Wax Works (1924)

German director Paul Leni's popular silent expressionist film is a three-part horror-fantasy with an omnibus structure inspired by Fritz Lang's DESTINY, designed after THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and THE GOLEM. At a carnival's waxworks exhibit, a young writer (William Dieterle) creates stories about the figures. In an Arabian Nights, THIEF OF BAGHDAD style fantasy, he imagines himself as Assad, a baker married to the beautiful Zarah (Olga Belajeff). When Baghdad's lusty caliph, Harun Al-Raschid (Emil Jannings) begins pursuing Zarah, Assad embarks on a quest to prove his worthiness by stealing the caliph's wishing ring. In the second tale, evil Russian czar Ivan the Terrible (imposingly played by Conrad Veidt) forces poisoned prisoners to watch their last moments dwindle away in an hourglass. A paranoid madman, Ivan's life comes to an ironic end in the Kremlin's murky dungeons. In the final story, Spring-Heeled Jack (Werner Krauss), a Jack the Ripper type killer, stalks the writer through the distorted, creepily atmospheric carnival grounds. Featuring impressive performances by Germany's biggest theater-film stars of the day, highly stylized sets, and clever tales with surprise endings, Leni's film is an essential part of the German expressionist canon.