Paul Leni's 1916 directorial debut depicts the experiences of a medical officer during World War I; a contemporary review calls it “a seriously intentioned film with a breathtakingly gripping pace.” Leni, who had been a stage designer, working with Max Reinhardt and Leopold Jessner on their important productions, was also a costume and set designer for the films of Joe May, E. A. Dupont and others. As a director, and art director of all his own films, he became an important figure in German Expressionist cinema, his most famous film being Waxworks (1924). In Hollywood, he created his own “genre” of horror films, employing a remarkably mobile camera and elaborate sets and lighting to effect the macabre, offset by humor, in such films as The Cat and the Canary (1927) and The Last Warning, his last film before his early death in 1929.