![]() When the man his killed, he makes the daughter (Eva) his captive and consigns the groom (the poet) to the dungeons however, Ivan soon learns that his own time may soon be up. ![]() Suspecting an assassination attempt, Ivan switches places with a Boyar noble as a guest at his daughter's wedding. ![]() With the power over life and death, however, comes great paranoia, and those under Ivan know that he could turn on them at any time. All Ivan has to do is request that his poison-maker ( Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache's Ernst Legal) write the name of an enemy on the glass and it is literally a "matter of time" before they die. The caliph overhears this and let Assad go so that he can seduce Zarah in the man's absence however… this is the tale about how the caliph loses his arm, is it not? The poet then decides to mine more grisly territory by telling the story behind the figure of Ivan the Terrible ( The Man Who Laughs' Conrad Veidt), Czar of Russia who delights in torture and cruelty, with one of his pastimes consisting of stealing into the Kremlin dungeons to watch prisoners draw their last breath times by way of a magical hourglass. Flattered by the Grand Vizier's attentions, Zarah expresses discontent with Assad who proclaims his intent to prove his manhood by stealing the caliph's wishing ring so that Zarah will want for nothing. The Grand Vizier himself escapes punishment for failing to carry out his mission by interesting the caliph in Zarah's bewitching beauty whereupon the caliph decides that night to dress up as a commoner to visit her in secret. The Grand Vizier, however, is distracted from his task when he sights Zarah and enrages Assad by flirting with her. When the caliph ( The Blue Angel's Emil Jannings) loses a game of chess to the Grand Vizier ( The Spiders' Paul Biensfeldt), he attempts to maintain face by blaming the smoke billowing from the nearby oven of Assad, ordering the Grand Vizier to bring him the man's head. Charmed by the proprietor's daughter Eva ( Her Husband's Wife's Olga Belajeff), the poet envisages her and himself within the tale as the beautiful Zarah and her baker husband Assad. ![]() He demonstrates his abilities by coming up with a story to explain how the wax figure of Harun al Raschid, caliph of Baghdad, lost his arm. A down-on-his-luck poet ( Faust's William Dieterle) sees a newspaper ad looking for a creative mind to promote the figures at a carnival's wax museum with some lurid stories. ![]()
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