In an overall sense, WAXWORKS is quite fine, and were it not for the fact the final sequence is so short I would easily give it a full five stars. The cinematography in this sequence is particularly fine, using multiple exposures in a way that foreshadows Leni's stylish THE CAT AND THE CANARY. The killer is referred to as both Spring Heeled Jack and Jack the Ripper clearly, however, he is more akin to the latter. Here Leni sets the story against the carnival itself and presents it in grotesque, dreamlike images that very deliberately recall CALIGARI moreover, he casts actor William Dieterle, who played Caligari himself, as a menacing killer who slowly stalks his terrified victims. Fine though the first two sequences are, it is really the last that is most famous, and justly so. As in the earlier episode, the sets are also fantastic, although perhaps not so obviously so. Ivan is played by Conrad Veidt, who appeared as the murderous Cesare in CALIGARI one of Germany's most popular actors of the silent screen, Veidt was also noted for his gift at playing insanity, and his Ivan is the very incarnation of madness. The second episode is a fantasy suggested by Russian ruler Ivan the Terrible, who delights in poisoning prisoners but finds himself fearful of his highly gifted poison-mixer.
It also offers the very rare opportunity to see Jannings, famed for his dramatic roles, in comic mode, and he proves equally adept with this bit of fluff as with his more "serious" work. Featuring the celebrated Emil Jannings as the Caliph, the episode is a mixture of light comedy and Arabian Nights fantasy, particularly noted for the greatly stylized sets that recall the earlier CALIGARI and THE GOLEM to somewhat softer effect. The longest of the three stories concerns Harun al Raschid, a Caliph of Baghdad who falls in love with a baker's wife-and then seeks to take her for his own. As he writes, the film segues into the story the writer invents. A young writer (William Dieterle) is employed by a carnival sideshow wax museum to write stories about several of their figures: a Baghdad Caliph, Ivan the Terrible, and Spring Heeled Jack. WAXWORKS is an "anthology" film, a collection of stories bound together by a running thread. CALIGARI not only would Leni cast two of that film's actors in major roles, he drew from the film's style for both sets and cinematography. It is also very clearly an homage of sorts to THE CABINET OF DR. German director Paul Leni (1885-1929) was one such-and although he is best recalled for his later Hollywood films, most notably the stylish THE CAT AND THE CANARY, the 1924 German WAXWORKS shows him very near the peak of gifts. CALIGARI brought the style to the screen in 1919, and throughout the 1920s many directors would create projects under its influence. In the wake of World War I, German film was sharply influenced by expressionism, an arts movement which is less concerned with imitating reality than in using design to reflect psychology and emotion.
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