Waxworks (1924)

★ 6.4 1h 23m IMDb

A poet is hired by the owner of a wax museum in a circus to write tales about Harun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper. While writing, the poet and the daughter of the owner, Eva, fantasize the fantastic stories and fall in love for each other.

Waxworks

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Cast

Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings as Harun al Raschid Died 1950 · Rorschach, Switzerland Emil Jannings (1884–1950) was a German actor, the first to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Between 1926 and 1929, he worked in Hollywood. Upon returning to Germany, he sympathized with the Nazi...
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt as Ivan the Terrible Died 1943 · Berlin, Germany Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and Th...
William Dieterle
William Dieterle as The Poet / Assad the Baker / Russian Prince Died 1972 · Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films i...
Werner Krauss
Werner Krauss as Jack the Ripper / Spring-Heeled Jack Died 1959 · Gestungshausen, Sonnefeld, Bavaria, Germany Werner Johannes Krauss (Krauß in German; 23 June 1884 – 20 October 1959) was a German stage and film actor. Krauss dominated the German stage of the early 20th century. However, his participation in t...
Olga Belajeff
Olga Belajeff as Eva-Maimune-Eine Bojarin Died 1976 · Russian Empire Russian actress. She acted in films produced by the German studio UFA. After 1933, she emigrated to the US.
John Gottowt
John Gottowt as Owner of the Waxworks Died 1942 · Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Lviv, Ukraine] John Gottowt (born Isidor Gesang; 15 June 1881 – 29 August 1942) was an Austrian actor, stage director and film director for theatres and silent movies. Gottowt was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (...

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 7/10 Jun 06, 2022
There is more than a little of the "Dr. Caligari" (1921) to this compendium of three stories. Visually very similar in style, with angular - seemingly disjointed and out of scale sets and wonderfully targeted use of lighting serves to augment these episodes. A waxworks provides that environment where William Dieterle works, charged with writing some texts to accompany the effigies of three historical figures. The first is a fun "Arabian Nights" tale with Emil Jannings as "Harun", the second sees Conrad Veitd portray the Russian Czar Ivan IV (the terrible), finally he embarks on a tale of "Jack the Ripper" - supplied by Werner Krauss. As he writes, he imagines that he - and the owner's daughter - Olga Beljeff - are actually part of his series. All three present them with comical and perilous escapades, the first sees Jannings unceremoniously stuffed into a baker's oven, having fallen in love with the wife of the baker; the second depicts Ivan as a megalomanic reduced to simpering dolt and the final story is left hanging intriguingly as the would be author finally succumbs to sleep. For what it's worth, my favourite is the second story - but the third one is probably the more accomplished piece of cinema. The techniques of overlaying the film to give us an haunting feeling as "Jack" stalks his victims is really quite effective - if all too brief. As three short stories, this works well and though I am certainly no expert on German cinema, this has to be one of the more enjoyable - with engaging characters and plots - "expressionism" efforts I have yet encountered.

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