Emil Jannings, Werner Krauss and Conrad Veidt star in this classic of German Expressionism, set, like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, in a fairground atmosphere where strange possibilities abound. A starving poet, asked to write about the figures in the fantastic waxworks, invents three portraits of cruelty. His subjects are Harum-al-Rashid (Jannings), Jack the Ripper (Krauss) and Ivan the Terrible (Veidt). The visually striking film, with its tortured sets and ingenious lighting effects, was directed by Paul Leni, former set designer who worked with Max Reinhardt, and director of The Cat and the Canary in Hollywood. Leni's early death cut short a promising career. William Dieterle, who plays the poet, later became a director himself.