HE WHO GETS SLAPPED (1924)

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and let Flicker Alley and Blackhawk Films delight and terrify you with the strangest attraction ever beheld! Lon Chaney takes center stage as HE, a tortured clown whose signature act is receiving an endless series of slaps to the face.

Unbeknownst to the cheering crowd, however, HE is disgraced scientist Paul Beaumont who, robbed of his research and publicly humiliated by the evil Baron Regnard (Marc McDermott), has spent the last five years intricately staging a most bizarre and twisted revenge.

Originally a 1914 Russian stageplay by expressionist author Leonid Andreyev, He Who Gets Slapped became a hit on Broadway in 1922 and was immediately targeted by Louis B. Mayer as the first project at his new studio, soon to be amalgamated as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM.) Directed by Victor Sjöström (The Phantom Carriage, The Wind), Chaney's tragic and deeply haunting performance as HE is seminal to a grand tradition of scary movie clowns.

He Who Gets Slapped makes its high definition debut through the generous support of the Sunrise Foundation for Education & the Arts. The film was restored by Blackhawk Films in 2024 from a first generation 35mm safety print and a 16mm dupe negative. It is presented with two different scores: an original piano composition by Antonio Coppola and an original orchestral score by Alloy Orchestra, recorded live in 2013.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• NEW RESTORATION BY BLACKHAWK FILMS (2024)
• PRESENTED WITH TWO SCORES:
• Original piano composition by Antonio Coppola
• Original orchestral score by Alloy Orchestra, recorded live in 2013
• Audio Commentary - By Emmy award-winning makeup artist and Lon Chaney expert Michael F. Blake
• He Who Gets Smacked (1925) - From producer Mack Sennett and director Lloyd Bacon, this comedic short stars Ralph Graves as Jimmie, a hapless department store worker who accidentally volunteers for a professional boxing match
• Koko at the Circus (1926) - Will Koko and Fritz the Dog's circus act be replaced by a giant? Find out in this animated short from Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell series, directed by Dave Fleischer, featuring a stunning new restoration by Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored
• Leo: The Truth and the Lion (2025) - An original featurette that explores the early days of MGM's beloved Leo the Lion
• Image Galleries - Featuring production stills and promotional material
• Booklet Insert - Presenting an article by Thomas Gladysz exploring the life of Victor Sjöström and the production of He Who Gets Slapped
• Limited Edition Spot Gloss Slipcover - Optional packaging upgrade with exclusive artwork, available only at FlickerAlley.com
• English SDH Subtitles
• REGION-FREE