Waxworks
by Leo Birinsky, Paul Leni
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings, Olga Belajeff, Werner Krauss, William DieterleDirector: Leo Birinsky, Paul Leni
Brand: Kino International
Cinematographer: Helmar Lerski
Producer: Leo Birinsky
Writer: Paul Leni
Producer: Alexander Kwartiroff
Writer: Hans Brennert
Writer: Henrik Galeen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 2562
Studio: Kino Video
Movie Reviews of Waxworks
Movie Review: Great fun!
Summary: 5 Stars
Even if you're not a silent movie fan, this is still a great movie.
In it, we enter the Waxworks where a new writer is being engaged to spin tales about three wax figures on display: Haroun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and finally Jack the Ripper.
For most of the movie, we watch and learn the stories.
Haroun al Raschid (who actualy was a 9th century Moslem caliph) is played ably by Emil Jannings. In the twenties Jannings was high in demand because of his ability to do a lot with the silent film medium. He starred as the Devil in FW Murnau's Faust and he also starred in that other Murnau vehicle, The Last Laugh. In both cases, as here, he helped the story along through his wonderfully evocative facial expressions and body movements.
As with the Ivan story, the plot is very upbeat and magical. That's why I gently protest when this movie is referred to as "a horror classic" because it's more fantastical and fun in nature.
As Ivan the Terrible, we have Conrad Veidt who seems to be a one man who's who of important characters from 1920s German cinema. Starting with 1919, he played Cesar the somnambulant in the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Later he played Orlac in the hands of Orlac. And here, as in Orlac, he's appropriately on display under the influence of his own demons. Like Jannings, he was a master of silent film acting.
And fortunately, this pericope ends well too where we find that even Czars are not above being the recipients of poetic justice.
Because the Haroun and Ivan stories are both so long, the Jack the Ripper entry is surprisingly brief which is good because I wasn't sure how they were going to put him in a story that had a happy ending.
But certainly the movie itself has a happy ending. Along with Fritz Lang's Destiny and FW Murnau's Nosferatu I consider this to be one of my three favorite silent films of all time.
I hope you'll like too if you get the chance to see it.
Summary of Waxworks
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