Fantastic!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

When a young writer (William Dieterle) sees an advert in the paper requesting somebody with a big imagination, he takes the job and finds himself in a wax museum, where the owner asks him to write stories about his three finest works. His models are of Harun al-Rashid, Ivan the Terrible, and Spring-Heeled Jack, and when Harun's arm accidentally drops off, the writer's imagination starts to wander, and he sets about telling his fantastical tales.Although in essence a horror film, Waxworks is more of an anthology film, juggling genres and tones to fit the mood of the individual piece. While this can be an inventive and successful approach (Creepshow (1982), for example), it can also damage a film's flow if not carefully constructed, risking leaving one story in another's shadow if they also vary in quality. Waxworks suffers for this unfortunately, mainly due to the unevenness in the stories' running times, and the sudden shifts in tone. The stories increase in quality as the film goes on, which is a good thing, but in the case of Waxworks, it leaves a disappointing taste in the mouth given the running time of the final piece is within the blink of an eye.The first story has German silent screen legend Emil Jannings playing Harun al-Rashid, who is informed by his adviser that the most beautiful woman he has ever seen (played by Olga Belajeff) is married to a baker in the city. Rashid goes to win the love of the beauty, but she has set her husband (Dieterle) off to prove himself as a man by stealing the wishing ring from Rashid. Taking a fantasy approach, this story also has a sprinkling of comedy. Jannings if a colossal beast, as you would expect, and brings his dramatic chops to a rarely-seen comedic role. Yet this section drags, and the beautiful expressionist sets don't manage to save it from becoming a silly pantomime.Another German silent icon, Conrad Veidt, plays Ivan the Terrible in the second section, which focuses on Ivan's insane obsession with his potion maker, who can seemingly strike death upon anyone he chooses. It has all the wide-eye operatic tones of Sergei Eisenstein's own Ivan adaptations, with Veidt proving the perfect candidate for Ivan's descent into complete madness. And the final story sees the writer fall asleep at his desk and begin a creepy dream about being stalked by a killer (Werner Krauss) in the streets. It is the final story that remains the most impressive, but sadly only lasts about four minutes.Weimar Germany brought some of the greatest screen icons and most innovative directors in cinema history to the fore during the free- spirited expressionist movement, and although by 1924 the movement was fading away, Waxworks has some fine examples. The winding, claustrophobic staircases of the city streets in the first story evoke the most popular film of the movement, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and in a way, Waxworks almost feels like a homage to Robert Wiene's masterpiece, employing Krauss (who played the titular character) and Veidt who both starred. There is certainly a lot to admire here from a visual standpoint, but even three silent screen giants can't save it from being a slight disappointment, given the promise shown in the final story.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

"Das Wachsfigurenkabinett" (1924) is Herr Paul Leni's most well-known film during his German period. Its probably the most representative of his artistic virtues, an oeuvre composed of three episodes ( although Herr Leni planned a fourth episode that never was done ) in where an imaginative writer ( Herr Wilhelm Dieterle ) applied for publicity work in a waxworks exhibition in which he is commanded to write startling tales about three different wax figures: Ivan the Terrible, Czar of all the Russias ( Herr Conrad Veidt ), Haroun Al Raschid, Caliph of Bagdad ( Herr Emil Jannings ) und the murderer Spring Heeled Jack ( Herr Werner Krauss ). The young writer and the showman's daughter ( Frau Olga Belejeff ) link the three different episodes.The three episodes are stylistically and technically very different from each other and certainly Herr Leni explored his most imaginative resources and fond subjects ( oneiric décors connected with fantastic subjects ) using them appropriately to fit the characteristics of the story depicted in the episode in question.The first one, which relates the story of the satyr and easy-going Caliph of Bagdad, features the beautiful and evocative décors that apprehend the necessary mood for an episode in which humour and parody over the iconic Western view of an idealized Arab atmosphere. The classic adventures that inspired them, is in the air, benefiting the episode with such exaggerated tastes which are absolutely charming; Herr Jannings certainly enjoys a lot such parody role.The second episode depicts Ivan the terrible as a merciless monarch who ruled the Russian empire with an iron fist by subjecting the citizens to severe cruelty. This time Herr Leni combine drama with fantastic elements, achieving a bizarre and disturbing atmosphere. Again a superb actor, as it happened in the preceding episode steals the picture thanks to his magnetic and fascinating presence.Once again, the décors are outstanding although this time Herr Leni uses these in a "conventional" way. That is to say, in order to illustrate in a careful and more realistic way, the characteristics of the Russian empire of the time, the German director leaves the most fantastic aspects of the story for the torture chamber sequences and its terrible ending.The third episode is Expressionism at its best, or maybe this Herr Graf should say that is a homage to Expressionism (on the other hand, the same that happens with the other two episodes in where the main subject are treated in a hyperbolic stylistic way ).This time, the imaginative writer has a terrible nightmare in which he is chased by Spring Heeled Jack. Herr Leni takes advantage of such an oneiric atmosphere in an episode that technically is more complex than the other two. He uses double exposures and special effects in a continuous nightmarish sequence in which quintessential "Expressionism" is displayed in an effective and accomplished way."Das Wachsfigurenkabinett" is certainly a condensed version of Herr Leni's artistic achievements. It's an excellent example of his many skillful virtues and stylistic resources, stamped with his particular and fascinating own imaginary.And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must remove in a Teutonic way the depilatory wax from the whole body of one of this Herr Graf's rich heiress.

Paul Leni's movie "Das Wachsfigurenkabinett" ("Waxworks" in English) should not be confused with the 1988 horror flick starring "Gremlins" star Zach Galligan. This one is about a poet (William Dieterle) who writes some stories based on figures in a wax museum. The ones about Harun al-Rashid and Ivan the Terrible are the most developed, while the one about Jack the Ripper is really hard to understand. In fact, I noticed that the baker in the first segment is named Assad, years before the name became associated with Syria's ruling family.So, if you intend to see the movie, you would probably just do best to watch only the segments about Rashid and Ivan. Lacking the thought-provoking expressionism of "Nosferatu" and the epic grandeur of "Metropolis", the movie falls a little flat, but isn't terrible by any stretch. Even so, I do recommend 1988's "Waxwork" over this one (if only for the cool soundtrack).

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.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/