Emil Janning plays an overly proud hotel doorman who loses his sense of pride when his employers deem him too old to continue his job. Without the stately uniform his job provided, his proud stance becomes hunched and crumpled, the buildings seem to crush him, and the respect of his family and neighbors vanishes. The story’s parallels to Germany in the dire aftermath of World War I are clear but not forced. THE LAST LAUGH has become the go-to film school example of how German Expressionism can be done with camera angles, movement and effects rather than artificial sets a la THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920).