Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (aka Waxworks) (1924)

A young writer (William Dieterle) applies for a job in a wax museum where he is immediately smitten with the daughter (Olga Belajef) of the proprietor (John Gottowt). He is hired to write backstories for three of the museum's notorious figures: a Muslim Caliph (Emil Jannings), Ivan The Terrible (Conrad Veidt) and Jack The Ripper. (Werner Krauss). Directed by Paul Leni (THE CAT AND THE CANARY), this was his last German film before coming to work in Hollywood. One of the earliest examples of the horror anthology film, the film is rich in expressionism in its visual style. The first tale Harun Al Rashid is more of a macabre comedy while the other two are more firmly embedded in traditional horror. Unfortunately, the complete German version is considered lost and the British version is cut by some 24 minutes and since the Jack The Ripper sequence is only six minutes long, I suspect the lost footage is contained therein. Dieterle who plays the young poet would leave Germany for Hollywood where he became a prolific director of such films as HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939), DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941) and PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948). An effective example of how a visual style can provide an unsettling atmosphere (the Harun Al Rashid sequence is very claustrophobic).