The Secret Cinema will be returning to Glen Foerd to screen another legendary film of the silent era, He Who Gets Slapped (1924) starring Lon Chaney. Organist Don Kinnier will bring this silent movie to life with his accompaniment on our recently restored 1902 Haskell pipe organ. Concessions will be available for purchase at our pop-up bar before and after the event, including soft pretzels, soft drinks, beer and wine.
Please note that this event will take place in the art gallery on the second floor of the building, which has stair access only.
7:00PM | Doors open for check-in, bar, and self-guided tours of the mansion.
7:30PM | Film screening begins.
He Who Gets Slapped (1924, Dir: Victor Seastom)
Lon Chaney (Sr.), increasingly the silent era star with perhaps the most appeal to modern audiences, played a variety of unusual roles throughout the 1920s — but none were more bizarre than in He Who Gets Slapped. Chaney stars as a scientist driven mad when both his thesis and wife are stolen by his mentor. Leaving the academic world behind, the beaten man transforms himself into the ultimate masochist, and reemerges as He, a famous circus clown whose celebrated routine consists of being humiliated by other clowns that line up to repeatedly slap his face, tear out his heart and tread it into the dirt! The crowds laugh at He without knowing the torture in his psyche, but when HE crosses paths with his unwitting enemy, the lonely clown plots a devious and sweet revenge…in hopes of triumphing as "the one who laughs last."
He Who Gets Slapped was the most famous play by the Russian writer Leonid Andreyev. As a young law student Andreyev suffered extreme depression and made several suicide attempts. Upon graduation he turned to writing, under the tutelage of Maxim Gorky. In addition to many successes with novels and plays, Andreyev was also an accomplished photographer.
The first production of the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, He Who Gets Slapped was the second American film by Swedish director Victor Seastom (born Sjöström).The dark, symbolism-filled work was considered a risky venture, but proved quite popular and prompted Chaplin to label Seastom "the greatest director in the world." Seastom was raised in America but returned to Sweden after his mother's death, finding work as an actor in the theater. His first film role was in 1912, under Sweden's other great silent era director, Mauritz Stiller. Seastom began directing the following year, and after much acclaim was brought back to the U.S. in 1923. He directed his last film in 1938 but continued acting, until his final role as Professor Berg in Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957).