Waxworks. (PG.)
Directed by Paul Leni. 1924.
Starring William Dieterle, Olga Belajeff, Emil Janning, Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss. Out on Blu-ray from Eureka Masters of Cinema. Silent. Black and white. 81 mins.
Despite having had a surprisingly good time with Leni's 1928 American feature The Man Who Laughs, I wasn't prepared for the marvels of his early German compendium feature, a fevered Expressionist dream about Ivan The Terrible, Caliph Harun Al Raschid and a fellow called Spring Heeled Jack here but better known to us as The Ripper.
Dieterle is a poet employed by a circus waxwork owner to write up thrilling stories to excite interest in his star waxworks. There are actually four but the fourth Rinaldo Rinaldini got dropped for budgetary reason. (Apparently, he's some kind of Italian swashbuckler, not a Brazilian footballer.) Dieterle says no problem and knocks off some stories straight off the top of his head, imagining himself as the romantic lead opposite the old waxwork owner's daughter (Belajeff.) The Caliph (Janning) story is the majority of the film, Ivan (Veidt) takes up about half an hour and Jack (Krauss) is relegated to a brief but striking coda.
The stories aren't much but the visuals in this 4K restoration are a wow. Leni's old Baghdad is all Daliesque curves; no wonder the Caliph is obese when every building looks like a stack of buns. I may have to rethink my disdain for silent films.
Directed by Paul Leni. 1924.
Starring William Dieterle, Olga Belajeff, Emil Janning, Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss. Out on Blu-ray from Eureka Masters of Cinema. Silent. Black and white. 81 mins.
Despite having had a surprisingly good time with Leni's 1928 American feature The Man Who Laughs, I wasn't prepared for the marvels of his early German compendium feature, a fevered Expressionist dream about Ivan The Terrible, Caliph Harun Al Raschid and a fellow called Spring Heeled Jack here but better known to us as The Ripper.
Dieterle is a poet employed by a circus waxwork owner to write up thrilling stories to excite interest in his star waxworks. There are actually four but the fourth Rinaldo Rinaldini got dropped for budgetary reason. (Apparently, he's some kind of Italian swashbuckler, not a Brazilian footballer.) Dieterle says no problem and knocks off some stories straight off the top of his head, imagining himself as the romantic lead opposite the old waxwork owner's daughter (Belajeff.) The Caliph (Janning) story is the majority of the film, Ivan (Veidt) takes up about half an hour and Jack (Krauss) is relegated to a brief but striking coda.
The stories aren't much but the visuals in this 4K restoration are a wow. Leni's old Baghdad is all Daliesque curves; no wonder the Caliph is obese when every building looks like a stack of buns. I may have to rethink my disdain for silent films.
