He Who Gets Slapped

1924
1h 35m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A bitter clown endeavors to rescue the young woman he loves from the lecherous baron who once betrayed him.A bitter clown endeavors to rescue the young woman he loves from the lecherous baron who once betrayed him.A bitter clown endeavors to rescue the young woman he loves from the lecherous baron who once betrayed him.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

4.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins

Photos33

+ 27

Top cast26

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Lon Chaney

Paul Beaumont…

Norma Shearer

Consuelo

John Gilbert

Bezano

Ruth King

Marie Beaumont

Marc McDermott

Baron Regnard

Ford Sterling

Tricaud

Tully Marshall

Count Mancini

Pierre Watkin

Spectator in Audience at HE's Final Performance

Alice Belcher

Woman in Circus Audience
(uncredited)

Bartine Burkett

Bareback Rider
(uncredited)

Harvey Clark

Briquet
(uncredited)

Clyde Cook

A Clown
(uncredited)

Carrie Daumery

Extra
(uncredited)

George Davis

A Clown
(uncredited)

Paulette Duval

Zinida
(uncredited)

F.F. Guenste

Waiter bringing Champagne
(uncredited)

Joseph Hazelton

Professor in Audience of Academy
(uncredited)

Brandon Hurst

A Clown
(uncredited)

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The first film to feature Leo the Lion roaring as MGM's logo. Designed by Howard Dietz, the logo was first used for the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation film Polly of the Circus (1917) and passed to MGM when Goldwyn merged with two other companies to form MGM. Fittingly, a real lion plays a key plot point in the film's story.

Goofs
During part of the scene where the lion is loose in the room, Beaumont is seen with no, or hardly any, black makeup around his right eye. Before and after this scene, both eyes are made up.

Quotes
Title Card: A strange thing, the heart of a man - that loves, suffers, and despairs - yet has courage to hope, believe - and love - again.

Crazy credits
In the version aired on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on April 29, 2020, just after the Leo (the MGM Lion) shot and prior to the credits intertitle, there was an approval stamp within a toroidal circle: Approved by Kansas State Board of Review Serial Number C8806; below that was a rectangular text box: KANSAS GROWS THE BEST WHEAT IN THE WORLD

Alternate versions
This silent film was originally shot at 18 fps, which gives a proper running time of 95 minutes. Most copies that circulate today, including the Warner Bros. "Archive" DVD release and the TCM television version, as well as "public domain" versions like the copy on archive.org, incorrectly play at 24 fps with an added music soundtrack, rattling in at a speedup of 71 minutes.

Connections
Featured in Twenty Years After (1944)

User reviews61

Review

Featured review

9/10

My all time favorite!

Before I saw "He Who Get's Slapped" my 3 favorite movies were The Empire Strikes Back, Evil Dead 2, and Star Trek II.

This movie is 180 degrees from any of those movies, in fact, it's in a whole other universe. This silent film that opened in 1924 changed my movie tastes so much that it's amazing. I was just flicken channels one night after studying for a final for 3 hours and stopped on TCM for a second because Robert Osborne said that it starred Lon Chaney. In my niavete, I thought he was talking about the guy who played The Wolf Man, but this is in fact Lon Chaney Sr. Junior is the guy who had played Wolfie.

So I started watching it and was about to change it when I found out it was a silent film. But I stayed with it for a few minutes, and soon I was enraptured. 2 hours later, I was riveted to the edge of my seat as HE's struggle came to a climax. Well, the next day, I failed the test. But I learned more watching that movie than I could ever learn in Calc 320.

Since then, I have watched TCM religiously (when I'm not studying of course) and now I realize that 99% of movies made in modern times are vastly inferior to the old classic movies.

Black and White RULES

If you haven't seen He Who Gets Slapped. Track it down and WATCH IT. It is WAY better than The Phantom Menace.