The concluding scene of The Last Laugh depicts the incredible gluttony and generosity of the unnamed, demoted doorman after he miraculously inherits a fortune from a dying American millionaire. He feasts on mounds of food, eating caviar as if it were candy and drinking champagne as if it were water. A tracking shot of the "spread" emphasizes the opulence and indulgence of our hero. What is the point of this ending? Is is a happy ending or a parody of a happy ending? Is this supposed to be objective reality or a fantasy? Is this a cynical commercial ploy or is there deeper significance to the ending?
The ending of The Last Laugh is supposed to be a parody of the typical happy endings that most movies receive, but to also make a statement on wealth and life itself, and that it doesn’t always have a happy ending. Originally, the movie was supposed to end with the ex-doorman sitting in the bathroom, all alone, leaving many questions unanswered. This would have been much more accurate to real life; there will always be questions, and it might end very unsatisfyingly. However, since this ending was considered to be too depressing, the author gave it an extremely exaggerated happy ending. There was no need for the doorman to receive such a large amount of money, and to spend it so greedily. They could have made it something much more realistic, for example, he finds a new job and his family accepts him again, but they made it so spectacularly impossible to make fun of happy story endings. Most endings in stories are happy, but the author is stating that these endings are not accurate to real life because it is so unfair and unpredictable. If we promote these types of outrageous happy endings, then we are creating huge expectations for our lives which will probably never play out. In turn, the ending is also a commentary on how many depictions of happiness include money. This is not necessarily true, but it has always been a stereotype. There are many different forms of happiness, like finding a new job or having great pride in your occupation, but the author chose wealthiness to represent the happy ending to make a commentary on how exactly society thinks about happiness.
ReplyDeleteThe ending of The Last Laugh teases us with two tragic endings. In the first ending, the respected doorman falls into the pit of despair, stuck in the prison of “lower-class uniform” for the rest of his days.
ReplyDeleteAt the time of the film’s release, Germany was in serious economic turmoil with record levels of unemployment following Germany’s defeat in World War 1. The doorman’s demotion is a representation of Germany’s collapse of power after the war, and their humiliation after signing the Treaty of Versailles. Unable to handle change, the old-fashioned doorman gets stuck in the “revolving doors of modernity.” In Germany, the film was originally released with the final title card reading only “Der letzte Mann” (The Last Man), mocking the failure of the previous doorman. However, the US release was granted a different ending -- a Hollywood ending. The final title card as shown in the US reads (in English), “Here our story should really end, for in actual life, the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death. The author took pity on him, however, and provided quite an improbable epilogue.” The second ending shows the doorman accidentally inheriting immense riches and becoming a rich upper-class man. What appears to the foreign eye as a happy ending, is truly a tragic one. Germany and the German people were in great need of any hope they could find, realistic or not. But, deep down we know this ending is supposed to be unrealistic -- a fantasy. And endings like this don’t happen in the real world.
I think an important thing to note before I get too deep into this is that ending The Last Laugh ended up with was not the original ending that was planned for the movie. In truth the original was too sad for the studio, and hence now we have the overly happy ending that we see today. With all that being said, it is not your typical happy ending. This is definitely one that I would call overly dramatic. One thought I had on this is that F. W. Murnau might have been slightly disappointed with the decision of the studio to have a new ending. We kind of talked about this in class, but I felt Murnau would have been like “you want a happy ending… I’ll show you a happy ending, hahahahaha (I like to think there was an evil laugh in there and of course this would have been in German, but I’m definitely not doing that). Another way that I looked at it was with a little more seriousness. I thought that the ending could be making a mockery of the wealthy, specifically those who did not work for their money. I mean it is pretty easy to tell how ridiculous the once doorman looks in the final scene. The man is just eating crazy amounts a food and spending boatloads of money for truly no reason. I am not really well versed in German history, but I do know that today there are tons of people who inherit money and do not do smart things with it. I can only imagine that back then there was much of the same.
ReplyDeleteThe point of the ending in The Last Laugh is to parodize the stereotype of happy endings in films because of how unrealistic the “afterlife” of the doorman was. Throughout the film, we are taken through the unfortunate aftermath of the Doorman losing his job. The Doorman feels he loses his reputation when age affects his ability to work at a job so important to him. The Doorman measures his worth and success by the job he works, and when he loses it, the Doorman felt he lost his identity. The movie was going to end with the doorman sulking about his misfortune in the bathroom, instead the director added a new “necessary” ending in which the Doorman receives immense luck through gaining the inheritance of a millionaire. He treats himself to a luxury meal and devours himself in a dream life of having his job and all his desires are fulfilled. The Doorman received the inheritance written in the will of the person that died. In the will, it was written that the last person holding the man would receive the inheritance. Given that the chance of the Doorman finding himself in a situation where someone’s will is such that is extremely unlikely and proves the point that this ending is strictly to make fun of how unrealistic most movie endings are. The director of The Last Laugh was able to mend this unrealistic situation into one similar to a stereotypical “happy ending” which makes the extra ending seem normal when compared to common films.
ReplyDeleteThe concluding scene of The Last Laugh is objectively a fantasy and perhaps a commentary on the inequitable luck of wealth. The intertitle alone presents the final scene as a consolation, a false happy after thought, which as we learned in class, was not Murnau’s original intention. After the demoted doorman is left alone, hunched over and defeated in the bathroom, the intertitle reads, “Here our story should really end, for in actual life the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death. The author took pity on him, however, and provided quite an improbable epilogue.” Here the author intervenes, which removes the audience from the story and makes it apparent that the author is exploring or fantasizing an “improbable” ending. This alternate reality is suspended through the excess of his luck and happiness. He has so much money, he does not know what to do with it, he regains respect, and yet he is generous, handing out coins by the fistful. In a way, this false ending makes the first ending of the doorman’s downfall even more devastating. His entire life and happiness is centered around his job, the respect he has from his family and neighbors, the self-confidence he feels in his uniform. Though he may not be making much more as a doorman than as a bathroom janitor, his uniform represents at least a superficial status of wealth. The fact that the loss of this status gives him “little to look forward to but death”, and yet monetary wealth that is handed to him by complete chance brings him back to his old self, questions how greatly the appearance of wealth is valued and obtained. The final scene is not pleasant to watch - no one wants to see a gluttonous man messily stuff himself. But this discomfort may be an intentional way of leaving the audience questioning the value of his happiness, and brings attention to how society respects wealth, a trait largely reliant on luck.
ReplyDeleteThe unrealistic and fantastical elements within the ending emphasize the parody of a happy ending, along with commenting on the unpredictability and significance of wealth. The Last Laughs original ending depicted the doorman alone, in self-pity sitting in the bathroom. The harsh reality of this scene reflected Germany's economic and political tragedies post WW1. This forlorn scene was continued with an uplifting mockery of a "happy ending". The title card exclaims that the alternate ending is an exploration into a fantasy and alternative reality. The extended end to the film was made out of pity, and to distract from the grim underlying themes throughout the film. The doorman now, bathroom janitor spontaneously becomes a millionaire. The doorman was simply in the right place at the right time, emphasizing the luck of wealth. He goes on to spend his inheritance by ordering mass amounts of food, and carelessly spending the fortune. The scene is so over the top to bring the viewer back to the fact that this is only a dream. His abundant spending is a mockery of wealth and the notion that money will make one happy. Although the ending of the film appears “happy”, it is simply an allusion. This ending is a dream, making the reality that much harsher. The last scenes further reflect on the significance of capitalism and money at that time. He is neglected by his friends and family after losing his job but regained their love after receiving the inheritance. One’s status and bank account influenced their purpose and significance. Furthermore, this alternate ending represents the mutual dream of wealth, while emphasizing how unrealistic that dream is.
ReplyDeleteThe final scene of The Last Laugh is a parody of an ending because the unrealistic conclusion mocks the idea of happy endings; however, it keeps the audience engaged with the film. While it is not impossible that someone wins the lottery or inherits loads of money form a beneficiary, the likelihood of these events to occur are slim. Thus having this happen to the character so that their life completely turns around makes a mockery of the conclusion to their story. However, audiences yearn for happy endings. If the moviemakers finished the movie with the door-attendant demoted and depressed the audience would be unfulfilled, thus reality over fantasy is always incorporated no matter how unrealistic because the idea keeps the audience engaged. The movie emphasizes the idea that everything works out in the end, so the audience is drawn in and given hope in their own life. For example after the doorman struggles with losing his job, disappointing his family, and aging, his reality takes a turn for the better. He finds himself rich and magically his problems wash away, and this ending gives the audience satisfaction and hope. Ending the movie with a person’s life full of wealth and perceived happiness creates a deeper significance for the audience because this is the lifetime goal for many. Therefore, the audience will look past the unrealistic fantasy that the door attendant experiences and focus on the material ideas that make people happy at the end of their story.
ReplyDeleteTo properly establish the alternative ending, the original should be acknowledged as a reminder of the staggering realities of life. The unnamed doorman, losing both his personal acknowledgment through his uniform and social acknowledgment through his new job, lay isolated with a flashlight shining on top of him, almost to capture all of the bitter realities of his ending in one image. The doorman encapsulates the essence of loss. He has gone through a mix of emotions due to his lost validity, and eventually ends up a depressed, hollow shell of what he initially presented himself as. It is only with the outer appearance of a “bad ending” that the inner realities of the doorman present themselves with wonder and aspirations in a reflected intensity.
ReplyDeleteThe alternative ending of “The Last Laugh” displays itself as a further establishment of the original ending through its exaggerated appearance. The doorman finds himself in a lucky situation and later becomes wealthy beyond anyone’s wildest belief. He later then decides to live his life lavishly, and scenes such as the extensive amounts of caviar consumption, and having every waiter ready to light his cigar at the drop of a hat exaggerate the extensiveness of his prosperity; it goes on to the point where the audience realizes the faultiness of the situation. The expensive scenes being displayed are merely overly-admired dreams of the hopeless doorman, still laying in isolation, as he spends the rest of his time working his new, mundane job. There can be a relentless pursuit towards prosperity, success, and social admiration, but the realities of life destroy almost all of these attempts. The movie depicts through the loss of his job, his admiration, which with the coming of age, comes the deterioration of all later goals; all the doorman has left is his dreams.