In 1927, German director and art director Paul Leni moved to
Hollywood where he began making pictures for Universal starting with the
comedic old dark house prototype The Cat
and the Canary. With that film, Leni proved his merits many times over by
taking a plot as hoary as Cane and Abel and zapping it to life with some of the
most inventive and audacious film tricks ever slapped across the screen. The
picture was a hit and signaled the beginning of a fruitful relationship between
Universal and the German expatriate.
Sadly, Leni’s unexpected demise in 1929 meant that
relationship would not be as fruitful as expected, but he did manage to make
three more films for Universal before succumbing to sepsis. The first of those,
a Charlie Chan picture called The Chinese
Parrot, is lost, but The Man Who
Laughs and The Last Warning are
very available and now making their Blu-ray debuts thanks to Flicker Alley.
