It took nerve for director Harald Braun to attempt an all-talking remake of F.W. Murnau's silent masterpiece
The Last Laugh, though it can't be denied that Braun's version has its moment. Still, the remake, Der Letze Mann (
The Last Man) lacks the originality and nuance of the silent film, if only because it is retreading familiar ground. In the earlier version,
Emil Jannings starred as a proud, self-reliant hotel doorman whose whole world disintegrates when he is demoted to washroom attendant. In the remake,
Hans Albers plays a headwaiter who is professionally humiliated when the ownership of the hotel changes hands. The Murnau version ended with an ironically comic coda, which may or may not have been a figment of the protagonist's imagination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide