Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924)

Das Wachsfigurenkabinett: Directed by Leo Birinsky, Paul Leni. With Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, William Dieterle. A wax museum hires a writer to give the sculptures stories. The writer imagines himself and the museum owner’s daughter in the stories.

“Usually in these Wax horrors, itu0026#39;s the notion of a life entombed in the body that is meant to unsettle, a life extended even into death (or is it the opposite?). This is the first of these films as far as I know – later came the two Houses of Wax, another Waxwork in u0026#39;88, the Italian Wax Mask from an Argento story – and so the notion is more outdated, more novelistic. Each life a separate story and world, with clear boundaries between them, and acted out by the same couple that writes the stories back in the level of reality.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn Baghdad we get a romantic adventure where the Caliph falls for the bakeru0026#39;s girl. Eventually she restores balance by summoning the dead Caliph from beyond the grave for the eyes of his awe-struck vassals. Itu0026#39;s a ploy by which the status quo of the Arabian nights is maintained. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn Czarist Russia, the cruel czar who thought he would defy even death is faced with his own mortality. Instead of accepting this common fate, thus coming to understand that a king is also a common man and in so doing be rendered free of his own despotic bonds, he goes mad. Itu0026#39;s again a ploy, the poison-makeru0026#39;s vengeance from beyond the grave. But he was mad to begin with, so it doesnu0026#39;t quite matter.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe final story that blends back into the wrap-around and brings us full circle, is about a notorious killer who stalks a man and his girl. This is the segment that strikes some spark; the urbane setting diffused as dreamy, expressionist poem. Itu0026#39;s again a ploy, this time a dream – or nightmare.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBoth Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt, stars of what was then a booming film industry, relish the opportunity of playing scheming tyrants. But itu0026#39;s all harmless stuff.”