Waxworks
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Movie Reviews of Waxworks
Movie Review: German Horror Classic Debuts On DVD.
Summary: 4 Stars
Paul Leni's WAXWORKS has taken its own sweet time in coming before the public in presentable form. This of course is not the film's fault. Now that it is here as part of a quartet of restored German Horror Classics, there is cause for much rejoicing. As is often the case with most anthology films the parts are greater than the whole. There are three episodes involving figures in a wax museum which are linked by the framing story of a writer writing about them. Are they scary? No, but at least one of them (IVAN THE TERRIBLE with Conrad Veidt) is genuinely disturbing while another (SPRING HEELED JACK with Werner Krauss) boasts the most expressionistic sets since CABINET OF DR CALIGARI (also in this set of four new releases from Kino International).
The longest sequence features Emil Jannings in an Arabian Nights setting which is more comic in tone and surprisingly erotic thanks to Olga Belajeff who plays the romantic lead in all three stories. The male lead is William Dieterle who plays the writer. He would give up acting and become a major director in Hollywood during the 30's and 40's. This is the first time this film has ever looked this good. It was restored from two differnt prints and has been properly tinted. The accompanying piano score is effective especially in the IVAN sequence.
WAXWORKS is not a great film but it is an important one. It is one of the first horror anthology films and boasts spectacular set designs for the three stories. While it won't scare you, it will entertain you and that is ultimately what it is all about. As mentioned earlier this is part of a quartet of silent German horror films newly restored and released on DVD. It can be purchased seperately but if you enjoy these type of films then spring for the whole package. In addition to NOSFERATU and CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, there is a striking new restoration of THE GOLEM.
Movie Review: Why must I write a review ti rate a movie?
Summary: 4 Stars
For some inexplicable reason, Amazon has removed the rate movie feature from the main product page. One must now write a review in order to rate a movie and generate recommendations. This is not a review, but merely a means to allow me to rate this movie and improve my recommendations. If you are as annoyed by this new "feature" as I am, please register your protest w/ Amazon help.Movie Review: Good German Expressionism!
Summary: 4 Stars
A man answers an ad for a carnival. He is to tell the story of 3 infamous people in history who will be presented in wax in the waxworks. First is a tale of Horoun Al Rashid, from Ancient Baghdad, then Jack the Ripper and Ivan The Terrible. Stories nightmares are made of!Movie Review: Waxworks
Summary: 3 Stars
A man answers an ad asking for an `imaginative writer.' The waxwork displays in a fair sideshow need some interesting words thrown their way. Dashing young Poet (William Dieterle) answers the ads, and in the course of a night tells the tale of Harun-al-Raschid (Emil Jannings), the caliph of Baghdad, Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt), and later dreams a nasty dream about Spring Heeled Jack (Werner Krauss, as Jack the Ripper), all the while throwing an evening's worth of sighs at pretty young Zarah (Olga Belajeff).
WAXWORKS (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett) is a 1924 German silent movie directed by Paul Leni. The movie is divided into three episodes. Sources say a fourth was planned but the production ran out of money. The first episode asks the question When a Grand Vizier flirts with a baker's wife, what does the baker do? Dieterle and Belajeff play the young and much in love married couple, and Dieterle answers the question by resolving to steal the Caliph's `wishing ring.' Episode two again has Dieterle and Belajeff playing a young couple much in love, we join them on their wedding day, along with the mad Ivan the Terrible, a cruel sadist who derives particular pleasure out of poisoning someone and watching them squirm while the sand in over sized hour glasses time out the last moments of their lives. The third episode finds Spring Heeled Jack chasing the Poet through the fair.
WAXWORKS is an impressive looking movie. Leni also handled the Art Direction and the sets are a fantastical melange of weird rounded shapes and cantered angles. The first episode, which comprises nearly half the movie's running time, is imaginative and tight. The Ivan episode drags on more than a bit, slowed down considerably by Veidt's crawling approach to screen acting. He takes forever to complete a gesture. The short Spring Heeled Jack episode seems tacked on, an expedient for a bankrupt production. It's filled with double and triple exposures and works better than it has any right to. After the long Caliph story I thought WAXWORKS lost drive and focus, and found myself steadily losing interest as the movie played itself out.
The dvd's extras features a clip from Douglas Fairbanks' Thief of Baghdad, which WAXWORKS inspired. Also included is the playful REBUS 1, a fifteen-minute or so short by Paul Leni. REBUS 1 is simply a seven-word crossword puzzle that uses filmed images, traditional and stop-action animation to solve the puzzle. It's light-hearted and frothy and, most important, translated into English.
Movie Review: Great pedigree but not entirely successful
Summary: 3 Stars
1924's Waxworks is one of those films whose credits are more impressive than it's achievements. Directed by The Man Who Laughs' Paul Leni and starring Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt and Dr Caligari himself, Werner Krauss, it's an early anthology film linking three inhabitants of a fairground chamber of horrors as future director William Dieterle's writer is hired to come up with publicity stories. The first, an Arabian Nights tale in which a baker attempts to steal Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid's wishing ring while, unknown to him, the Caliph is romancing his wife is a horribly drawn out affair that offers plenty of opportunities for Jannings to ham it away but does nothing to justify his comical character's reputation as one of the most evil men in history. Things improve immensely in the second story, largely because of an extraordinarily intense performance by Veidt, utterly convincing as an increasingly paranoid Ivan the Terrible: in one remarkable scene he seems to completely lose himself in an orgasm as he watches one of his victims die. Unfortunately Krauss' Spring Heeled Jack is thrown away in a brief and badly executed nightmare coda, ending the film on a disappointing note. It's definitely worth watching for Veidt's sequence, but it's a shame it's sandwiched between two clunkers. The restoration by the Cineteca del Commune di Bologna is good but the blue and orange tints on Kino's DVD are so extreme you might want to turn the color way down to stop them bleeding out the detail altogether.
Also included on the DVD is the surprisingly enjoyable Rebus Film Number 1, a 1926 film crossword directed by Leni that's an intriguing kaleidoscope of rapidly edited footage serving as clues interspersed with brief animations, and an extract from Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad which is supposed to show the influence of Waxworks on the film's design but actually serves to disprove it! (If anything, Leni's film seems much more of an influence on Stephen Grimes production design for Krull.