Theatre Gigante to Present F. W. Murnau's THE LAST LAUGH With Little Bang Theory Live Accompaniment
This is silent film at its finest, scoring 100% on Rotten Tomatoes' "Tomatometer."
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Nov. 11, 2025
The cinema comes to life as LITTLE BANG THEORY accompanies F. W. Murnau's 1924 German silent film, THE LAST LAUGH - starring Emil Jannings - with an ingenious score by Frank Pahl played live on toy instruments by Pahl, Terri Sarris, and Doug Shimmin.
Emil Jannings' character has long taken great pride in his position as doorman at a famous hotel, but his manager decides that he is too old and feeble to uphold the image of the establishment, and demotes him to the job of washroom attendant. Add Karl Freund's groundbreaking cinematography into the Murnau/Jannings mix, and this is silent film at its finest, scoring 100% on Rotten Tomatoes' "Tomatometer."
The event will take place for one performance only on November 23, 2025 - 3:00pm, in the Jan Serr Studio.
F.W. Murnau's THE LAST LAUGH opens on an opulent Jazz-Age hotel, The Atlantic, where a finely dressed porter (Emil Jannings) presents the establishment's first face of welcome, directs traffic, and carries unwieldy trunks. Though he remains zestful, we quickly see that his years of service have, in fact, taken a toll. He sits down to massage his aching knees and his supercilious manager makes a note of it. Later that day, he's coldly relieved of his post and uniform and demoted to the role of washroom attendant.
Humiliated, he hides the demotion, steals back his porter's uniform, and attends his niece's wedding dressed as she expects to see him. After a night spent drowning his sorrows in drink, he dozes off on the job and his neighbor visits the hotel, sees that he has been replaced, and spreads the news like wildfire, resulting in mockery and ridicule. Only The Atlantic's night watchman is kind to him, covering him with a coat as he sleeps in his washroom attendant's chair.
A title card now informs us that, were this real life, the story would end here. Instead, however, our hapless hero receives a miracle: A wealthy man dies in his arms and leaves him a fortune. The film ends with the former porter dining extravagantly with the watchman at The Atlantic, showering staff with tips, lifting a poor man into his carriage, and departing joyfully.
Milwaukee, WI Awards - Live Stats
Best Musical - Top 3
1.
SISTER ACT (Skylight Music Theatre)
17.1% of votes
2.
HAIRSPRAY (Lakeside Players Inc/Rhode Center for the Arts)
16.3% of votes
3.
ANASTASIA (Lakeside Players)
7.8% of votes
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