Waxworks (1924) 4/9

Directed by: Paul Leni & Leo Birinski

Emil Jannings - Harun al-Rashid, Caliph of Baghdad
Conrad Veidt - Ivan the Terrible
Werner Krauss - Jack the Ripper/Spring-heeled Jack
William Dieterle - The Poet

The owner of a waxworks ask a young writer to create a back story for three of the museums most popular attractions: the wax figures of an exuberant late 8th century Persian caliph, Harun al-Rashid, the tyrannical Russian Tzar Ivan the Terrible, and Victorian legend, Spring-heeled Jack (also referred to, confusingly, as Jack the Ripper in the film, although the two are not one and the same).

An intriguing example of German Expressionism.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• silent
• film
• movie
• waxworks
• emil
• janning
• conrad
• veidt
• paul
• leni

[fjdmusicman]

do realize these are white European actors not Arabs ? Also your depiction of Arabs comes from the 1920's to 1960 way cartoons showed foreign people like Japanese etc. Continuing racial hatred will never bring peace in the world..

[bluegrasslass]

The hand-tinted bits are just beautiful. I particularly like the purple at the beginning of this clip.

[kumasie01]

That Calif is just another Arabic dirtbag. Fat, gluttonous, no respector of Law yet still claims by Allah this or that. Nothing has changed over the years. They still respect only force and nothing else. Force and cunning. Wonderful tining...the last segment was especially nice. The tinting really made the baker's wife look quite exotic...really beautiful.

[LisaBreeBranch]

the purple makes the movie look better