Waxworks is a different
telling of a story. Well, maybe not so different to us today I am sure once I explain
the story you can name about four films that follow a similar line. At least it
is something different for an early 1920s silent film.
The
owner of a wax museum hires a poet to write the stories of his three famous
figures for visitors. The three figures are of the Caliph Harun al Raschid,
Ivan the Terrible, and Jack the Ripper. The Poet draws inspiration from the
owner’s pretty daughter as well as the figures.
The
first figure of Harun al Raschid, his arm fell off. This gave The Poet the idea
to write a story of how the figure lost his hand. He writes that a Caliph of a
foreign land had a different woman as a companion for everyday of the year. There
was one woman he had yet to see. Her name was Zarah, the wife of the baker
Assad. Assad and Zarah were very much in love but she was unhappy always being
stuck in the house with no new clothes and pretty dresses. Assad gets the idea
to go steal the Caliph’s wishing ring from his hand. The Caliph and the Grand
Vizier at time like to put on disguises and roam about the town. That night the
Caliph decides to go out to see Zarah for himself after he had heard so much
about her. The Caliph reaches the house as Zarah and Assad are in the middle of
an argument. When Assad leaves the house the Caliph enters the house and sweet
talks her. He tells her who he is and that she can have anything she wants.
Assad gets into the palace and thinks he cut off the Caliph’s arm with the
ring. The guards in the palace immediately respond to the noise and chase after
Assad all the way to his house. The Caliph tells Zarah that when he goes out at
night he places a wax figure in his bed. Assad gets to his house and bangs on
the door for Zarah to let him in. She quickly hides the Caliph in a baker’s
oven. Assad breaks in and the guards after him. She Zarah plays a trick and
gets the guard to back off.
The
second story of Ivan the Terrible is the scariest part of the film. Ivan is an
evil man who tortures men on a whim. Ivan uses a man as a decoy when he hears
that he is to be killed. The man is killed by assassins who believe him to the
evil Russian king. The man is killed in front of his daughter on her wedding.
Ivan makes everyone at the wedding go on as they usually would making them
dance, eat, and drink when they are so full of sorrow. Ivan does get his comeuppance
when his astrologer tells him that he has been poisoned and his time on earth
with be done when the last grain from an hourglass falls. Ivan was not really
poisoned the astrologer told the mad king that to make him go crazy and watch
for the grains to fall all the rest of the days of his life.
The
third story of Jack the Ripper is told in a dream of The Poet. Having worked on
the stories all day The Poet is tired and falls asleep. In his dream he and the
owner’s daughter are chased throughout town by a murderer who wants to take her
away. No matter where they run and how fast they run the Ripper is always right
behind them. The Poet is woken up by the daughter and the owner when they hear
him panic in his dreams.
Waxworks was good. I felt the stories of
the Caliph and Ivan the Terrible were a bit too long and dragged out. I thought
the story of the Caliph was very creative and was the only one that was clearly
written. The plot of Ivan the Terrible was a little hard to follow and the acting
from Conrad Veidt was too over dramatic and took away from the character and
the story. Jack the Ripper was neat to see because of the Expressionist sets. I
was not too much a fan of Waxworks
but it was not terrible that I would say do not watch it. The film is in full
on Youtube so if you are interested give it a watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment