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Waxworks (film)
Encyclopedia
Waxworks is a 1924
fantasy
/horror
silent film
directed by Paul Leni
. The film is about a writer who accepts a job from a waxworks
proprietor to write a series of stories about the exhibits of Caliph of Baghdad (Emil Jannings
), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt
) and Jack the Ripper
(Werner Krauss
) in order to boost business.
Although Waxworks is often credited as a horror film
, it is an anthology film
that goes through several genres including a fantasy
adventure
, a historical film, and a horror film through its various episodes. This film would be director Paul Leni's last film made in Germany before he went on to make The Cat and the Canary
(1927) in the United States
.
) enters a wax museum
where the proprieter (John Gottowt
) works in the company of his daughter (Olga Belajeff). The proprietor hires the poet to write a back-story for his wax models of Harun al-Rashid
(Emil Jannings
), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt
), and Jack the Ripper
(Werner Krauss
) in order to draw an audience to the museum. With the daughter by his side, the poet notices that the arm of Harun al-Rashid is missing and writes a story incorporating the missing arm.
, leading him to want the head of the baker. He sends his Grand Vizier to find the man, Assad, but in doing so, he finds Assad's wife with whom he is enchanted. After being captivated by her beauty and also captivating her with his status among the royals, he returns to tell Al-Rashid that he does not have the baker's head but rather something better - his wife. Al-Rashid then resolves to go out that night, incognito, and visit the beauty. When he steals away from his castle, the ruler witnesses an argument between the jealous Assad and Maimune, who both seem dissatisfied with their poverty-laden life. Assad then says he will rob Al-Rashid's wishing ring to solve their problems.
While Al-Rashid visits the bakery that night, Assad robs the wishing ring off the wax figurine of Al-Rashid by slicing the arm of the figurine, and is spotted by his guards and is chased out of the palace. Meanwhile, Al-Rashid tries to impress Assad's wife. The returning Assad penetrates the locked house by force, while Maimune hides Al-Rashid in the baking-oven. The guards rush in to arrest Assad, but Assad's wife uses the wishing ring to make Al-Rashid "appear" as he secretly comes out of the oven. After this, they come to an agreement where Assad becomes the official baker for Al-Rashid.
Ivan the Terrible. Two near-newly weds (Dieterle and Belajeff) have their wedding interrupted by Ivan the Terrible who takes a liking to the girl and has her abducted to his lair.
has come to life, but it is recognized instead to be Spring-heeled Jack. Spring-Heeled Jack stalks both the poet and the waxwork owner's daughter. The Poet and the girl flee but find that they can't escape Spring-Heeled Jack through the dark, twisted halls of the museum. As Jack draws close enough, multiple versions of him appear, and as his knife begins to slash, it provokes the poet to wake up to realize that the last experience was a dream. Occasionally, Jack the Ripper was referred to as "birdner" because of his ability to travel around like a bird.
.
The film's script by Henrik Galeen has a large cut by Leni, mainly the fourth tale in the story about Rinaldo Rinaldini, who was to be played by William Dieterle
, a story based on the novel of the same name by Christian August Vulpius
from 1798. Leni decided to substitute this for the short tale of Spring-Heeled Jack. The statue of Rinaldini is still viewable in the scene with the wax figures, as the character with the large black hat.
1924 in film
-Events:* Entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
fantasy
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
/horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
directed by Paul Leni
Paul Leni
Paul Leni born Paul Josef Levi was a German filmmaker and a key figure in German Expressionist filmmaking, making Backstairs and Waxworks in Germany, and The Cat and the Canary , The Chinese Parrot , The Man Who Laughs , and The Last Warning in...
. The film is about a writer who accepts a job from a waxworks
Wax museum
A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses....
proprietor to write a series of stories about the exhibits of Caliph of Baghdad (Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings was a German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the first person to be presented an Oscar...
), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
) and Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
(Werner Krauss
Werner Krauss
Werner Johannes Krauss was a German stage and film actor.-Early life:Krauss was born at the parsonage of Gestungshausen in Upper Franconia, where his grandfather was Protestant pastor. He spent his childhood in Breslau and from 1901 attended the teacher's college at Kreuzburg...
) in order to boost business.
Although Waxworks is often credited as a horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, it is an anthology film
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
that goes through several genres including a fantasy
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
, a historical film, and a horror film through its various episodes. This film would be director Paul Leni's last film made in Germany before he went on to make The Cat and the Canary
The Cat and the Canary (1927 film)
The Cat and the Canary is an American silent horror film adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black comedy play of the same name. Directed by German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni, the film stars Laura La Plante as Annabelle West, Forrest Stanley as Charles "Charlie" Wilder, and Creighton Hale as...
(1927) in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Plot summary
A young nameless poet (William DieterleWilliam Dieterle
William Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...
) enters a wax museum
Wax museum
A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses....
where the proprieter (John Gottowt
John Gottowt
John Gottowt was a German actor, stage director and film director for theatres and silent movies.He was born as Isidor Gesang in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary. After his education in Vienna, he joined the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1905, working for Max Reinhardt as an actor and director...
) works in the company of his daughter (Olga Belajeff). The proprietor hires the poet to write a back-story for his wax models of Harun al-Rashid
Harun al-Rashid
Hārūn al-Rashīd was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph in Iraq. He was born in Rey, Iran, close to modern Tehran. His birth date remains a point of discussion, though, as various sources give the dates from 763 to 766)....
(Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings was a German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the first person to be presented an Oscar...
), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
), and Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
(Werner Krauss
Werner Krauss
Werner Johannes Krauss was a German stage and film actor.-Early life:Krauss was born at the parsonage of Gestungshausen in Upper Franconia, where his grandfather was Protestant pastor. He spent his childhood in Breslau and from 1901 attended the teacher's college at Kreuzburg...
) in order to draw an audience to the museum. With the daughter by his side, the poet notices that the arm of Harun al-Rashid is missing and writes a story incorporating the missing arm.
Harun al-Rashid
The poet sees himself in his story as a pie baker, Assad, where he lives with his wife directly by the walls of the palace where Harun Al-Rashid lives. Smoke from the Assads' bakery covers the front of the palace, where Al-Rashid loses a game of chessChess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, leading him to want the head of the baker. He sends his Grand Vizier to find the man, Assad, but in doing so, he finds Assad's wife with whom he is enchanted. After being captivated by her beauty and also captivating her with his status among the royals, he returns to tell Al-Rashid that he does not have the baker's head but rather something better - his wife. Al-Rashid then resolves to go out that night, incognito, and visit the beauty. When he steals away from his castle, the ruler witnesses an argument between the jealous Assad and Maimune, who both seem dissatisfied with their poverty-laden life. Assad then says he will rob Al-Rashid's wishing ring to solve their problems.
While Al-Rashid visits the bakery that night, Assad robs the wishing ring off the wax figurine of Al-Rashid by slicing the arm of the figurine, and is spotted by his guards and is chased out of the palace. Meanwhile, Al-Rashid tries to impress Assad's wife. The returning Assad penetrates the locked house by force, while Maimune hides Al-Rashid in the baking-oven. The guards rush in to arrest Assad, but Assad's wife uses the wishing ring to make Al-Rashid "appear" as he secretly comes out of the oven. After this, they come to an agreement where Assad becomes the official baker for Al-Rashid.
Ivan the Terrible
The second episode deals with the Czar of RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
Ivan the Terrible. Two near-newly weds (Dieterle and Belajeff) have their wedding interrupted by Ivan the Terrible who takes a liking to the girl and has her abducted to his lair.
Jack the Ripper
After the poet finishes the last two stories, he wakes up to find that the wax model of Jack the RipperJack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
has come to life, but it is recognized instead to be Spring-heeled Jack. Spring-Heeled Jack stalks both the poet and the waxwork owner's daughter. The Poet and the girl flee but find that they can't escape Spring-Heeled Jack through the dark, twisted halls of the museum. As Jack draws close enough, multiple versions of him appear, and as his knife begins to slash, it provokes the poet to wake up to realize that the last experience was a dream. Occasionally, Jack the Ripper was referred to as "birdner" because of his ability to travel around like a bird.
Production
Although Leni is credited with full direction, Leo Birinski is said to have actually directed the actors. Leni was mostly responsible for the settings with the assistance of Fritz MaurischatFritz Maurischat
Fritz Maurischat was a German production designer. He made his film debut in 1924. Over the next 38 years, he worked on over 70 films, all of them in his native Germany....
.
The film's script by Henrik Galeen has a large cut by Leni, mainly the fourth tale in the story about Rinaldo Rinaldini, who was to be played by William Dieterle
William Dieterle
William Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...
, a story based on the novel of the same name by Christian August Vulpius
Christian August Vulpius
Christian August Vulpius was a German novelist and dramatist. His sister married the noted German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.-Biography:...
from 1798. Leni decided to substitute this for the short tale of Spring-Heeled Jack. The statue of Rinaldini is still viewable in the scene with the wax figures, as the character with the large black hat.
Cast
- Emil JanningsEmil JanningsEmil Jannings was a German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the first person to be presented an Oscar...
as Harun al-RashidHarun al-RashidHārūn al-Rashīd was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph in Iraq. He was born in Rey, Iran, close to modern Tehran. His birth date remains a point of discussion, though, as various sources give the dates from 763 to 766)....
: Jannings plays the role of the pot-bellied Harun al-Rashid in the Arabian KnightsArabian KnightsArabian Knights is an animated segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series is based on Arabian Nights, a classic work of Middle Eastern literature.-Plot :...
tale. Jannings' take on the character is a rare comedy role for the actor, who usually starred in more dramatic roles. - Conrad VeidtConrad VeidtConrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
as Ivan the Terrible: Veidt plays the role of the RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n czar Ivan the Terrible. Russian director Sergei EisensteinSergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
would later use Veidt's model for his own rendition in Ivan the TerribleIvan the Terrible (film)Ivan the Terrible is a two-part historical epic film about Ivan IV of Russia made by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. Part 1 was released in 1944 but Part 2 was not released until 1958 due to political censorship...
(1946). Veidt also appeared in another Leni film, The Man who LaughsThe Man Who Laughs (1928 film)The Man Who Laughs is an American silent film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. The film is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel of the same name and stars Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine and Mary Philbin as the blind Dea...
(1928). - Werner KraussWerner KraussWerner Johannes Krauss was a German stage and film actor.-Early life:Krauss was born at the parsonage of Gestungshausen in Upper Franconia, where his grandfather was Protestant pastor. He spent his childhood in Breslau and from 1901 attended the teacher's college at Kreuzburg...
as Jack the RipperJack the Ripper"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
/Spring-Heeled Jack: Krauss plays the roll as both killer figures in the film, referred to twice by different names. Krauss also starred with actor Conrad Veidt in the popular horror film The Cabinet of Dr. CaligariThe Cabinet of Dr. CaligariThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...
(1920). - William DieterleWilliam DieterleWilliam Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...
as The Poet/Assad the Baker/A Russian Prince: Dieterle plays various roles in the film as the poet: his character often writes himself into his own stories.
External links
- Waxworks at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
- Paul Leni the forgotten master