Waxworks (1924)
"Das Wachsfigurenkabinett" (original title)

The owner of a Waxmuseum needs for three of his models stories to be told to the audience. For that reason he has hired a writer, who after one look athe owner's pretty daughter, starts ... See full summary »

Directors:

Leo Birinsky, Paul Leni

Writer:

Henrik Galeen

Stars:

Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss

Cast

Credited cast:
Emil Jannings	...	Harun al Raschid
Conrad Veidt	...	Ivan the Terrible
Werner Krauss	...	Jack the Ripper / Spring-Heeled Jack
William Dieterle	...	The Poet / Assad the Baker / A Russian Prince (as Wilhelm Dieterle)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Olga Belajeff	...	Eva-Maimune-Eine Bojarin
John Gottowt	...	Inhaber der Panoptikums
Georg John
Ernst Legal

Storyline

The owner of a Waxmuseum needs for three of his models stories to be told to the audience. For that reason he has hired a writer, who after one look athe owner's pretty daughter, starts writing stories featuring the models, the daughter and himself. In the first, he is a baker, married to the girl, who is a little bit too much flirting with the customers, among them the wezir of sultan Harun Al-Rashid, who has just ordered his execution because the smell from the bakery is drifting to his palce, yet Harun Al-Rashid wants to meet the beautiful girl himself, while an angry baker is trying to get the Sultan's whishing ring to proof he's not a weakling... The second story is about Tzar Ivan the Terrible who likes watching people die together with his court-chemist. When he orders the execution of the chemist, the chemist thinks of a nice revanche, but till the revanche works, a nobleman is murdered, his daughter kidnapped by Ivan and her groom tortured. While writing the third story about...

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Plot Keywords:

jack the ripper | baker | wax museum | killer | german expressionism | 

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

February 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Waxworks

Filming Locations:

May-Atelier, Weißensee, Berlin, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Neptune-Film A.G.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

65 min 83 min (restored)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally there were four episodes planed, but for the fourth, "Rinaldo Rinaldini," there wasn't any money left.

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Connections

Referenced in Sunset Boulevard (1950)

User Reviews

3 movies for the price of 1.

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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