He Who Gets Slapped – (1924)

Description

He Who Gets Slapped is a 1924 American silent psychological thriller film starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert, and directed by Victor Sjöström. The film is based on the Russian play Тот, кто получает пощёчины (“He Who Gets Slapped”, transliterated as Tot, kto polučájet poščóčiny) by playwright Leonid Andreyev, which was published in 1914 and in English, as He Who Gets Slapped, in 1922. The Russian original was made into a Russian movie in 1916.

He Who Gets Slapped was the first film produced entirely by the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was not, however, MGM’s first released movie, as the film was held until the Christmas season when higher attendance was expected. The movie was highly profitable and critically hailed. It was also the first film to feature Leo the Lion as the mascot for MGM. Previously, Leo appeared in the logo for Goldwyn Pictures Corporation in 1916, and the trademark was retained by MGM when the companies merged.

The film was important in the careers of Chaney, Shearer, Gilbert, and Sjöström. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The film entered the public domain on January 1, 2020 (along with all American films from 1924) as dictated by U.S. copyright law.

Cast:

• Lon Chaney as Paul Beaumont, aka HE
• Norma Shearer as Consuelo
• John Gilbert as Bezano
• Tully Marshall as Count Mancini
• Marc McDermott as Baron Regnard
• Ford Sterling as Tricaud