I was given a copy of this movie as I love German Expressionism, but, unfortunately this version came with some bloke wittering on throughout the entire movie, or should I say, droning on as he just seemed to like the sound of his own voice and added nothing to the movie, in fact he was so distracting that I turned the sound off and watched this in silence.
It opens with a young man answering an ad for a writer at a waxworks attraction and after being introduced two three waxworks of real historical figures he is asked to write stories about them. The first, about Harun al Rachid is delightful, especially the conclusion. It is followed by a tale of Ivan the Terrible, his despicable deeds and his final descent into madness. Both the first and second tales are of decent length and entertaining and Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt are their usual fantastic selves. However, the final part is strange, about a real person, but, partly mythical in his deeds, Spring Heeled Jack, it turned into a brief dream, or rather, nightmare sequence involving the poet and the girl who works at the Waxworks, it was incredibly brief and didn't give Werner Krause much to do, such a shame, and then it was all over. I know that over 20 minutes is missing from this version and that was probably from the final vignette, it might have been a good idea to give some explanation of the missing pieces to make sense of the final part, but, never mind.
Not the finest movie of the genre, but, helped by great performances and design. I would love to see a version with a decent score in place of the commentary though.
It opens with a young man answering an ad for a writer at a waxworks attraction and after being introduced two three waxworks of real historical figures he is asked to write stories about them. The first, about Harun al Rachid is delightful, especially the conclusion. It is followed by a tale of Ivan the Terrible, his despicable deeds and his final descent into madness. Both the first and second tales are of decent length and entertaining and Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt are their usual fantastic selves. However, the final part is strange, about a real person, but, partly mythical in his deeds, Spring Heeled Jack, it turned into a brief dream, or rather, nightmare sequence involving the poet and the girl who works at the Waxworks, it was incredibly brief and didn't give Werner Krause much to do, such a shame, and then it was all over. I know that over 20 minutes is missing from this version and that was probably from the final vignette, it might have been a good idea to give some explanation of the missing pieces to make sense of the final part, but, never mind.
Not the finest movie of the genre, but, helped by great performances and design. I would love to see a version with a decent score in place of the commentary though.