Mystery of the Wax Museum

Michael Curtiz has over 170 directing credits, including "The Jazz Singer." Of the films on that list which I have seen, this is my favourite. It's filled with some quite amazing dolly and camera work, the story is fun and the acting is solid.

This story has had a long life. This film, was based on a play. In 1953, it was re-made as a Vincent Price vehicle, "House of Wax" in 3-D. And in 2005, it was re-made again as a teen slasher. The premise is solidly creepy.

Glenda Farrell is hilarious as the young journalist. Her energy leaps off the screen. I guess audiences of 1933 needed quite a bit of comic relief to make it through the rest of this.

Lionel Atwill's make-up is fantastic. It's no surprise that it was designed by a Westmore: Hollywood's premiere make-up family.

This was shot in a two-colour Technicolor process which makes the entire film rather distinctive and moody. The fantastic film noir lighting adds to it as well.

If you can find this, it's a definite must-see! There are so many images and ideas borrowed from it in later horror films it's interesting to see their origins.

These days, Mystery of the Wax Museum has become best known for the fact that it was the film that spawned the 1953 classic starring Vincent Price. This is somewhat unfair, however, as although this film isn't a brilliant masterpiece, or even genre classic, it has a right to remembered in it's own right. The film is actually quite daring and inventive for the time when it was made; and despite the fact that nothing too bad is graphically shown, for obvious reasons, some of the imagery on display does actually succeed in being quite disturbing. Take the deformed face of the central character for example; it won't keep you up all night, but considering the time when this was made; the effects are good. The two-strip Technicolor style of the film gives it something of a unique feel; and this again is to it's credit as the film has aged really, really well. The plot line will be familiar to anyone who has seen the Vincent Price version, but here, aside from a museum proprietor that gets his life work melted away in an inferno; we've got a press investigation into the affairs as well.

Lionel Atwill takes the lead role as the unfortunate victim of the flames, and while he's certainly no Vincent Price; he does well with what he's got and helps to create a macabre surrounding around his character, which in turn helps the film in the atmosphere department. Joining him are Glenda Farrell and Fay Wray as the heroine's of the story. Wray plays the girl that the unfortunate artist becomes obsessed with, and Farrell gives a slightly irritating, but very lively performance as a journalist. Both do well with their roles, and although this film isn't exactly an exhibition in acting (unlike Curtiz's masterpiece, Casablanca); the cast do well enough. One thing that is unfortunate for this film is that it's seen as a second feature for the Price version, which will harm what some viewers think of it as the plot elements are very similar to the 1953 film, so it can, at times, feel as though you're simply watching the same film again. However, if viewed as a stand-alone product, Mystery of the Wax Museum represents a solid 30's horror movie and I can see why any horror fan wouldn't enjoy it.

In the early 1930's Jack Warner was under contract to use the Two-strip technicolor process on a Warner Brothers film. Unfortunately, this primitive form of color cinematography had a limited pallet of colors. Everything had an unnatural pastel look. Warner wisely choose a genre not dependent on reality- the horror film. Their first color horror film was DOCTOR X, a wild and macabre who-dunnit complete with scary murders, truly mad doctors and a cannibal. DOCTOR X, released in 1932, was enough of a success, that Warner Brothers reunited it's director, Michael Curtiz, the two leads, Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, and the two strip Technicolor process for yet another horror film. The new film, simply titled WAX MUSEUM during production was a fast moving creepy chiller that mixed the gloom of Depression era New York with the creepy going-ons of a wax museum. The film begins in 1921. Sculptor Ivan Igor (a bohemian looking Lionel Atwill), so obsessed creating his wax museum, that he ignores that he and his partner, Worth (Edwin Maxwell) are in deep financial trouble. Worth sets fire to the museum to collect on a fire insurance policy. The museum is destroyed, and Igor is left a cripple with useless hands.

Twelve years later, in Manhattan, Igor opens a new wax museum. At the same time, a wisecracking reporter, Florence (Glenda Farrell) tracks a hot case of the corpse of a recently murdered socialite stolen from the morgue. She begins to suspect that creepy wax museum downtown of stealing bodies and posing them as wax statues. What makes things worse, is that her best friend, Ruth (Fay Wray) is dating the most innocent of the questionable wax-workers. THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is a DVD shelf must-have.

Classic horror movie directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Lionel Atwill as a deranged sculptor with an "interesting" method of making the statues on display at his wax museum. The last (and best) of the three horror movies Lionel Atwill did with Fay Wray. Atwill is fantastic here and Wray is, as always, delightful. Nice support from Frank McHugh, Gavin Gordon, and Edwin Maxwell, among others. The scene stealer of the movie is Glenda Farrell as the fast-talking reporter heroine. She really has fun with the part. A few years later she would star in the Torchy Blane series and play a character very similar to the one she plays here.

It's a good-looking movie, filmed in two-color Technicolor with nice atmospheric direction from Curtiz. The sets are great, especially Atwill's art deco laboratory. The makeup effects are terrific. It's a juicy Pre-Coder, as evidenced by the gruesome plot and the junkie character played by Arthur Edmund Carewe. Some viewers might be put off by the fact that a large chunk of the middle of the picture is more like a crime story/newspaper movie but I was always entertained, particularly by the back & forth between Farrell and McHugh. So it's not a straight horror movie from beginning to end but, so what, it's still a great film and worth a look. Remade in the '50s as House of Wax with Vincent Price. That version is more well-known than this one but I like rewatching this one more. It's just more fun.

In the early 30s, Hungarian director Michael Curtiz was still considered a recently arrived foreigner working at Warner Bros. after impressing legendary producer Jack Warner with his work in Germany. In those early days of his career in the U.S. Curtiz began to make himself a name as a hard working director who always managed to work effectively under the studio system, and it was with the success of the horror films, "The Mad Genius" and "Doctor X", when he proved to be not only effective, but also able to make box-office hits. It was really the success of "Doctor X" what prompted Warner Brothers to make another horror movie in the same style, with the same same cast, and keeping Michael Curtiz as director. The result was the now classic Technicolor thriller, "Mystery of the Wax Museum".

Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) is an extremely talented sculptor of wax figures in London, however, his employer thinks that Igor's business i snot making enough money for both of them, and starts a fire at Igor's Wax Museum in order to collect the insurance money. Thirteen years later, Ivan Igor is tragically crippled and unable to use his hands, but with the help of his students he is finally ready to reopen his museum in New York City. In the meantime, the police is baffled by the case of several corpses stolen from the City's morgue, including the one of a famous socialité. The case attracts the attention of Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell), a young reporter looking for her big story, and immediately she starts to investigate. Her suspicion will lead her to important clues, and Igor's strange obsession with Florence's roommate Charlotte (Fay Wray) will take her to uncover the strange mystery of the Wax Museum.

The key word in "Mystery of the Wax Museum" is "Mystery", as unlike it's better known 1953 remake (which focuses on horror and suspense), this version of Charles Belden's play behaves more like a simple, yet really captivating, tale of mystery where our main character, Florence, must discover who and more importantly "how" is committing the crimes. Adapted by Don Mullaly and Carl Erickson, the movie has a very original plot that unfolds nicely despite the fast pace of the film. The fact that it was written before the days of the Hays code allows the film to include lots of sexual innuendo and situations that later would be considered immoral. The characters are overall very well developed, and the addition of comedy (courtesy of Farrell's wisecracking character) works nicely with the creepy mystery of the story.

On of the lasts movies to be shot in the primitive two-color Technicolor system, it has a marvelous bleached look that works perfectly with the modernist art-deco style of the sets designed for the film. Director Michael Curtiz allows himself to show the influence he received when working in Germany during the years of expressionism, and gives the film an ominous dark look as Florence gets deeper inside the Wax Museum (although not as striking as what Universal Studios did with its horror films). It's worth to point out that while Curtiz may be better known as an effective director for hire under the studio system, he really shows a definite style in this film, and begins to give form to the elements that would later become part of his masterpiece, "Casablanca".

The cast is overall excellent, although it is of course difficult not to make comparisons with the performances of the better known 50s version. Lionel Atwill offers one of his most underrated performances of his career as Ivan Igor, and while he lacks the charm that Vincent Price would give to the role, he is very believable as the tortured artist, victim of misfortune. Glenda Farrell's turn as Florence Dempsey has been harshly criticized due to the comic nature of her character's persona, but honestly she makes a terrific job as the main character, vastly overshadowing the more famous Fay Wray; who while looking stunningly beautiful here, lacks the presence that would make her an icon in "King Kong".

While "House of Wax" tends to get the upper hand when compared to the original version, "Mystery" is by no means a bad movie, simply a different one. As written above, this movie focuses completely on the mystery aspect of the story, and while it does have its fair share of horrific elements, they are minimal when compared with the Gothic horror of "House of Wax". True, it certainly looks dated by today's standards, but the movie has a notorious modernist (in the architecture, designs, etc...) touch that may have looked futurist for the 30s society. The special effects are definitely less impressive than in the remake, but considering the times when they were done are still an excellent work, and some look really impressive thanks to the lavish Technicolor process.

Personally, I find in "House" and "Mystery" a classic example of what a remake should be, as the two are excellent movies that explore the same story under different angles. Fans tend to dismiss "Mystery", but I think it's equally as good as the legendary Vincent Price film. "Mystery of the Wax Museum" is a very interesting movie for fans of "House of Wax", and a definitive must-see for those interested in horror movies of the 30s. 8/10