Waxworks
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Movie Reviews of Waxworks
Movie Review: Waxworks
Summary: 5 Stars
Directed by Paul Leni in 1924, WAXWORKS is a silent film from the German Expressionist movement that predates MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM by nearly a decade. In it, a writer is commissioned to create a series of exciting tales about the exhibits in a local wax museum. Each story that the writer begins transports both he and his assistant into the world of the characters he has created. WAXWORKS is one of the most technically-accomplished films of its era, with all of the elaborate costuming, exotic sets, and dramatic physical performances that the great Expressionists were known for. Leni introduces a number of intricate new shots taken through prisms and mirrors, and uses overlays during the nightmarish finale to make the characters appear as if they are ghosts wandering through an ethereal dreamscape. The chase sequence that occurs after the Caliph is presumed dead displays and incredible design, which recalls the twisted staircases of M.C. Escher. WAXWORKS is a fun and imaginative fantasy adventure with thrilling elements of horror that stands beside the works of Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau in creativity and originality.
-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies
Movie Review: Interesting slice of Expressionism
Summary: 4 Stars
While this film might not be as famous or top-notch as other examples of German Expressionism, such as 'Metropolis' (1927) or 'The Golem' (1920), it is an interesting entry into the genre nevertheless, and has a number of great Expressionist sets, lighting, and moods. Things start happening when a young writer answers an ad in the paper, placed by a man seeking someone to tell the stories of three of the wax dummies in a wax museum he and his pretty daughter have at an amusement park. Of course, the young couple in each of the three stories are played by the writer and the young woman. It has an episodic structure much like that used in the early Fritz Lang film 'Destiny' (1921).
First off is the story of Caliph Hanoun al-Raschid (Emil Jannings) and how he came to lose his arm. Zarah, the wife of Assad the baker, has been flirting with a lot of customers, among them the Grand Vizier. The Caliph takes it upon himself to go and see her after the Vizier tells her all about her beauty, and is able to worm his way into her house at night because Assad, after quarreling with his wife, has snuck off to the palace, vowing to prove his manliness by stealing the Caliph's magickal wishing ring. Each of the three stories uses Expressionism in a different way, and here it is manifested in the great staircases and buildings that we see as the palace guards are pursuing Assad through the streets of Baghdad at night. This is probably the best-developed and most interesting of the three tales, and it's certainly the most light-hearted.
Second comes a story about Tsar Ivan IV (whom most Westerners know as "Ivan the Terrible," even though his title, Grozniy, really translates as something like "Awe-Inspiring"), and the Expressionism here is in the lighting and the dark mood. The Tsar (played by Conrad Veigt) gets a sadistic delight out of watching people agonise through their last moments in his torture chamber and in selecting victims who are to be poisoned by one of his underlings. The chemist who carries out these cruel orders, however, is tipped off to the fact that for all he knows, he might be next, so he writes the Tsar's name on an hour glass (when the last sand falls, the victim is supposed to die). Before the Tsar can find out about this clever revenge, however, he goes with a nobleman to the wedding of his daughter, and murders the man before they are to disembark from their carriage and join the wedding party. He then manages to steal the bride for himself and has her new husband kidnapped and taken to the torture chamber. Even though my area of special expertise in the field of history is Russian history, and Ivan IV is one of my favorite tsars, this story just didn't seem as interesting to me as the others. Ivan is just too one-dimensionally evil and twisted, in comparison to the more-developed and interesting Caliph in the first story. The real Ivan also started out as a liberal enlightened reformer and only went off the deep end after the love of his life, his first wife Anastasiya, was poisoned by a boyar; his character in this film would have been more complex and noteworthy had he had that same kind of development, instead of just starting out with the heart of darkness and only getting crazier and more evil, with no explanation for why he got that way.
The third story only lasts for maybe 5 minutes, but it's the most visually arresting and memorable. By this point the young writer is having trouble staying awake, and has a nightmare that the third dummy, a combination of Jack the Ripper and Spring-Heeled Jack (played by Werner Krauss), is chasing him and the young lady through the fairgrounds. After he awakes, he finds out that she had the exact same nightmare. It's a shame this story is so very short, since it had great potential to be the best of all of the episodes, and the most compelling, both visually and thematically. Supposedly a fourth episode was planned, about Rinaldo Rinaldi, but the production company ran out of money.
There are two extras--a clip from Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.'s 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924), a film which was inspired by 'Waxworks,' and a cute short subject from 1925, also directed by Paul Leni, 'Rebus Film Number 1,' an animated crossword puzzle that gives the viewer the puzzle, the clues, hints at the answers, and finally the solution to the puzzle.
This is an important film for those who are interested in German Expressionism, although given the episodic structure, it can seem a bit uneven, in comparison to other Expressionist films that have just one coherent narrative storyline. And though it has been billed as a horror film, only the third episode could really be classified in the horror genre. The first episode does have some heavy moments but is overall lighthearted, and the second episode is more dark, disturbing, and depressing than horrifying or nightmare-inducing. It's an interesting film, but not one that could really be classified as an ideal first silent.
Movie Review: Torture, dread and death -- and some ironic good humor -- in this stylish Paul Leni film
Summary: 4 Stars
Waxworks is an anthology film directed with great German expressionism flair by Paul Leni. The horror element is liberally mixed with irony, humor and amazing escapes. The three stories, one quite short, start out with a young man (Wilhelm Dieterle) answering an ad: "Wanted - An imaginative writer for publicity work in a waxworks exhibition." The exhibition is a sideshow at a carnival, and the waxworks are life-size figures of some legendary human monsters. There's Harun al Raschid, Caliph of Bagdad (Emil Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt) and Spring-Heeled Jack -- no, not Jack the Ripper -- (Werner Krauss). The daughter (Olga Belajeff) of the waxworks creator and the young man are attracted to each other. He picks up a pen and begins writing his stories while she watches enraptured.
Harun al Raschid was a ruler who "hated monotony, so he had a different wife for every day in the year." He's a corpulent, spoiled and lascivious potentate played with a fierce mustache, leering eyes and wandering hands by Jannings. When he becomes entranced by the baker's wife (Belajeff), she inspires the baker (Dieterle) to prove his worth by stealing the caliph's wishing ring. After attempted caresses ("Don't let that bother you, my nightingale," the caliph tells the baker's wife when her gown becomes disarranged, "your lack of clothes doesn't bother me in the least."), barred doors, leaping escapes, a severed arm and the baker's oven used as a hiding place, all comes to a close with a happy and ironic ending.
Ivan the Terrible was a "blood-crazed monster on the throne, who turned cities into cemeteries. His crown was a tiara of mouldering bones, his scepter an axe." He "loved to gloat over the dying agonies of his poisoned victims," using an hourglass to measure out their last minutes. This story is genuinely unnerving. The sight of Veidt as Ivan, followed by his astrologer, stalking down the passage to the torture chambers in a long white gown, bent at the waist, elbows back and hands on his hips, each step measured, is something to see. This ending is ironic and disturbing.
Spring Heeled Jack -- "the notorious character -- pounced suddenly and silently upon his victims." Our writer has finished his first two stories. The young girl has fallen asleep. He looks at the waxworks figure of Jack, starts to write but falls asleep. Or is he. Suddenly the girl is holding him, telling him Jack had tried to kill them. They flee into the carnival with Jack after them, a frightening figure in an overcoat, a long scarf around his neck, a hat set at a jaunty angle on his head and a knife in his hand. Is this a dream or reality? Well, watch the movie, but don't blink. This sequence is over in just two or three minutes.
Probably the greatest pleasure of the movie is its look. In Waxworks, there's not a straight line or a right angle to be seen. Bagdad is an odd wonderland of domes and crooked ladders, veils and shadows. Anything solid seems to have been made out of rough clay. The staircases in the palace look like the ribcage of some exotic creature. The Kremlin looks to be a cross between a dark, crazed fantasy and a grotesque stage set. The carnival grounds are a fantasm of double exposures, shadowy lighting effects and fog. This is an unusual and entertaining film, with two over-the-top yet skilled performances by Jannings and Veidt, and with all the strange visuals you could hope for in a film by Paul Leni.
If you like anthology films which feature stylish dread, watch Dead of Night, a British film from 1945. There are stories in the film that will make you think twice about looking in mirrors, watching a ventriloquist's act or staying with friends for the weekend.
The Kino presentation of the restored Waxworks has a very good DVD transfer, chapter stops for each sequence and an unobtrusive piano accompaniment composed and played by Jon Mirsalis. There are a couple of minor extras.
Movie Review: Paul Leni's Seldom-Seen Homage to Caligari
Summary: 4 Stars
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 Werner Krauss, 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
In Memory of Bob Zeidler, Amazon Reviewer
Greatly Missed and Not Forgotten
Movie Review: A worthy excursion into German Expressionism
Summary: 4 Stars
Kino does a beautiful presentation of this entry into German Expressionism on film. The plot essentially includes a writer telling stories about figures in a carnival waxworks display. The writer is smitten with the daughter of the waxworks owner, as a sideline. These are fairly incidental to the trilogy of stories that intertwine.First, Haroun Al-Raschid is played by Emil Jannings. This story is fairly humorous and very fun to watch, with a chase scene through an Escher-esque set as a baker tries to escape after a failed attempt at thievery.
This is followed by Ivan the Terrible, played by Conrad Veidt. Conrad plays an eerie, insane, and meglomaniacal potrayal of the famous tyrant. Ivan, as promised, is indeed, terrible and Conrad's acting adds volumes with this peek into murderous insanity.
Werner Krauss portrays Jack the Ripper in the third story (dreamed by the sleeping writer). His performance is grand and uncanny, though the association of Jack the Ripper with Spring Heeled Jack is highly erronious, and distracting. While Jack the Ripper never displayed any uncanny abilities to speak of (in the film as well), Spring Heeled Jack was known to leap great distances and heights and breath fire. These two characters have little in common, even down to the fact that there were numerous descriptions of Spring Heeled Jack by eye witnesses, and very few of Jack the Ripper. Additionally, Spring Heeled Jack is only credited with one murder, seemingly accidental. By combining them in such a poor manner, Leni does an injustice to two classic legends.
This film is classic of German Expressionism, and aside from bad scholarship, lives up to its reputation. The DVD includes the necessary original color-wash familiar to German silent films of its time, and is a very nice print to watch. Included as extras in this volume are REBUS FILM I, a fun 1926 short by Leni combining live footage and animation to perform a crossword puzzle on film. Also, an excerpt from Douglas Fairbanks's THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, as a comparision to Emil Jennings's role in WAXWORKS. The film WAXWORKS has 12 different scene selections.