He Who Gets Slapped
About He Who Gets Slapped
Scientist Paul Beaumont’s wife Marie gives his work to Baron Regnard, who takes the credit and slaps him in public. Paul joins a Paris circus as HE, a clown whose act is being slapped. He and the rider Bezano both love Consuelo, whose father, Count Mancini, means to marry her to the Baron. The Baron and the Count lock HE by the lion’s cage. The Count stabs him, the lion kills the Count and the Baron, and HE dies in Consuelo’s arms after telling her she is free.
Cast & crew
More about He Who Gets Slapped
Victor Sjöström, billed as Victor Seastrom, directed and wrote it with Carey Wilson, from Leonid Andreyev’s 1915 play. Irving Thalberg produced with him. It was the first film made entirely by the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, premiered in the United States on 9 November 1924, and was held for the Christmas trade. Milton Moore photographed it. The cost was $172,000. Returns are listed at $881,000. It runs 72 minutes, seven reels.
Themes
Making
Sjöström held the finished film for Christmas instead of sending it out as MGM’s first release. The lion in the cage is a plot animal, not only the trademark.
Look
Milton Moore shot the academy slap and the circus ring where HE is struck as the act.
Music
Silent. William Axt is credited with the music.
Notes
- Lon Chaney plays Paul. Norma Shearer plays Consuelo. John Gilbert plays Bezano. Marc McDermott plays the Baron. Ruth King plays Marie. Tully Marshall plays Count Mancini.
- George Davis, a European clown, coached Chaney. The circus scenes took two weeks on the studio lot.
- A real lion kills the Count and the Baron. The lion tamer gets HE out.
- It was not MGM’s first release. Polly of the Circus, a Goldwyn picture, had already used the lion logo Howard Dietz designed.
- Andreyev finished the play in August 1915. The Moscow Art Theatre opened it on 27 October 1915. Richard Bennett played HE on Broadway at the Garrick, from 9 January 1922, in Gregory Zilboorg’s translation. A Russian film was made in 1916.
- William Axt is credited with the music. Hugh Wynn edited. Bela Lugosi is in the cast.
Scenes
- The Baron slaps Paul at the academy and takes the discovery.
- HE’s act is a ring of slaps.
- The lion kills the Count and the Baron. HE dies in Consuelo’s arms.
Influenced by
- Leonid Andreyev’s 1915 play He Who Gets Slapped
