The Last Laugh

Murnau, Ufa, 1924. Carl Mayer wrote it for Emil Jannings: a hotel doorman demoted to the washroom. The story runs on bodies and uniforms. Karl Freund took the camera off the tripod and put it in a lift, on a cart, strapped to his waist (the trade called it the unchained camera). There are almost no titles. The coda arrives with a card that says the author took pity, which is the film calling its own ending a joke.