The Last Laugh (1924 film)

The Last Laugh
Directed byF. W. Murnau
Screenplay byCarl Mayer
Produced byErich Pommer
Starring
CinematographyKarl Freund
Music byGiuseppe Becce
Production
company
Distributed byUFA
Universal Pictures (USA)
Release dates
  • 23 December 1924 (1924-12-23) (Germany)
  • 4 January 1925 (1925-01-04) (United States)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryGermany
Der letzte Mann (1924) by F. W. Murnau, full movie

The Last Laugh (German: Der letzte Mann, transl. The Last Man) is a 1924 German silent film directed by German director F. W. Murnau from a screenplay written by Carl Mayer. The film stars Emil Jannings and Maly Delschaft.

Emil Jannings as the Hotel Doorman

Stephen Brockmann summarized the film's plot as, "a nameless hotel doorman loses his job".[1] It is a cinematic example of the Kammerspielfilm or "chamber-drama" genre, which follows the style of short, sparse plays of lower middle-class life that emphasized the psychology of the characters rather than the sets and action. The genre tried to avoid the intertitles (title cards) of spoken dialogue or description that characterize most silent films, in the belief that the visuals themselves should carry most of the meaning.

The film was voted number 11 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. In 1955, the film was remade starring Hans Albers.

  1. ^ Prager, Brad. A critical history of German film. Monatshefte, Volume 103, No. 3 (Fall 2011), pp. 472-474; (p.473)