Waxworks (1924) 8/9

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]

Kumasie, I find your racist remarks in very bad taste.. Please save your venom for the many racist sites on the web not here where people of all races and with artistic values discuss films.

[pippasghost]

Ivan The Terrible and Jack The Ripper have something else in common -- the same middle name!  ;)

[tcmamc]

Ivan must have been stupid as well as mad. He could have turned the hourglass on its side so the sand would not move.

[kumasie01]

He was totally mad...possibly due to Syphilis or some other STD. Posion should be used on the balck monster whom killed the four cops on Sunday.

[yohannbiimu]

Well, there's something to be said for Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, and Billy the Kid too...except they got shafted by not getting a spot in this movie.

[filmfan1927]

Oh the Irony