He Who Gets Slapped

A riot of sadomasochistic strangeness and warped self-abasement, this outré psychological shocker features a haunting performance from Lon Chaney—at once wrenchingly vulnerable and deeply frightening—as a brilliant scientist who, after he’s betrayed by both his wife and his benefactor, undergoes a twisted transformation into a circus clown who delights audiences by perversely reenacting his humiliation onstage. But behind the painted-on grin, a furious anger is brewing . . . Adapting Leonid Andreyev’s celebrated play, director Victor Sjöström makes the source material eminently cinematic, deploying delirious symbolist imagery to convey the torment of a shattered man.