A nobleman whose face was disfigured as a child into a permanent grin struggles on the fringes of society for love and recognition. Based on Victor Hugo, starring German actor Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), and directed by Paul Leni in such a dark, expressionistic style that the film is considered a horror movie despite its melodramatic plot. Veidt’s mask later served as the direct inspiration for the comic book Joker. It demonstrates how Universal systematically imported Gothic horror aesthetics in the late 1920s through European directors and stars.

The very first film by the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), founded in 1909, based on Longfellow’s epic poem. Not a horror film, but the very foundation of Laemmle’s filmmaking career: With IMP, he openly opposed the monopoly of the “Edison Trust” (Motion Picture Patents Company) and thus became a pioneer of the independent production companies that gave rise to Universal in 1912.