The Last Laugh

Three different negatives were

created for the film Der letzte Mann.

One of them was for Germany,

one for general export,...

...and the third for the USA.

The surviving German negative was

preserved only incompletely, and was...

...reconstructed in 2001 /2002

with the aid of the following materials:...

...an original negative from the

Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv Berlin:...

...a print from the Museum of

Modern Art, New York,...

...produced in Germany in 1936:

fragments of a duplicate...

...possessed by the

Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung...

...of a missing German print:

as well as fragments of a print...

...kept by the Cinmathque Suisse

in Lausanne.

The reconstruction took place

in cooperation with...

...the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv,

Berlin/Koblenz:
...

...the Cinmathque Suisse, Lausanne:

the Museum of Modern Art, New York,...

...and the

Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung,...

...Wiesbaden.

Labwork:

L'lmmagine Ritrovata, Bologna

THE LAST MAN:

In the Lead-Role:

EMiL JANNiNGS

Direction:

F. W. MURNAU

Today, you are the first,

respected by everyone, a minister,...

...a general, maybe even

a prince.

Do you know what

you'll be tomorrow?!

For the Wedding Guests

However, due to your period of service

of many years' standing,...

...we've created an open position

for you by sending the oldest employee...

...of our firm to a shelter,

effective today.

The reason for this measure...

...is your old-age.

Here,

at the place of his humiliation,...

...the old man would waste away

miserably for the rest of his life...

...and here the story would,

strictly speaking, be over.

But the author is looking out for him

who has been abandoned by everyone,...

...and so he bestows

upon him an epilogue,...

...telling a story that...

unfortunately...

...usually doesn't occur

in real life.

A SENSATIONAL INHERITANCE

As reported a short time ago,...

...the celebrated Mexican multimillionaire

Mr. A. G. Monen died...

...whilst washing his hands in the lavatory

of the Atlantic-Hotel.

Upon going through his papers,

a sensational will for this eccentric man

was found to the effect...

...that the person in whose arms

he would happen to die was to become

the sole heir to his enormous fortune.

Hence, the biblical promise,

that the last shall be the first,...

...seems already to have been

fulfilled on earth,...

...for the lucky one is...

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