Waxworks feels like a morbid, orientalist curiosity cabinet of b-rate tales…the likes of which your grandmother might read to you pulled at random from a folksy book. None are particualarly fascinating, but as a whole it’s delightful and a total mood!
And the acting - empassioned! The lighting - dramatic! The sets - brooding and expressionist!
They leaned into this film with enthusiasm and a bit of budget. It borrows from and references other films of the era, but Waxworks still feels like a peak-1920s-flick!
But it does have some sloppy writing throughout, and falls a bit short towards the end. Despite being beautifully acted and shot with woozy, disorienting multiple exposures, the final “Jack the Ripper” story feels like an afterthought. And it seems a fourth wax character’s story is missing altogether! I’m not sure if they ran out of budget or had a production squabble, but it does stick out.
The titles and image quality were perfectly adequate. And the music by Richard Siedhoff was lovely and matched the mood. I look forward to re-watching with the Ensemble Musikfabrik soundtrack.
And some misc notes:
- Doubling and uncanny wax people. Ivan’s waxwork is mechanical and he turns into an insane mechanism. All of this fits the unsettling and exageratted acting. Double exposures. Etc.
- As German Expressionism, the acting, setting, lighting, and story all fit together so nicely!
- Ivan’s burning smoultering pot looks like the 1st story’s onion-domed towers and the king’s bed chamber. In Ivan’s world, that’s all a toy. Similarly, in Jack the Ripper’s world, the spinning, repeating carnival mechanisms give a sense in which Ivan’s world is a toy and set for the sheer terror and mindless killing-desire that Jack the Ripper has. This is maybe a bit of a stretch, but an idea!