One Paragraph Movie Review: The Last Laugh

Three hundred and fifteenth film: The Last Laugh, a German silent film from 1924 that takes 90 minutes to tell a single charming anecdote. An ageing doorman at a very fancy hotel is demoted to a bathroom attendant when he becomes too frail to haul guests’ luggage, which brings great and melodramatic disappointment and shame to him and his family. Being a silent movie, we are beaten about the head and neck with movement and facial expressions until we’re quite sure that the old man is sad, and wait 80 minutes for the twist. The twist puts its back and shoulder into being worth the wait, and like the main character with a large steamer trunk, only just barely manages to carry it. Cute. Fine. Now I want champagne. Two and a quarter drunken dream sequences out of five.