Grin of the Dark

A former professor offers film critic Simon the chance of a lifetime—to write a book on one of the greatest long-lost comedians of the silent-film era, Tubby Thackeray. Simon is determined to find out the truth behind the jolly fat man''s disappearance from film—and from the world.

Tubby''s work carries the unmistakable stamp of the macabre. People literally laughed themselves to death during hi...