Waxworks

#5 in my ranking of Paul Leni’s filmography.

Anytime I see an anthology silent film, I think it’s influenced by D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance. Fritz Lang‘s Destiny definitely was, but Paul Leni’s Waxworks may only be incidentally influenced, if it is at all. There’s no real thematic thread combining each of the three. They’re more in line with the framework’s conceit of grim tales of the macabre than anything else, and they end up as showcases for design and effects more than anything else. They’re largely amusing, but little else.

A writer (William Dieterle) answers an ad at a fair and meets the owner of a waxworks (John Gottowt) and his assistant Eva (Olga Belajeff). He’s presented three mannequins (really four, so I’m assuming that the existing version’s cut down length deals with this fourth mannequin that doesn’t get named). They are Harun al-Rashid (Emil Jannings), Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt), and Spring-Heeled Jack (Werner Krauss).

Of the three stories, I suppose I like Ivan’s the best. It’s also the most that seems to fully embrace the conceit of being a gruesome tale. The first is more of an exotic, farcical romance. Set in Arabia, it tells the story of a baker (Dieterle), his wife (Belajeff), and how she attracts the attention of al-Rashid. It’s got some curious moments in it that don’t entirely make sense like how it starts with the husband and wife hopelessly in love but she turns against him entirely after he gets some flour on her dress which leads to an extended fight where she talks about how she is so unsatisfied with her life because she has so little. I mean, it’s more of a fable than anything else, but it still would be nice if it flowed a bit better. Anyway, he decides to make her life better by stealing al-Rashid’s wishing ring by sneaking into the palace and stealing it from his hand while he sleeps while al-Rashid decide to sneak into the baker’s house to woo the baker’s wife at the same time. There’s a chase, a cut wax limb, and some blackmail, but it all turns out right in the end. I suppose the only gruesome part of it is the cutting of the wax limb, but it’s pretty obviously not supposed to be the person since we see the person alive somewhere else at the same time, but whatever.

The second is Ivan’s story, and it’s more gruesome but less cohesive than al-Rashid’s. It’s about how he likes to torture people, is so paranoid that he switches places with his a lower lord on a sled to a wedding, takes the groom (Dieterle) prisoner in order to force the bridge (Belajeff) to his bed, and how Ivan gets defeated by feeding into his own paranoia around poisons and sand timers. It’s got the best physical visuals of the three and the best ending. It just kind of takes its time to get there, feeling like its going nowhere for a while.

The third is the shortest and meant as a twist with the writer falling asleep and being chased by Jack (who, some translations apparently say, is actually Jack the Ripper). It’s the most visually inventive with a heavy emphasis on multiple exposures as Jack chases both Eva and the writer through the fair. It’s pretty neat even if its not as gruesome as it could have been or involving.

The film as a whole ends up feeling like some kind of experiment in design more than anything else, and it never goes as far into the gruesome macabre as I think a silent German film could have gone (the first being not gruesome at all). It’s largely uneven and not as fully successful as it probably should have been, but it definitely has some entertainments within. There are worse ways to spend 80 minutes.

Rating: 2.5/4