long, shameful walk back to his apartment...a daily stroll that had once been a gratifying source of self-esteem.

Care Bears "Laugh With Friends" DVD 2 pack

Average customer rating:

Care Bears "Laugh With Friends" DVD 2 pack

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Binding: DVD

Care Bears Forever Friends (DVD)
Care Bears Last Laugh (DVD)

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Product Description

This 2-Disc collection contains the following products: Care Bears Forever Friends (DVD) Care Bears Last Laugh (DVD)

Care Bears and Christmas Friends DVD 6 pack

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Care Bears and Christmas Friends DVD 6 pack

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Care Bears Daydreams (DVD)
Care Bears Last Laugh (DVD)
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Littles Christmas Special (DVD)
and more .... !

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Care Bears DVD 4 Pack

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Binding: DVD

Care Bears Bedtime Stories (DVD)
Care Bears Daydreams (DVD)
Care Bears Forever Friends (DVD)
Care Bears Last Laugh (DVD)

ASIN: B000K8BS2Q

Product Description

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