He Who Gets Slapped Celebrates 100

By Susan King

“We didn't need dialogue. We had faces” – Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s 1950 “Sunset Boulevard.”

Silent film superstar Lon Chaney didn’t just have one face, he was the man of a thousand. A master of make-up and prosthetics, the actor created a gallery of memorable characters — poignant, terrifying and horrific — finding the humanity underneath their often-hideous appearances. Because he’s best known as the shockingly deformed bellringer Quasimodo in the lavish 1923 “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and the hideous “The Phantom of the Opera” in the 1925 classic, his poignant turn in 1924’s “He Who Gets Slapped” is often overlooked. It’s my favorite Chaney performance — a real punch-to-the-gut in which he plays two distinct faces — a scientist whose life is destroyed and a forever smiling clown who is slapped by his fellow circus clowns whenever he dares to speak.

“He Who Gets Slapped” was the first production of the newly minted MGM studio and the first to feature the indelible logo of Leo the Lion. But it wasn’t the first released. Despite its dark themes, the prestige production was held for the holidays, opening in November in New York a century ago. 

Chaney plays Paul Beaumont, a brilliant but naïve scientist who has finished his work thanks to the benevolence of his mentor Count Mancini (Tully Marshall) and the love of his wife Maria (Ruth King). Unbeknownst to him, the count is having an affair with Maria and plans to announce Paul’s discoveries as his own at a gathering of fellow scientists. When Paul protests at the meeting, he is slapped by the count while the scientists laugh heartily.  

Flash forward. Paul is now known simply as "He" and is the star attraction of a popular circus. Chaney just tears at the heartstrings as the man who is slapped; sometimes as much as 60 times whenever he tries to speak by his fellow clowns. The audience laughs in hysterics whenever he is slapped failing to realize the pain behind that strange smile. 

“He Who Gets Slapped” was based on Russian author’s Leonid Andreyev’s 1914 play. The drama arrived on Broadway in 1922 in an acclaimed production starring Richard Bennett, the father of Joan and Constance Bennett. Critic Alexander Woolcott, who was the inspiration for Sheridan Whiteside in “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” said of the play: “It has things in it that belong to the theater of the world.”

Enter renowned Swedish director/actor/playwright Victor Sjöström (“The Phantom Carriage”) who arrived in New York in early 1924 at the invitation of Goldwyn Pictures. Anglicizing his last name to Seastrom, he directed his first film for Goldwyn, 1924’s “Name the Man.” Goldwyn would merge with the Metro and Mayer companies creating MGM on April 17, 1924. And the new studio’s Boy Wonder production head Irving Thalberg admired Sjostrom’s talents and hired him to direct “He Who Gets Slapped.”

According to the 2014 Roger Ebert Film Festival’s notes on the movie: “As an acclaimed European director at work in American, Seastrom enjoyed contractual privileges not usually granted to studio director, including script approval, choice of cast, selection of cameraman and assistant director and the right to supervise editing.”

Thalberg and Chaney had worked together at Universal on “The Hunchback of Notre” and when he went to MGM, he brought Chaney over to the studio where the actor would work — save for Universal’s “The Phantom of the Opera”— until his untimely death in 1930.

The movie boosted the stock of two of the young actors in the film. Norma Shearer, who would marry Thalberg in 1927 and become the studio’s top star, plays Consuelo, the beautiful young horseback rider whom He loves. Their scenes together are haunting, lovely. Consuelo’s heart, though, belongs to 

her partner Bezano (John Gilbert). Just as with Shearer, “He Who Gets Slapped” helped make Gilbert a star, though he initially refused the part because he thought it was too small. 

His daughter and biographer Leatrice Gilbert Fountain would later say: “I heard about Jack’s reluctance to play the role from several people. I believe the first was his friend Carey Wilson, who adapted the story for the film. He quoted Irving Thalberg to me, ‘Jack, that part will do more for your career than anything you have done so far.’ ‘He Who Gets Slapped” was a quality movie. Jack’s part was small, but he glittered brightly in it, and it did indeed move his career forward.”

In fact, the following year he starred in King Vidor’s World War I masterpiece “The Big Parade.”

Besides Sjöström's superb direction and touching turns from the three stars, “He Who Gets Slapped’ features Milton Moore’s atmospheric cinematography, Cedric Gibbons’ evocative sets and Sophie Wachner’s first-rate costumes. 

“He Who Gets Slapped,” one of Chaney’s favorite projects, received strong reviews with the New York Times’ proclaiming it was “a picture which defies one to write about it without indulging in superlatives,” adding “never in his efforts before the camera has Mr. Chaney delivered such a marvelous performance as he does as this character. He is restrained in his acting, never overdoing the sentimental situations, and is guarded in his make-up.”

The film broke the one day-record at the Capitol Theatre in New York bringing in $15,000 in ticket sales, a one-week record of $71,000 and a two-week record of $121,574. And the praise and box office continued across the country.

According to the Roger Ebert Festival notes: “Today, some silent films are remembered for their historical importance, some for their artistic value, and still others because a particular actor or director played a role in their creation. “’He Who Gets Slapped,’ a singular and even profound work, possesses each of these cinematic values. It stands as one of the great films of the silent era."