Furthermore, it sets a very high standard that Leni (in his additional role as the film’s art director) manages to maintain and – at times – surpass. Indeed, the set remains both slightly mind-bending and wholly impressive in its design and construction. This set is an example of the creativity associated with German Expressionist filmmaking at its best. This novel special effect is followed by an establishing long shot that shows the couple’s home amid a clutter of other buildings within Bagdad. The dissolves and picture overlay that Leni employs to show the writer and his new love “transforming” into the characters of Assad and Zarah in their imaginations work perfectly. By sheer coincidence, Assad has already set himself the task of stealing the Caliph’s “wishing ring” in order to please his disgruntled lover. His hedonistic lifestyle soon finds the Caliph lusting after Zarah (Olga Belajeff) and coming into conflict with her protective partner, Assad (Wilhelm Dieterle) the baker. When the writer is told that the right arm has fallen off of the wax figure of Harun-al-Raschid, he sets about concocting a fanciful tale that would account for the Caliph losing an arm. He cheekily proposes that the romantic and mischief-loving Caliph could never stand to be bored and this results in him having a different wife for every day of the year. The pair hit it off immediately, and their expressive faces and flirtatious body language make a convincing case of love at first sight. The writer’s amorous feelings for the proprietor’s daughter work their way into both of his stories and his nightmare, resulting in Dieterle and Belajeff playing characters in all three of the standalone mini-dramas that Leni presents here. The chemistry present between the actors Wilhelm Dieterle and Olga Belajeff in their roles as the writer and the proprietor’s daughter is a thing of beauty. As with his written stories, the writer’s nightmare is duly presented onscreen too. The exhausted scribe eventually falls asleep at his desk and experiences a nightmare about a third figure from the museum, a notorious killer called Spring-Heeled Jack (Werner Krauss). The contents of these two stories are dramatically presented onscreen just as soon as the writer starts excitedly working on them. Eager to demonstrate his skills, the writer immediately begins working on stories about two of the museum’s most prominent figures: the Caliph of Bagdad, Harun-al-Raschid (Emil Jannings), and the first Tsar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt). The museum’s proprietor (John Gottowt) and his daughter (Olga Belajeff) are looking for someone to write startling stories about their key exhibits to attract more customers. A budding writer (Wilhelm Dieterle) responds to a job advertisement that has been placed by a local wax museum.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |