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The Man Who Laughs
''The Man Who Laughs'' (also published under the title ''By Order of the King'' from its subtitle in French) is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title ''L'Homme qui rit''. It takes place in England beginning in 1690 and extends into the early 18th century reign of Queen Anne. It depicts England's royalty and aristocracy of the time as cruel and power-hungry. Hugo intended parallels with the France of Louis-Philippe and the Régence. The novel concerns the life of a young nobleman, also known as Gwynplaine, disfigured as a child (on the orders of the king), who travels with his protector and companion, the vagabond philosopher Ursus, and Dea, the baby girl he rescues during a storm. The novel is famous for Gwynplaine's mutilated face, stuck in a permanent laugh. The book has inspired many artists, dramatists and film-makers. Background Hugo wrote ''The Man Who Laughs'' over a period of 15 months while he was living in the Channel Islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the greatest French writers of all time. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (1831) and ''Les Misérables'' (1862). In France, Hugo is renowned for his poetry collections, such as (''The Contemplations'') and (''The Legend of the Ages''). Hugo was at the forefront of the Romanticism, Romantic literary movement with his play ''Cromwell (play), Cromwell'' and drama ''Hernani (drama), Hernani''. Many of his works have inspired music, both during his lifetime and after his death, including the opera ''Rigoletto'' and the musicals ''Les Misérables (musical), Les Misérables'' and ''Notre-Dame de Paris (musical), Notre-Dame de Paris''. He produced more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime, and campaigned for social cau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Grinning Face
''The Grinning Face'' (German:''Das grinsende Gesicht''), aka ''The Man Who Laughs'', is a 1921 Austrian-German silent horror film directed by Julius Herska and starring Franz Höbling, Nora Gregor and Lucienne Delacroix. It is an adaptation of the 1869 novel ''The Man Who Laughs'' by Victor Hugo. The film was later remade by Paul Leni in 1928 as ''The Man Who Laughs'', which starred Conrad Veidt in the Gwynplaine role.Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 240.. Plot In the late 17th century in France, the young son of a widowed lord is kidnapped by gypsies, who carve a permanent grin on the child's face. When the disfigured youth (Franz Hobling) grows up, he falls in love with a blind girl named Dea (Lucienne Delacroix), and joins a touring company as a performer. Calling himself Gwynplaine, he develops an act in which he reveals his hideous face to the crowds for money. A sexually perverse, se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergio Corbucci
Sergio Corbucci (; 6 December 1926 – 1 December 1990) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed both very violent Spaghetti Westerns and bloodless Bud Spencer and Terence Hill action comedies. He is the older brother of screenwriter and film director Bruno Corbucci. Biography Early career Corbucci was born in Rome. He started his career by directing mostly low-budget sword and sandal movies. Among his first Spaghetti Westerns were the films ''Grand Canyon Massacre'' (1964), which he co-directed (under the pseudonym, Stanley Corbett) with Albert Band, as well as '' Minnesota Clay'' (1964), his first solo directed Spaghetti Western. Corbucci's first commercial success was with the cult Spaghetti Western '' Django'', starring Franco Nero, the leading man in many of his movies. He would later collaborate with Franco Nero on two other Spaghetti Westerns, ''Il Mercenario'' or '' The Mercenary'' (a.k.a. ''A Professional Gun'') (1968) - where Nero pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. Italy is also considered part of Western Europe, and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. Italy covers an area of , with a population of over 60 million. It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome. Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historically been home ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man Who Laughs (1966 Film)
''The Man Who Laughs'' ( it, L'uomo che ride) is a 1966 Italian historical drama film based on the 1869 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. Plot In this version, the character of Gwynplaine is renamed Angelo (played by Jean Sorel). His disfigurement is represented as a single broad slash across his mouth, crude yet convincing. While he deals with this, he also falls for a beautiful girl named Dea. The story (which is attributed, in the movie credits, to the director, producer and others involved in making the film, but not to Victor Hugo) has the disfigured acrobat being seduced by a noblewoman and in so doing becomes a henchman for the Borgias. Meanwhile, Dea miraculously acquires her eyesight and falls in love with a young nobleman. This nobleman is marked for death not just by Angelo's employers but by Angelo as well over the loss of Dea. Angelo's assassination attempt fails and he is mortally wounded. In the final scene the escaping Angelo staggers into a Leper Colony and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mary Sue
Daniel Abrams (born May 20, 1966) is an American media entrepreneur, television host, legal commentator, and author. He is currently the host of the prime-time show ''Dan Abrams Live'' on NewsNation, ''On Patrol: Live'' on Reelz and ''The Dan Abrams Show: Where Politics Meets The Law'' on SiriusXM's P.O.T.U.S. channel. He is also the Chief Legal Analyst of ABC News. Abrams was the host of ''Live PD'' on the A&E cable network and created and hosts ''Court Cam,'' a Law&Crime production on A&E. He was formerly an anchor of '' Nightline''. Abrams also worked as the chief legal correspondent and analyst for NBC News and general manager of MSNBC, and doubled as an anchor for the same network. He began his professional career in 1994 as a reporter for ''Court TV'', covering, among others, the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Early life Daniel Abrams was born in Manhattan; he is Jewish, the son of Efrat and well-known attorney Floyd Abrams, an expert on constitutional law. He is a 1984 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joker (comics)
The Joker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, and first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' on April 25, 1940. Credit for the Joker's creation is disputed; Kane and Robinson claimed responsibility for the Joker's design while acknowledging Finger's writing contribution. Although the Joker was planned to be killed off during his initial appearance, he was spared by editorial intervention, allowing the character to endure as the archenemy of the superhero Batman. In his comic book appearances, the Joker is portrayed as a criminal mastermind. Introduced as a Psychopathy, psychopath with a warped, sadistic personality disorder, sadistic sense of humor, the character became a goofy prankster in the late 1950s in response to regulation by the Comics Code Authority, before returning to his darker roots during the early 1970s. As B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olga Baclanova
Olga Vladimirovna Baklanova (russian: О́льга Влади́мировна Бакла́нова; 19 August 1893 – 6 September 1974), known professionally as Olga Baclanova, was a Russian-born actress who found success in Hollywood film and stage roles, an exotic blonde temptress, who was given the title of the "Russian Tigress". Baclanova spent her early years in her native land and after deducting several years off her age and changing the spelling of her native surname from Baklanova, appeared in silent films from 1914 until 1918a, indeed she was often billed under her surname only, similarly to the surname-only nomenclature of her fellow countrywoman Nazimova.Mank, Gregory W. (1999). ''Women in horror films, 1930s,'' p. 118. McFarland; Vazzana, Eugene Michael (2001). ''Silent film necrology,'' p. 25. McFarland; She emigrated to the United States in 1925, and started appearing on stage and subsequently in Hollywood films, which she remains most noted for the Universal P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Philbin
Mary Loretta Philbin (July 16, 1902 – May 7, 1993) was an American film actress of the silent film era, who is best known for playing the roles of Christine Daaé in the 1925 film ''The Phantom of the Opera '' opposite Lon Chaney, and as Dea in ''The Man Who Laughs'' alongside Conrad Veidt. Both roles cast her as the beauty in ''Beauty and the Beast''-type stories. Early life Philbin was born on July 16, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois, into a middle-class Irish American family and raised Catholic. She was an only child, and was named after her mother, Mary. Her father, John Philbin, was born in Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland, and had emigrated to America in 1900. Career Philbin began her acting career after winning a beauty contest sponsored by Universal Pictures in Chicago. After she moved to California, Erich von Stroheim signed her to a contract with Universal, deeming her a "Universal Super Jewel." She made her screen debut in 1921, and the following year was honored at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conrad Veidt
Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (; 22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German film actor who attracted early attention for his roles in the films ''Different from the Others'' (1919), '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920), and ''The Man Who Laughs'' (1928). After a successful career in German silent films, where he was one of the best-paid stars of UFA, he and his new Jewish wife Ilona Prager left Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. The couple settled in Britain, where he took British citizenship in 1939. He appeared in many British films, including '' The Thief of Bagdad'' (1940), before emigrating to the United States around 1941, which led to his being cast in what may be his best remembered role as Major Strasser in ''Casablanca'' (1942). This was Veidt's last film role to be released during his lifetime. Early life Hans Walter Conrad Veidt was born on 22 January 1893 in his parents' home at Tieckstraße 39 in Berlin to Amalie Marie (née Gohtz) and Philipp Heinri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Leni
Paul Leni (born Paul Josef Levi; 8 July 1885 – 2 September 1929) was a German filmmaker and a key figure in German Expressionism, making ''Hintertreppe'' (1921) and '' Waxworks'' (1924) in Germany, and '' The Cat and the Canary'' (1927), ''The Chinese Parrot'' (1927), ''The Man Who Laughs'' (1928), and ''The Last Warning'' (1928) in the United States. Life and career Paul Josef Levi was born to a Jewish family in Stuttgart. He became an avant-garde painter at the age of 15, he studied at Berlin's Academy of Fine Arts, and subsequently worked as a theatrical set designer, working for a number of theatres in Berlin (but not with Max Reinhardt). In 1913, he started working in the German film industry designing film sets and/or costumes for directors such as Joe May, Ernst Lubitsch, Richard Oswald, and E. A. Dupont. During World War I, Leni started directing as well with films such as ''Der Feldarzt'' (''Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart'', 1917), ''Patience'' (1920), ''Die Verschwör ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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