☆ ☆ ☆ ½
HE
Who Gets Slapped (1924) – V. Sjöström
Lon Chaney is absorbing and creepy as a
wronged and humiliated scientist turned masochistic circus clown (yes, you read
that correctly) in this early silent film from new studio MGM. Even behind his make-up Chaney burns with an
intensity that lifts the movie beyond its revenge/love triangle plot. Swedish director Victor Sjöström (later the
star of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries) keeps things moving with deft editing and
some odd set-pieces. For example, there
is a recurring motif of a clown spinning a globe, no doubt reflecting the
fickle vagaries of fate. Although things drag when Chaney is not on-screen and
the movie shifts to Norma Shearer and John Gilbert professing their love (even
while her father sells her to the wicked Baron, ironically the man who stole
Chaney’s scientific ideas and slapped him in the first place, in front of the
Academy no less), the conclusion is effectively downbeat. If only the weird business of the slaps was
foregrounded a bit more, this could have achieved greater cult status.
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