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He Who Gets Slapped

Film Information:
Production: Not Available;

Premiere: Not Available;
Released: December 22, 1924;
Production/Distribution Companies: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures;
Director: Victor Seastrom;
Based on the play He Who Gets Slapped by Leonid Nikolaevich Andreyev;
Photography: Milton Moore;
Film editor: Hugh Wynn;
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons;
Running time: 76 minutes;
Not available on VHS or DVD;

Cast: Lon Chaney as He Who Gets Slapped; Norma Shearer as Consuelo; John Gilbert as Bezano; Tully Marshall as Count Mancini; Marc MacDermott as Baron Regnard; Ford Sterling as Tricaud; Harvey Clarke as Briquet; Paulette Duval as Zinida; Ruth King as He's wife;

Reviews:

Mordaunt Hall in the New York Times, December 15, 1924: "Mr. Seastrom has directed this dramatic story with all the genius of a Chaplin or Lubitsch, and he has accomplished more than they have in their respective works, A Woman of Paris and The Marriage Circle, as he had, what they did not have, a stirring dramatic story to put into pictures.

Miss Shearer is charming as Consuelo, and Mr. Gilbert who gave such an excellent account of himself in His Hour, is a sympathetic sweetheart. But the player who is entitled to the honors only second to Mr. Chaney is Marc MacDermott, who takes full advantage of the strength of his role. Tulley Marshall is splendid as the scapegoat count.

For dramatic value and faultless adaptation of the play, this is the finest production we have yet seen."

Variety, November 12, 1924: "Norma Shearer as the little circus rider about whom the love interest revolved is charming and delightful at the same time. She lends the needed touch of youth in the cast. John Gilbert, who plays opposite is fully adequate as the young lover."

Notes/Trivia:
This was the first movie produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, however, it was not the first film they released. Studio executives decided on holding back the release until the height of the 1924 Christmas Season. Norma's Broken Barriers (1924) was the first MGM film released.