HE WHO GETS SLAPPED
US, 1924, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert.
Directed by Victor Sjostrom.
He Who Gets Slapped is a very interesting silent film the mid-twenties. It is a more serious example of silent film-making and features Lon Chaney. He appears as his normal self but after his experience of disappointment he then disguises himself as a clown who is humiliated in the carnival and the circus.
A young Norma Shearer also appears in the film. It is also of interest as one of the earliest films directed by Swedish director Victor Sjostrom. Sjostrom had established the Swedish film industry after World War One. He made a number of films in America including The Wind with Lilian Gish. However he did not stay in America and returned to Sweden. In his old age he appeared in some of Ingmar Bergman’s films, for instance To Joy and most
especially his excellent performance in Wild Strawberries. This film is an interesting example of his American direction and as a Lon Chaney feature.
1. The status of this film as a silent film: the quality of its photography and lighting, the style and quality of the acting, especially Lon Chaney, the quality of the direction, the literate caption, the themes explored, realism and symbolism?
2. The particularly silent aspects of the film: the captions and the tone that they gave to audience response, the styles of acting, the less subtle and more obvious approach? What value did this particular style have in contrast with later developments?
3. The importance of' visual themes and effects, the clown, the turning of the globe, the superimposition of the faces, memory by superimposition?
4. The importance of the device of introduction to each character and the name of the player: the effect for the conventional type of' character especially the baron as the villain, Marie as the fickle wife? Were these characters anything more than types? Their speech, their poses, the use of close-ups?
5. The film’s focus on Paul Beaumont: the presentation of his work and his joy of discovery, his trust in the baron, his love and motivation for Marie, the humiliation at the Academy and his disbelief, the slap and his hysterical laughter, the extent of his suffering, his breaking? The effect of the Academy laughing, his later seeing them as clowns laughing? The effect of his suffering, and becoming a symbolic clown? His opting out of a world of science and progress?
6. The symbolism and realism of the circus, Paul Beaumont’s act and his title of He Who Gets Slapped? The point being made about laughing at people and people laughing at slaps, the irony of the last laugh?
7. Comment on the detail of circus life, the details of the acts, Paul Beaumont’s skill in getting laughs, the film's attention to the types and the personalities who 1augh at the clowns?
8. Consuelo and the hero as conventional hero and heroine: their participation in the circus, Consuelo’s poverty, the romance, the effect on Paul? The clown as saviour of the heroine? Count Mancini and his evil, his callous attitude towards his daughter, his attitude towards the baron, the plotting, the clown? Conventional evil?
9. The build-up to the crisis: the baron laughing at the clown and then discovering the truth, the clown who wore his heart externally, the violence of the setup and the introduction of the lion mauling the villains to death?
10. The build-up to Paul Baumont’s death as the clown: his final performance, the irony of his death, people laughing, being moved? His achieving his goal? The significance of the clown throwing his body away at the end?
11. How interesting was the plot, how entertaining? The use of types for characters?
12. The importance of the themes, the use of symbolism, silent communication?
