![]() The Haroun al Raschid episode was a mockery of tyrants and their behavior: sometimes capricious, magnanimous, cruel or childish, depending on their mood. The fourth episode about Italian highwayman Rinaldo Rinaldini was scrapped due to budget constraints. Waxworks is an examination of tyranny in three parts. One more shot of Conrad Veid’s Ivan the Terrible. ![]() To Ivan’s delight, the prisoner dies just as the last grains fall to the bottom of a large hourglass. The poison mixer has just finished administering a dose to a prisoner. The Czar (Conrad Veidt) and his chief astrologer are creeping toward the Czar’s poison room. The scene changes to the cellars beneath the Kremlin. “His council room was a torture chamber, with the Devil and Death as chief ministers”īack in the wax tent, the writer is pleased with his work and immediately begins to write his story for Czar Ivan the Terrible. All seems to be forgiven and the sultan embraces the baker and his wife. She then wishes that Assad be made the royal baker. Maimune grabs the wax arm and makes a wish with the faux magic ring: that the sultan come out alive and unharmed. The sultan whispers through the oven door that Assad must have cut the arm from the wax dummy he keeps in his bed when he is out for the night. Maimune knows that is impossible but then guards arrive and start to arrest Assad. Assad breaks into the room and confesses that he has killed the sultan. The only place big enough is the oven so the sultan squeezes inside. ![]() The sultan panics and begs Maimune to hide him. The sultan is still flirting with Maimune when they hear Assad banging on the door. ![]() After being given a tour of the waxworks tent, and noticing that the proprietor’s daughter (Olga Belajeff) is quite pretty, he accepts the job. “WANTED- An imaginative writer for publicity work in a waxworks exhibit”Īn author (Wilhelm Dieterle) arrives at a carnival in response to the newspaper advertisement. Within a few years, the German people would be experiencing both for themselves. The films proved prophetic about tyranny and violence. The scenario was provided by Henrik Galeen, whose other writing credits included scenarios for The Golem and Nosferatu.Īt its core, Waxworks reflected German filmmakers’ fascination with and fear of tyranny during the first part of the 1920s. Direction and art direction were handled by Paul Leni, an artist and designer-turned film-maker and one of the most creative German directors of the period. Three of Germany’s best actors-Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss- played three contrasting tyrants. Waxworks also boasts an impressive cast and crew. Every bit as stylish as its more famous cousins, the film is a blend of artistry, fairy tale and good old-fashion thrills, plus set design to die for. Caligari or Nosferatu, Waxworks is one of the more brilliant entries in the canon of German silent film. While not as well known in America as The Cabinet of Dr. Travel tip: When in Germany, avoid carnivals. Home Media Availability: Released on DVD. With each new story, the author and his new friend find themselves pulled inside the progressively nightmarish worlds that he has invented. Entranced by his new boss’s pretty daughter (Olga Belajeff) the author sets to work writing about the wax figures. A young author (Wilhelm Dieterle) is hired by the owner of a wax museum to write tales about his most popular figures, Haroun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper.
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