Das Wachsfigurenkabinett

In the wake of World War I, German film was sharply influenced by expressionism, an arts movement which is less concerned with imitating reality than in using design to reflect psychology and emotion. THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI brought the style to the screen in 1919, and throughout the 1920s many directors would create projects under its influence.

German director Paul Leni (1885-1929) was one such--and although he is best recalled for his later Hollywood films, most notably the stylish THE CAT AND THE CANARY, the 1924 German WAXWORKS shows him very near the peak of gifts. It is also very clearly an homage of sorts to THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI; not only would Leni cast two of that film's actors in major roles, he drew from the film's style for both sets and cinematography.

WAXWORKS is an "anthology" film, a collection of stories bound together by a running thread. A young writer (William Dieterle) is employed by a carnival sideshow wax museum to write stories about several of their figures: a Baghdad Caliph, Ivan the Terrible, and Spring Heeled Jack. As he writes, the film segues into the story the writer invents.

The longest of the three stories concerns Harun al Raschid, a Caliph of Baghdad who falls in love with a baker's wife--and then seeks to take her for his own. Featuring the celebrated Emil Jannings as the Caliph, the episode is a mixture of light comedy and Arabian Nights fantasy, particularly noted for the greatly stylized sets that recall the earlier CALIGARI and THE GOLEM to somewhat softer effect. It also offers the very rare opportunity to see Jannings, famed for his dramatic roles, in comic mode, and he proves equally adept with this bit of fluff as with his more "serious" work.

The second episode is a fantasy suggested by Russian ruler Ivan the Terrible, who delights in poisoning prisoners but finds himself fearful of his highly gifted poison-mixer. Ivan is played by Conrad Veidt, who appeared as the murderous Cesare in CALIGARI; one of Germany's most popular actors of the silent screen, Veidt was also noted for his gift at playing insanity, and his Ivan is the very incarnation of madness. As in the earlier episode, the sets are also fantastic, although perhaps not so obviously so.

Fine though the first two sequences are, it is really the last that is most famous, and justly so. Here Leni sets the story against the carnival itself and presents it in grotesque, dreamlike images that very deliberately recall CALIGARI; moreover, he casts actor William Dieterle, who played Caligari himself, as a menacing killer who slowly stalks his terrified victims. The killer is referred to as both Spring Heeled Jack and Jack the Ripper; clearly, however, he is more akin to the latter. The cinematography in this sequence is particularly fine, using multiple exposures in a way that foreshadows Leni's stylish THE CAT AND THE CANARY.

In an overall sense, WAXWORKS is quite fine, and were it not for the fact the final sequence is so short I would easily give it a full five stars. The Kino DVD also offers a very good transfer, complete with original tinting; unfortunately, however, it offers no bonus material except a Leni short--an unexpected but mildly interesting "filmed crossword puzzle." Although some may find the anthology nature of the film a bit off-putting, silent fans will likely love WAXWORKS from start to finish.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I don't want to be harsh or negative on movies from the silent era because, after all, they were the true pioneers, but some of them are really an ordeal to struggle through. "Waxworks", for instance, is much more fascinating from a 'historical value' point of view than from an 'entertainment' angle. The concept of the film is brilliant, and the names of the people involved are downright amazing! It seems as if everyone who was even remotely important during the German expressionism era was partaking in this film. Director Paul Leni! Cast members Werner Krauss, Emil Jannings, William Dieterle, Conrad Veidt! What a cast! And the plot is so unique I even daresay "Waxworks" was the one and only forefather of the horror omnibus/anthology concept. The genius "Dead of Night" (1945) might have been a much better film, but "Waxworks" must have been the first. The wraparound story is great, too. The resident wax-sculptor of a traveling carnival places an ad in the paper, looking for a writer to fantasize imaginative stories for his creations. The charming young man who presents himself doesn't only invent stories about the statues, but also processes himself and the sculptor's beautiful daughter in them.

So far, so good. I truly wished I could say that the three individual segments were little masterpieces, but alas. They actually are rather dull, incomprehensible and - in case of the first two - unnecessarily overlong. The first tale stars the Emil Jannings as the Caliph of Bagdad, and he's trying to woo the lovely wife of a simple baker. The baker, crazy jealous, wants to prove his manhood by breaking into to the palace and steal the Caliph's wishing ring. The premise is interesting enough, but the story lasts far too long. The second tale stars my favorite actor from the silent era, Conrad Veidt, as the Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible. As much as I admire Veidt's charismatic looks and his facial expressions of pure madness, I honestly can't guess what the point of the tale was. It seems like the Czar is just abusing his power at a wedding party, terrorizing all the other guest, but eventually he believes he was poisoned and spends the rest of his days tipping over a (zandloper). Then, you notice there's less than five minutes of running time left, but there supposedly still comes a segment with Werner Krauss as Jack the Ripper. This is, however, merely an insignificant epilogue and I was quite disappointed by that.

"Waxworks" features beautiful color schemes and imaginative decors, typical of German expressionism, but the pacing is too slow, and the stories are sadly unmemorable. Personally, I wouldn't recommend this film to people who aren't yet acquainted with silent cinema, especially since there are numerous of other genuine masterpieces to discover ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "Faust", "Der Golem", ...)

This is a movie that features 3 kind of different stories, when the owner of a wax museum hires a writer to write 3 stories for 3 of his models; Harun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper. It provides the movie with 3 different stories, set at different times and each with a new different main character, played by the finest 3 German actors of their time period. It's a very creative and interesting concept, also of course really when considering that this movie got made in 1924.

In order to keep all of the stories still somewhat connected and make the movie more coherent as a whole, all of the stories feature the two actors William Dieterle and Olga Belajeff, each time in different roles. But when you have 2 stories of about halve an hour and then another one of just 5 minutes, can you still really call this movie a coherent one? It can be presumed that budgeting reasons was the reason why the last story of the movie is so much shorter. It was originally even planned to shoot a fourth story about Rinaldo Rinaldini. The character can still be seen at the start of movie, standing between the other waxed characters. Even though all stories are different and set in completely different time periods, they still have the same overall style over it, which still is a reason why this movie still feels like a whole one.

All the episodes are good looking but the stories for it aren't always that interesting. Basically since it at times it kind of dragging and despite some early action and adventure elements, the movie still is sort of a lackluster. Well lack-lusting perhaps isn't the right way to describe it. It's more that it's not really engaging enough at all times.

But of course the looks and style of the movie compensate a lot. This is a real expressionistic German movie, with some fantastic distinctive expressionistic sets. That alone already makes this movie for the lovers of German expressionistic style an absolute must-see.

It's absolutely a great fact that this movie features Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss, who were really the biggest, best known and best German actors of their time. The movie also features William Dieterle, who later gained more fame as a director of movies such as "The Life of Emile Zola" and the 1939 version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", with Charles Laughton.

It's basically a fun entertaining movie from the early '20's, that is truly worth watching for plenty of reasons.

8/10

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Usually in these Wax horrors, it's the notion of a life entombed in the body that is meant to unsettle, a life extended even into death (or is it the opposite?). This is the first of these films as far as I know - later came the two Houses of Wax, another Waxwork in '88, the Italian Wax Mask from an Argento story - and so the notion is more outdated, more novelistic. Each life a separate story and world, with clear boundaries between them, and acted out by the same couple that writes the stories back in the level of reality.

In Baghdad we get a romantic adventure where the Caliph falls for the baker's girl. Eventually she restores balance by summoning the dead Caliph from beyond the grave for the eyes of his awe-struck vassals. It's a ploy by which the status quo of the Arabian nights is maintained.

In Czarist Russia, the cruel czar who thought he would defy even death is faced with his own mortality. Instead of accepting this common fate, thus coming to understand that a king is also a common man and in so doing be rendered free of his own despotic bonds, he goes mad. It's again a ploy, the poison-maker's vengeance from beyond the grave. But he was mad to begin with, so it doesn't quite matter.

The final story that blends back into the wrap-around and brings us full circle, is about a notorious killer who stalks a man and his girl. This is the segment that strikes some spark; the urbane setting diffused as dreamy, expressionist poem. It's again a ploy, this time a dream - or nightmare.

Both Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt, stars of what was then a booming film industry, relish the opportunity of playing scheming tyrants. But it's all harmless stuff.

I really enjoyed that film. It's not a masterpiece, like "Caligari" or "Nosferatu", but a good fun film anyway. Veidt and Jannings are wonderful. The first part, about Haroun al Rashid (played by Emil Jannings), is very humorous (and funny as well), with well written plot. The second part, about Ivan the Terrible (played by Conrad Veidt), is, in contrast, very dark and depressing. In my humble opinion, it is much better than Eisenstein's movie (which also steals shamelessly from it); for sure, Veidt is better than Cherkasov. The third story is something really weird: it starts and suddenly ends, like the crew ran out of money.

So, a lot of humour in the first part, a lot of "Russian gothic" ;-) in the second part, good acting, good plot, great sets -- if you like silent movies (especially expressionist silent movies), don't miss this one!

P.S. If you like silent movies and still haven't seen "Cabinet of Doctor Kaligari" and "Nosferatu, symphony of horror", see them first -- they are better than "Waxworks"!