He decides to sneak out of the palace to go and see the bakers wife but instead finds them arguing and the baker resolving the steal al-RashidвЂ™s magic wishing ring to try and put a stop to their poverty. Smoke from the bakers house causes al-Rashid to lose a game of chess and fly into a rage wanting his head, but soon spots the bakers wife, a great beauty from out of a window and starts to fall for her.

This story begins with the poet and Eva as a baker and his wife who live close to al-Rashid, played brilliantly by Emil Jannings. The first story is for the figure of Harun al-Rashid, a former leader of what is now Iraq. The poet, taking a liking the the carnival owners daughter Eva ( Olga Belajeff) begins to incorporate both of them into his stories. The film opens at a carnival where a poet, played by Dieterle, accepts a job in its wax museum writing stories for the figures inside.

The film boasts a very impressive cast, almost a whoвЂ™s who of German expressionist cinema, with names such as Emil Jannings, Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt and William Dieterle, who is probably more known as an Oscar winning director of Hollywood films like 1939вЂ™s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1937вЂ™s The Life of Emile Zolaand The Story of Louis Pasteur in 1935. Waxworks is a German horror-fantasy anthology film released in 1924 from the director of T he Man Who Laughs Paul Leni, which was his last German made film before moving onto the United States and Hollywood.

Waxworks crossword clue