House of Wax
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Movie Reviews of House of Wax
Movie Review: A Classic Double - Dip
Summary: 5 Stars
This marvelous DVD offers two versions of the same story! First, the 1953 "House of Wax" starring Vincent Price ... plus the original film on which it was based, the 1933 "Mystery of the Wax Museum" starring Lionel Atwill. Each film offered viewers a technological gimmick when first released to theatres: "House" was exhibited in 3-D, and "Museum" was filmed in early two-strip Technicolor.The Vincent Price remake is arguably the scarier of the two versions. Although it duplicates many scenes and sections of dialogue from the earlier film, it adds a couple of effective sequences involving the villain of the piece. In one, the scarred fiend chases heroine Phyllis Kirk through dark, rain-slicked streets in the dead of night; in the other, he commits a gruesome murder. Price is deliciously hammy in the role. He constantly threatens to go over the top, but pulls back just in time (at least until the end, when he lets go with relish). Miss Kirk, with her china doll beauty and deep modulated voice makes a wonderful heroine, and Charles Buchinsky (later Bronson) stands out as a muscled and menacing deaf-mute who lurks among the shadows of the museum. The production's color and lighting are outstanding ... the viewer is often left wondering which figures are human and which are wax, and there are several shocks and surprises along the way. The DVD offers an exceptionally fine film-to-video transfer, and don't forget to watch the Original Theatrical Trailer! It's an example of Hollywood ballyhoo at its best, and features some gorgeous color graphics.
The legendary 1933 original version was believed, for decades, to be a "lost film". Film buffs all over the world rejoiced when a surviving print was finally located in the late 1970's; unfortunately, (and unsurprisingly) the actual film was unable to live up to the hype that built up around it during its absence. Despite its considerable virtues, including great performances from Lionel Atwill as the villain and Fay Wray as the gorgeous screaming heroine, "Mystery of the Wax Museum" is marred by an over-abundance of comic relief. Playing a hard-boiled newspaper "dame" who delivers her peppery dialogue in machine gun fashion, Glenda Farrell is neither comic nor a relief. She's simply obnoxious. Still, she's lovely to look at in early two-strip Technicolor. This process, which registers color most heavily in hues of blue and orange, was a crude forerunner of the three-strip "candy-box" Technicolor that made its feature-film debut two years later in the 1935 production of "Becky Sharp". It should be noted that this DVD offers the best restored version of "Wax Museum" yet seen; the color is more vivid and the sound much clearer than that featured on any TV prints or on the earlier MGM VHS version.
All in all, this is a DVD package that should please both horror buffs and film historians alike; it's certainly a great value to receive the 1933 version as a "bonus feature". Here's a double feature made to order for a chilly evening; enjoy it with a bowl of popcorn ... and maybe a burning candle.
Movie Review: Price's 'Full Hollywood' Horror
Summary: 5 Stars
It's not often in Essville that a Vincent Price version of a story is pushed to the margins, but this marvellous dvd proves the rare exception.
It's simplistic to state that Michael Curtiz was a visionary film-maker and Andre de Toth a journeyman but de facto: the original 1933 version - 'the Mystery of the Wax Museum' is superior to it's 3-D successor - 'House of Wax' in every respect.
'Museum's cast is headed by Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray but the film is pinched from under them by a super performance from the scattily sexy Glenda Farrell.
Atwill is believably sinister and distant as the mad wax murderer and Wray duly decorative as the object of his psychosis but Farrell as a chirpy newshound drives the film.
This kind of wise-a** comedy character has broken many a picture, but Farrell - with a head-full of whip-snake ripostes and one-liners - takes the film by the Buster Browns and doesn't let go.
She's feisty - a certifiable heart-breaker - but carries the requisite gracile vulnerability insisted upon by the uber-conservative phallocratic culture of the 30's. (Ladies..Know Your Place [!])
Plot-wise there isn't much to choose between the two films: brilliant sculptor, burnt to insanity, takes to using real 'models' to re-stock his museum, but unlike the glitzy but workmanlike de Toth on 'House' - Curtiz is sagacious and naturally, grandly stylish.
Stridently mixing chic American modernism with European gothic (there's one startling shot lifted directly from Weine's masterpiece of expressionism: 'Cabinet of Dr Caligari') on a beautiful colour palette; each scene, particularly those in Atwill's laboratory, hued and visualised like dynamic geometric sci-fi; and the sets (by Anton Grot (!)) are outstanding. Art Deco architecture and ornaments fabulously decorate the tinted two-strip frames giving the film a defining visual edge over other 'Industriels Modernes' classics like 'the Black Cat' or 'King Kong'.
Yes yes, but what you really want to know is: how much nancy-boy PC butt does it kick!?
Loads.
The behaviour of the slow but agreeably aggressive NYPD is particularly admirable; they shoot suspects on sight, refer to disabled people as 'freaks' and think nothing of slapping a junkie for info while he's cold-turkeying.
Even spitfire Glenda can't get a word in among the put-downs and brutality.
'Museum's also much sleazier; opiate addiction, sordid coercion, racist language you'd NEVER get away with today, as well as delightful police oppression - merely hinted at in the remake - are presented in fine, brusque glory and without a sliver of guilt or shame.
'House of Wax' is a decent remake. A high-gloss, Folies Bergere version with the always excellent Price as the maniac with the paraffin brain - but Curtiz account is something special.
The only minor fault I can find with 'Mystery of the Wax Museum' is Atwill and Wray being billed above the vivacious Farrell - despite the fact they can't hold a candle to her...
Movie Review: Terrific Double Bill
Summary: 5 Stars
This delicious double bill features "Mystery at the Wax Museum" and its remake, "House of Wax." Both tell the tale of a turn-of-the-century sculptor in a wax museum who develops an unusual attachment to his creations and becomes horribly disfigured when his partner sets fire to the museum in order to collect the insurance. Mad for revenge, the sculptor sets up a new wax museum, this time using the dead bodies of his murder victims beneath the wax glaze.
The best of the two great films is "Mystery at the Wax Museum" (1933). Among the many things it has going for it is Glenda Farrell as Flo Dempsey, a wisecracking, rapid-talking, saucy blonde reporter who suspects the nefarious goings-on and goes with gusto after her story. Farrell rated her own "Torchy Blaine" film series in the 30's and is ace here, providing lots of energetic fun. Also featured is exquisitely beautiful Fay Wray and a wonderful Lionel Atwill as Ivan Igor, the demented sculptor. The dialogue is sharp and vibrant, being pre-code. With the influence of German Expressionism, it's also great to look at with an early two-strip Technicolor process and interesting sets. Another fascinating aspect is the look at New York City in that period: Greenwich Village apartments with their skylights and fireplaces, and Times Square on New Years Eve 1933. The whole thing is a delight.
It's companion "House of Wax" is also a deliciously fun film, originally shown in 3-D, and worthy of a big bowl of popcorn and a rainy night. Vincent Price is priceless (honk honk) as the disfigured sculptor, Henry Jarrod, and gives one of his best performances. Also in the story are Phyllis Kirk as Sue Allen, a young woman who becomes suspicious of the sculptor when her roommate, Cathy Gray (Carolyn Jones), is murdered and a wax figure uncannily resembling Cathy turns up in Jarrod's exhibition. A very young Charles Bronson (listed in the credits as Charles Buchinsky) appears as Igor, a deaf mute, one of the professor's sinister assistants. The 3-D influences are still apparent throughout. A man advertising the opening of the new House of Wax, for instance, bangs away on elastic-tethered paddle balls in front of the building and in 3-D, these balls looked like they were coming right over the heads of the movie audience. With no blood and gore, only lots of atmosphere, it's also pure fun and not unpleasantly sadistic as some other Price horror films. Especially delightful is Carolyn Jones, best known as "Morticia" on "The Addams Family," as golddigger Cathy. She's a hoot!
This is a great combination. I only wish it was possible to see "House of Wax" in 3-D (as it appeared on the screen) through DVD, because that would make this double bill perfect.
Movie Review: A tale of two horror stories
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure which of the included films - 1953's House of Wax and 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum - is the best version of this tale. To me, they both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Mystery of the Wax Museum is one of those rare depression-era films that availed itself of two-strip technicolor. It is a good example of a saucy pre-code film with dicey language that has a journalist investigating what turns out to be a horror story. In this way it compares well to 1932's "Doctor X". In this version, Glenda Farrell is really the lead as the fast-talking journalist who just knows that a recently opened wax museum is behind disappearances in the local morgue, and is out to prove it. She plays something you won't see for another 30 years in American cinema starting in 1934 - a hard-boiled girl with an equally hard-boiled mouth. For example, while searching for clues she walks up to a cop friend of hers, grabs the magazine from his hand and asks him "How's your sex life?". The more famous Fay Wray actually has a minor role as the beautiful girl friend of the apprentice sculptor at the wax museum who is selected by the mad and horrifically burned Igor to be his replacement Marie Antoinette in his gallery. Other than acting the part of damsel of distress at the end of the film she really has little to do here. Farrell carries the lead role well, but I kept thinking that if Ginger Rogers had been available she could have really made this role sizzle.
The 1953 version, unlike the 1933 version, is set in Victorian times. With the motion picture code in full force, you have nothing to lose by taking the story out of modern times. Here the protagonists in the film are the apprentice sculptor and his girlfriend. From the beginning they suspect something fishy is going on when the wax figure of Joan of Arc seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to our heroine's murdered roommate. Also, this version uses a gimmick that was popular with audiences of the 1950's - 3D. It was the two-strip technicolor of its day. The main attraction in this film is the charismatic Vincent Price. In the 40's he played a series of supporting roles in some noirish Fox films, and here he is just getting started in the horror genre. He breathes real life and brings range to the role of the mad murderous sculptor that Lionel Atwill didn't seem capable of delivering in the earlier version. Also, I like the fact that in this later version we actually get to see Price confront the former partner who left him to perish in his burning museum.
I think both films are horror classics and it's great having them both here to compare. This DVD has no real extras, just the films themselves.
Movie Review: OLD-FASHIONED CHILLS AND THRILLS....
Summary: 5 Stars
Five stars don't do this DVD justice. It's more than I hoped for. "House of Wax" is a wonderful time capsule of what going to the movies were about in the 50's. Technicolor and 3-D. The print is gorgeous on this disc and the sound is great---allowing the "terror music" full impact. A remake of 1933's "Mystery of the Wax Museum" (also included on the flip side), it's a full-blooded chiller done right. Never a dull moment. When an unscrupulous partner burns his prized wax collection for the insurance money, Prof.Jarrod (Vincent Price) survives and seeks revenge to recreate his creations. Set in turn-of-the-century New York, the gaslit streets never looked so sinister as a horribly burned black-cloaked man wrecks murderous mayhem and stalks the heroine Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) whom Jarrod wants for his wax recreation of Marie Antoinette. The men are one in the same, of course, as Jarrod has used his considerable skill to fashion a new face of wax and assembled an equally skilled crew of ex-cons to aid him in rebuilding his collection in a new show place called the "House of Wax". Charles Bronson is featured in an early role as a mute assistant to Jarrod and Carloyn Jones is memorable as Cathy, Sue's roommate, who falls victim to Jarrod and becomes his "Joan of Arc". Jones is delightful and shows the comic skill she would use later as Morticia Adams in TV's "The Addams Family". But of course, it's Price's show all the way. You can see why he was a natural for horror films...honing his florid style as Jarrod. The famous 3-D effects show through with the action aimed straight at the camera and that paddle ball man. But of some interest also is the "Intermission" that pops up on screen. This was never in any print of "House of Wax" I've ever seen. I loved it. But it's "Mystery of the Wax Museum" that I found a treat also. The print is remarkable---a few scratches here and there but overall a truly excellent print. I had never seen it before, it's been so rare. "House of Wax" follows it faithfully with only a few minor changes. Lionel Atwill and a lovely Fay Wray enact the mad wax artist and potential Marie Antoinette. It's in a clever early Technicolor process and features wonderful, cavernous sets and some racy dialogue like Glenda Farrell (as an aggressive reporter) asking a cop, "How's your sex life?" Just a hoot. Enjoy them both--"House of Wax" and "Mystery of the Wax Museum". A fabulous DVD package.