The Waxwork

The premise is a promising one—a writer spends the night locked in a wax museum with a murderer's row. Given all the creepy potential, the result is, nonetheless, a shade disappointing. The first half is the set-up where the writer (Nelson) gets over-night permission from the museum owner (Sloane). It's a good chance to see real wax figures up close, but it's also padded, probably to build up co-star Sloane's part.

The second half is Nelson inside and does have its creepy moments. The murderer's row looks like a medieval dungeon, however it's also not very spooky and fails to generate the menacing mood that's needed. Also, I'm a bit puzzled by the climax that seems unduly murky. Nelson's fine as the writer, looking a bit like JFK, while Sloane gets to show off his quirky side. But, all in all, the premise promises more than it delivers.

(In passing—IMDb lists Jackie Cooper as the writer, an evident mistake.)

A modern old dark house (or museum) thriller, receiving Hitch's full endorsement. 101 percent. In fact, it's historical, written by Casey Robinson, a Hollywood icon, who wrote legendary material; DARK VICTORY, NOW, VOYAGER, CAPTAIN BLOOD, and even did work on CASABLANCA. Both a win and an honor for Hitch to get Robinson on the show. He wrote one additional episode.

Barry Nelson plays Raymond Huston, a young writer who owes a gambling debt. To pay it off, and rather cleverly, gain some notoriety off the deal, he agrees to spend a night ALONE in a creepy wax museum, filled with figures of notorious murderers. Need we say more? At this point, even if you've never seen this episode, you know he's going to have "company" for the evening, right? The million dollar question; will he survive to write his story?

Positively dark, thanks to director Robert Stevens, who headed similar episodes for SUSPENSE. By the way, RETRO TV is now running that classic 50s show. Veteran actor Everett Sloane plays Marriner, the curator of the wax museum, though most of the attention is on Nelson.

Special guest star is Shaike Ophir (born in Israel), playing Bourdette, and diving right into this weird role. Ophir was a famous mime, often compared to Marcel Marceau. His career was cut short due to cancer.

Just fun to watch with the lights out, but beware of noises? SEASON 4 EPISODE 27 remastered Universal dvd box set. 16 hrs running time. 5 dvds. Every box set is a classic and worth purchasing.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents' "The Waxwork" (1959)

Opening thoughts: 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' may not have been a consistently great series, with some misses in all the seasons, but when it was at its best it was absolutely brilliant. While Robert Stevens was not always consistent in his output for the series, he did do some great work (as well as some real misfires). Absolutely loved the premise for "The Waxwork", as has been said here already, one of the most interesting and creepiest ones of the second half of Season 4.

"The Waxwork" could have executed the premise a good deal better than it did. It is not a bad episode at all and has a lot to recommend it. It is also very uneven, saved by a great on the most part second half but let down by that the episode is not easy to get into at first. When it comes to talking about Season 4, which was uneven like all the other seasons but generally solid, "The Waxwork" is not one of its best or one of its worst. The same goes for when ranking Stevens' 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' output, where it is slightly above middling.

Good things: Good things are actually many. Up to a point, the second half is great. Really liked the dark atmosphere and it was suspenseful and creepy in my view, as the premise sounded. Barry Nelson registers strongly in his role and even better is a quirky and at times unsettling Everett Sloane. Hitchcock's bookending is intriguing and amusing as ever.

Furthermore, "The Waxwork" is solidly made, the photography having some nice atmosphere, and "Funeral March of a Marionette" is never going to stop being memorable. The script is intriguing on the most part.

Bad things: It is a shame that "The Waxwork" is not easy to get into straightaway. The first half is pedestrian and feels far too padded and talky, with set up that takes too long.

Do have to agree as well that the ending is muddled, murky and also rushed. Stevens' direction has times where it is assured and also other times where it is very undistinguished and less than imaginative.

Concluding thoughts: Very uneven outing but above average thanks to the second half.

6/10.

This one is truly a sub-par entry in the usually excellent Hitchcock half-hour series. There aren't too many this bad,--and there are much worse--but it truly lacks originality, pacing, good dialogue and a good story.

On the surface it's a promising idea: an American journalist in London, who also has some gambling debts, wants to spend a night in a wax museum for, among other reasons, a good true life magazine story.

So far, so good; and a promising cast, too, including two capable veteran players, Barry Nelson, as the journalist; and Everett Sloane as the museum owner. Yet the set-up at least is if nothing else promising.

Once the journalist is alone the museum for the night, as one might expect, strange things start happening. Or are they figments of the man's imagination? He appears normal enough, yet he seems easily spooked by the eerie atmosphere, as he's surrounded by wax figures of well known murderers.

Alas, the story unfolds as one might expect, as wax museum tales, like ventriloquist dummy ones, tend to feature similar themes and resolutions. This one is disappointingly conventional, especially as it's a Hitchcock entry.

Yet it's by no means all bad, just not very good. The actors help, as does the art direction, which nicely suggests sinister things lurking right around the corner. The episode does have a few modest virtues.

Robert Stevens was a capable director, yet he failed to bring much to the table with this one, which might have benefited from being handled by a more seasoned movie man with some experience handling macabre yarns such as this one.

I think of Robert Florey and John Brahm, who were active in American television around the time this one was made; and I suspect that either would have made a better job of it, with inventive camera placement, stronger pacing, shadows in all the right places.

During the beginning, Hitch shows a medieval torture device called the rack-in which someone is stretched to induce a confession-before mentioning the TV version coming before the story, the commercial, of course! In the story, an American journalist visits a wax museum in London to try to convince an employee to let him stay overnight in the murderer's row section in order to make enough money for his article to pay a debt after giving a bounced check that caused the victim to threaten to call the police unless it's properly paid by a certain time. I'll just now say this was quite an atmospheric and creepy tale that was quite effective to the end. So that's a recommendation of "The Waxwork" ep of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".