He Who Gets Slapped

He Who Gets Slapped is a 1924 film about a scientist who flees his tragic past to become a circus clown.
 * Directed by Victor Sjöström. Written by Carey Wilson, based on a play by Russian playwright Leonid Andreyev.

Victor Seastrom's production of the famous stage play by Leonid Andreyev. (taglines)

Paul Beaumont/HE

 * He slapped me, Marie. I would have killed him, but they laughed - laughed as if I were a clown.
 * You forget, gentlemen - this is a circus - love must wait - - the performance must go on!
 * I say serious things - and people laugh at me!

Marie Beaumont

 * How stupid people are - to laugh at a clown who lets himself be slapped.

Tricaud

 * Over a hundred slaps last night, HE - you lucky fellow! Soon you'll be getting famous! But you know what they like - there's nothing makes people laugh so hard as seeing someone else get slapped!

Title card

 * In the grim comedy of life, it has been wisely said that the last laugh is the best...
 * Laughter - the bitterest and most subtle death to hope...
 * A strange thing, the heart of a man - that loves, suffers, and despairs - yet has courage to hope, believe - and love - again.
 * Years had passed - Paul Beaumont was forgotten - but the laugh was still his. For the brilliant scientist had, with a supreme gesture of contempt, made himself a common clown - In a little circus near Paris, he amused the idle, the ignorant and vicious, with an act of his own fancy - under the expressive name of "HE - Who Gets Slapped" - Five years before, Tricaud had hired the strange clown who desired only to be slapped - and now each night he proudly counted his slaps - and the laughs...
 * Paul Beaumont lived - to laugh at life. He laughed at his wife and the Baron - and left them to the doubtful joy of each other's society.
 * What is it in human nature that makes people quick to laugh when someone else gets slapped - whether the slap be spiritual, mental, or physical?

Dialogue

 * Marie Beaumont: What have you given me - that I should love you? You with your silly face and stupid books! [slaps him] Fool! Clown!
 * Paul Beaumont: Fool! Clown!


 * Baron Regnard: I hate clowns!
 * Paul Beaumont: I hate Barons!

Taglines

 * Victor Seastrom's production of the famous stage play by Leonid Andreyev.

Cast

 * Lon Chaney — Paul Beaumont
 * Norma Shearer — Consuelo
 * John Gilbert — Bezano
 * Tully Marshall — Count Mancini
 * Marc McDermott — Baron Regnard
 * Ford Sterling — Tricaud
 * Harvey Clark — Briquet
 * Paulette Duval — Zinida