romance and a political satire, with just a smidgin of rooftop swashbuckling thrown in near the end." He praised Veidt's ability to portray a full emotional range without being able to move "one of the face's most expressive parts," and called the theatricality and transgression of social norms within the film "carnivalesque," embodied most completely by Gwynplaine, "a man who is his mask". On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a perfect 100% approval rate based on 20 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A meeting of brilliant creative minds, The Man Who Laughs serves as a stellar showcase for the talents of director Paul Leni and star Conrad Veidt." Legacy The Man Who Laughs had considerable influence on the later Universal Classic Monsters films. Pierce continued to provide the makeup for Universal's monsters; comparisons to Gwynplaine's grin were used to advertise The Raven. Hall's set design for The Man Who Laughs helped him develop the blend of Gothic and expressionist features he employed for some of the most important Universal horror films of the 1930s: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, and Bride of Frankenstein. Decades later, the themes and style of The Man Who Laughs were influences on Brian De Palma's 2006 The Black Dahlia, which incorporates some footage from the 1928 film. The Joker, nemesis to DC Comics's Batman, owes his appearance to Veidt's portrayal of Gwynplaine in the film. Although Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson disagreed as to their respective roles in the 1940 creation of the Joker, they agreed that his exaggerated smile was influenced by a photograph of Veidt from the film. A 2005 graphic novel exploring the first encounter between Batman and the Joker was also titled Batman: The Man Who Laughs in homage to the 1928 film, as was the Batman Who Laughs, an alternate universe Batman who becomes more like Joker after managing to kill his enemy. In the Justice League episode, "Wild Cards", the Joker runs a TV production company called Gwynplaine Entertainment Company, after the character. Later adaptations Although prominent actors, including Christopher Lee and Kirk Douglas, expressed interest in taking the role of Gwynplaine in a hypothetical remake, there has been no American film adaptation of The Man Who Laughs in the sound era; however, there have been three adaptations by European