{"id":31152,"date":"2026-05-22T10:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/msfilmfestival.fi\/?post_type=movies&#038;p=31152"},"modified":"2026-05-22T18:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T15:02:18","slug":"he-who-gets-slapped","status":"publish","type":"movies","link":"https:\/\/msfilmfestival.fi\/en\/movies\/he-who-gets-slapped\/","title":{"rendered":"He Who Gets Slapped"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Russian author Leonid Andrejev\u2019s 1915 play quickly gained a wide audience in both Moscow and on Broadway, and in Russia it was even adapted for the silver screen in 1916 \u2013 years before the Americanized Swedish master director Victor \u201cSeastrom\u201d Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m began working on his own film adaptation of the play. The story\u2019s premise harkens back to timeless and tragic elements: the introverted scientist Paul Beaumont (Lon Chaney) works tirelessly on his radical theories and prepares to present his findings to the Academy, but his friend and patron, a wealthy baron (Mare McDermott), steals his work and presents it as his own with the help of Beaumont\u2019s deceitful wife, Marie (Ruth King). This public humiliation culminates in a slap to the face.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The trauma of being made a laughingstock drives the man to a life as a circus performer, and \u2013 five years later \u2013 he becomes famous for his sadomasochistic clown act: night after night, he takes repeated blows to the face \u2013 to the sound of laughter from the audience. Beaumont falls in love with the beautiful Consuelo (Norma Shearer), whose bankrupt father (Tully Marshall) plans to marry off his daughter to the treacherous baron. However, the woman\u2019s heart belongs to another \u2013 the handsome horseman Bezanol (John Gilbert); Consuelo even mistakes the clown\u2019s sincere admission of love as a joke. Spurned once more, the reject plans to stop the arranged marriage by any means necessary&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He Who Gets Slapped<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found success both in the box office and among critics, and the careers of Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m, Gilbert, and Shearer gained some well-deserved traction. But at the painful heart of the film is the harrowing agony stemming from countless betrayals and disappointments, portrayed masterfully in the multifaceted performance of Lon Chaney, \u201cthe man of a thousand faces.\u201d It is Chaney\u2019s performance that takes this amalgamation of ancient Greek tragedy and modern psychological thriller into horror territory. The man\u2019s stiffened, forced smile and the private turmoil it contains, as well as the looming, indiscriminate violence of the coming climax both contain elements reminiscent of Victor Hugo\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Man Who Laughs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as well as Batman\u2019s Joker. Furthermore, the film also features the first appearance of the then-brand-new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production company\u2019s legendary lion and his roar, and, what\u2019s more, the feline beast also takes part in the brutality that ensues in the gruesome final minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the streams of emotion pool around Chaney\u2019s virtuosic interpretation. Beaumont takes heavy blows not only in the academic field, but also on a societal level as he is continuously trampled on by the wealthier social strata, and in friendships, as well as \u2013 twice \u2013 in love. Thrust into the deep end, the scientist Beaumont can almost be interpreted as a \u201c1920s Travis Bickle,\u201d and as per usual for the elevated subgenre of circus (melo)drama, the sawdust is soaked with blood.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m\u2019s wisely and skillfully directed, harrowing and authentic masterpiece tugs on the audience\u2019s heartstrings, backed by the Italian quartet Agnusdei + Cavina + Pilia + Raia, whose music blends electronic elements with an electric guitar and a saxophone. Together, they carry the emotional, existential axe blows of fate conceived more than a century ago directly into our increasingly circus-like present.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Lauri Timonen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian author Leonid Andrejev\u2019s 1915 play quickly gained a wide audience in both Moscow and on Broadway, and in Russia it was even adapted for the silver screen in 1916 \u2013 years before the Americanized Swedish master director Victor \u201cSeastrom\u201d Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m began working on his own film adaptation of the play. The story\u2019s premise harkens&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/msfilmfestival.fi\/en\/movies\/he-who-gets-slapped\/\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"featured_media":31150,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31152","movies","type-movies","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","filters-35-mm-en","filters-puhuttu-tai-tekstitetty-suomeksi-en","filters-silent-films","filters-special-screenings","filters-subtitles-in-english-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>He Who Gets Slapped &#8212; Midnight Sun Film Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Russian author Leonid Andrejev\u2019s 1915 play quickly gained a wide audience in both Moscow and on Broadway, and in Russia it was even adapted for the silver screen in 1916 \u2013 years before the Americanized Swedish master director Victor \u201cSeastrom\u201d Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m began working on his own film adaptation of the play. The story\u2019s premise harkens back to timeless and tragic elements: the introverted scientist Paul Beaumont (Lon Chaney) works tirelessly on his radical theories and prepares to present his findings to the Academy, but his friend and patron, a wealthy baron (Mare McDermott), steals his work and presents it as his own with the help of Beaumont\u2019s deceitful wife, Marie (Ruth King). 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