Terror in the Wax Museum

The basic premise is not far removed from the many remakes of the classic "Mystery of the Wax Museum"...there are some gruesome murders at a famous house of wax featuring the likenesses of such infamous characters as Jack The Ripper, Lizzie Borden, Bluebeard the Pirate, Marie Antoinette, and Ivan the Terrible. Who's responsible? Who's next? Who's real? Who's wax?

With a distinguished cast of great actors from Hollywood's Golden Years, this would be a great find for real movie buffs who don't mind a good scare. One scene standing out in particular is one where a woman of ill-repute is stalked by Jack the Ripper. I last saw it 20 years ago, and still get the chills.

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.

Terror in the Wax Museum is more murder mystery than it is a horror film. With plenty of suspects and one red herring at the very end, the movie keeps you guessing whodunit throughout. It's not horribly scary, therefore it's the mystery aspect that will keep you watching.

There are definitely some silly moments, such as a couple of dream sequences and wax figures (played by actors) that are accidentally caught on-screen moving and breathing. However, don't let that distract you from the solid work from the cast, especially Ray Milland. The story itself has its moments of suspense, with a few chilling scenes. Overall, however, don't go into this film thinking it will scare you very much.

Recommended for lovers of good old-fashioned whodunits.

This is one of those cheapo horror flicks that were churned out in the 60s/70s, using lots of people who'd been big stars in the 30s and 40s, and not really giving them that much to do. Elsa Lanchester comes off best in this one, as her value didn't diminish much over the years (and she never looked any different!). Not that scary, apart from one or two disturbing bits, the plot is wafer thin and one of those that when you get to the end you keep thinking 'but ...'. And poor Shani Wallis and that dreadful song! But, overall, it is fun and has that weird curiosity value of 'where have I seen him/her before'? for those of us who watch old black and white stuff on a regular basis. Worth tracking down but could have been much, much better.

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).