Terror en el museo de cera

Terror in the Wax Museum (1973)

** (out of 4)

Set in a wax museum in London, several murders are starting to pile up and everything points back to the museum. Is is a deranged killer, the new owners or are the wax figures coming to life and killing? Here's another remake/rip-off of Mystery of the Wax Museum, which is pretty flat from start to finish but the veteran horror cast makes it worth watching. Ray Milland, John Carradine, Elsa Lanchester and Patrick Knowles star. I think the director should have pumped a little more energy into the film. There are a few laughs from the wax figures, which at times you can see moving.

I'm happy to see that some in Hollywood are going an extra mile to recognize the great work and talent of our great horror film actors like Lugosi, Karloff, Price and the Chaneys.

But I'm disappointed to see that John Carradine hasn't received his share of credit yet. Carradine had this great aura about him of the man teetering on the precipt between sanity and madness in many of his parts. And no one who ever saw him in even the B films such as "Unearthly" or "Red Zone Cuba" can ever say that he wasn't by far the best performer in the picture or say that he ever gave less than his best efforts.

Forget the IMDb rating - it should be 7/10. This is a charming little film about wax museum and murders in Victorian England. Is Jack the Ripper behind it all? Eeek! Or is there something supernatural involved - like the living wax figures? Double eek! It's entertaining and clean little flick, with no gore, bad language or other touches of Whitechapel sewers, and a supporting cast is full of seasoned monster movie veterans, including Elsa Lanchester (Bride of Frankenstein herself!), John Carradine (Dracula from Universal classics House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula) and Patric Knowles (the werewolf movie milestone Wolf man).

1973's "Terror in the Wax Museum" was among the handful of horror films made through Bing Crosby Productions, best remembered for "Willard" and "Ben" (the crooner himself having left the fold years earlier), the first of two from the brothers Fenady, producer Andrew and director Georg also responsible for the darkly comic "Arnold." Both features betray their TV background with studio bound exteriors depicting turn of the century London, aided greatly by the casting of screen veterans in major roles, with John Carradine introducing this one as waxworks owner Claude Dupree, entertaining offers to sell out to New York businessman Amos Burns (Broderick Crawford), but remaining loyal to longtime collaborators Harry Flexner (Ray Milland) and disfigured deaf mute Karkov (Steven Marlo). Running the pub next door is building owner Tim Fowley (Louis Hayward), its chanteuse entertainer (Shani Wallis) belting out the same excruciating number night after night. The wax figures on display are some of history's most notorious murderers, including one for the never caught Jack the Ripper, who mysteriously comes to life to snuff out Dupree for his 'betrayal' of inanimate friends. Scotland Yard's perfunctory investigation proves a slow moving slog through intriguing possibilities, such as the real Ripper seeking revenge for his unflattering effigy, and as cast members die off the hidden culprit looks more and more like a sure bet. Carradine and Milland come off best, an improvement on Cameron Mitchell's "Nightmare in Wax" but hardly a patch on Vincent Price's "House of Wax" (lacking the humorous tone of the next Fenady film, "Arnold").

Claude Dupree (John Carradine) has owned and operated the wax museum for years, but is forced to consider selling it due to financial difficulties. When Dupree is found murdered, Inspector Daniels (Maurice Evans) and Sgt. Michael Hawks (Mark Edwards) are on the case.

Enter Dupree's niece, Margaret Collins (Nicole Shelby), who arrives to take possession of the museum as her inheritance. She has with her, the greedy Julia Hawthorne (Elsa Lanchester). Dupree's business associate, Harry Flexner (Ray Milland) is the museum curator. Also, Dupree's hunchback assistant, Karkov (Steven Marlo) stays on, living in the museum cellar.

Margaret isn't in town long before more attacks occur, including the death of a prospective buyer of the museum (Broderick Crawford) by grisly means! Has Jack the Ripper come out of retirement? Or, has his wax likeness come to life? Or, is someone else committing these crimes?

TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM isn't bad, but may put modern viewers to sleep rather quickly. Short on action, and packed with cheeeze-tastic elements, especially the rather silly "nightmare" sequences, it seems much longer than it actually is. More mystery than horror, there's a nice double revelation at the end.

Worth a watch...