The Egyptians had them, the Greeks had them, the Romans had them.
But an interesting and telling thing happened in the 17th and 18th centuries.
During the Middle Ages, the clown and the performing freak were essentially one and the same.
And of course the whole thing ends in suicide.
Inevitably, the growing crowds he attracts respond with shock and uproarious laughter.
The two fall in love, of course, and after that things just get ridiculously complex.
It would go on to become Hugos least popular novel.
I mean, he could whip up that grinning Man makeup in a snap, right?
So a contract was drawn up and Chaney signed.
The deal fell through and Chaney went on to makeThe Phantom of the Operainstead.
It was a good move all around.
But the plot doesnt matter.
And likeHunchback,The Man Who Laughsis by no stretch a horror film, but a period melodrama.
That doesnt matter either.
The same effect was used in ChaneysHe Who Gets Slapped.
In both instances its deeply unsettling, and in both cases it was wholly intentional.
Still, its profound influence is inescapable.
Interestingly, Lon Chaney was originally slated to star inThe Man Who Laughs.
At the time he was in the midst of a 10 film run with director Tod Browning.
And afterDraculaBrowning went on to makeFreaks, which brings us back around to the clown/sideshow freak connection.
Anyway, then theres Gwynplaine himself, and Pierces makeup.
Whether or not Funny Face may have been an inspiration for Jack Pierce, however, remains unclear.
Sardonicus, with Ronald Lewis and Audrey Dalton.
And still another loose adaptation came out of France in 2012, starring Gerard Depardieu.
As a final ironic note, although completed in 1927,The Man Who Laughswas not released until 1928.
The title song to the Chaney film turned out to be far more popular than When Love Comes Stealing.
