Directed by Paul Leni

Paul Leni moved to America from Germany after an invitation from the president of Universal studios, Carl Laemmle (himself a German émigré). He had been working in the German film industry for several years and had finished making the eerie anthology film Waxworks in 1924, before travelling to the States in 1927. His first American film was The Cat and The Canary (1927), a seminal old dark house horror, which was both highly successful and the precursor to a whole host of imitations and remakes. He followed this with the now lost Charlie Chan mystery The Chinese Parrot (1927) before directing potentially his most well- known film, The Man Who Laughs (1928), with Conrad Veidt in the starring role. Finally, in 1929 The Last Warning received its full release, having been premiered on Christmas Day 1928.

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