By HARVEY CHARTRAND

From the Internet Movie Data Base: The scene where Paul Picerni is rescued from the guillotine by Frank Lovejoy seconds before the blade comes down was filmed in one take, using a real guillotine blade. Picerni and director André De Toth got into a heated argument when Picerni, on advice from the film's stuntmen, refused to do the scene as too dangerous (a prop man was to hold up the blade off camera and tell the actors when he dropped it so they could yank Picerni away). De Toth threw Picerni off the picture, but several days later, on orders from studio head Jack Warner, De Toth recalled him, and had the prop department modify the guillotine to make it less dangerous. After examining the guillotine, Picerni said he would do one take and no more, which is exactly what happened.

Now, Paul Picerni recalls this incident in terrifying detail for HORROR-WOOD.

HORROR-WOOD: In 1953, you landed a major supporting role in André De Toth’s House Of Wax, with Vincent Price. During its production, did you sense that this would be the film for which you would be best remembered?

PAUL PICERNI: First, let me take you back to before the beginning. Columbia made a picture called The Jolson Story, which was a big hit, with Larry Parks. Sidney Skolsky was the producer. A year or so later, Skolsky wanted to do The Eddie Cantor Story. Keefe Brasselle was going to play Eddie Cantor. The second part was that of a doctor who is a close friend of Eddie’s. I tested for that part along with a bunch of other actors. I wanted that part badly because it was a good part, the second male lead.

So I waited and finally Sidney Skolsky called me into his office. I was under contract at Warner at the time. And he said, "Paul, I want to explain something to you. You’re a good actor and I think you’d be very good in this part, but there’s one problem. Keefe Brasselle has black hair and you have black hair and I want to cast this part with a guy who has blonde hair so the audience doesn’t confuse the characters!" So they cast Arthur Franz in the part instead of me.

I was heartbroken. Across the street from Warner was a drug store and coffee shop. I go to this place and I’m really depressed, because I just heard I’ve lost this part. I’m sitting there with George O’Hanlon, an actor/comedian who was also under contract at the studio. I tell him my sad story. Then Joe Breen, the writer on Breakthrough (my first big film), walks in. We were good friends. He sees me and says, "What the hell are you so downhearted about, guinea?" And I said: "Ahh, I just lost a part in The Eddie Cantor Story." And Joe said, "Well I just came by to tell you you got the romantic lead in House Of Wax!"

So at the lowest ebb of my career, I get the best news I ever had. And that’s how it all started.

I knew House Of Wax was special, because it was the first 3-D movie to be made by a major studio. All the other 3-D movies up until that time, including the very first one--Bwana Devil, with Robert Stack--were very low budget and experimental.

I got along great with Vincent Price. We were just great together. I got along with everybody except the one guy who was probably the most important guy to get along with--the director, André De Toth.

HORROR-WOOD: So he was a bit of a tough customer, was he?

PAUL PICERNI: Yes, he was. He was kind of a sadistic guy. He liked to see people suffer. Anyhow, the picture is going along fine. I’m playing the young sculptor, the romantic lead with Phyllis Kirk. Now we come to the big scene at the end of the film. Charlie Bronson played Igor, the deaf-mute. Vincent wants to dip Phyllis into wax and make her his main exhibit. She was going to be his Marie Antoinette. I’m supposed to meet her in front of the museum, but she arrives before me and enters the museum. Charlie Bronson has taken her down into the basement where Vincent Price is going to dip her in wax. Now I come in and look for her. I can’t find her, but I find her purse and then her hat at the base of the statue of Joan of Arc, which is really Carolyn Jones, dipped in wax.

I head toward the basement door, and I’m stopped by Igor. Grrr--"Where’s Sue?", I yell, and he doesn’t answer. I hear her scream from below, so I try to get through him to the door. We have a big fight. André De Toth says (using thick Hungarian accent): "Gentlemen, the depth of focus of the 3-D camera is so great that we cannot use stunt doubles, so you must do the fight yourself." Charlie Bronson was a very athletic guy and I was in fairly good shape at that time, so we said that was okay.

Charlie proceeds to beat the shit out of me. He raises me over his head and slams me to the floor of the museum. I almost broke my back. They sent me to the hospital, but I was okay. We continued the fight. Charlie bounces my head on the floor. Next thing you know, I’m unconscious. He puts me over his shoulders and carries me to the guillotine. He puts my head in the chopping block, and starts to unwind the rope to release the blade. This guillotine was from a French museum--a real, workable guillotine with a razor-sharp blade and a 35-pound block of wood behind it to give it impetus. That’s when Frank Lovejoy and the police come in.

So we get to this sequence and we shoot the first part of it. And De Toth says, "Now, Paul, you are in the guillotine. Charlie, you standing here. Frank, you come in with the cops. This is the next shot. You grab Charlie. You grapple with him. You say to him, ‘Where’s the girl?’ You see Paul in the guillotine. You rush over to Paul. You take out the block of wood. You pull Paul out and zoom, down come the blade! That’s the next shot. Light it." And I said, "André, you’re going to shoot this in two cuts, aren’t you? And he says, "No, we do it in one cut!" And he walked away.

So I said, "André, I don’t want to impose on your duties as director of this film, but how do you propose to do this in one shot?" He said, "Red Turner, the prop man, will sit on top of the guillotine. He will hold the block of wood between his legs. When the head is clear, he will release the blade, so we do it all in one cut."

And I said, "André, supposing Red Turner has a heart attack or there is an earthquake and he drops the blade prematurely?" André said, "It’ll only hurt you for a second. Now don’t worry. Get away." And he walks away. So I don’t know what the hell to do. I go to Pev Marley, the cameraman and I ask him if this is a joke. Are we really going to do this in one take? "Yeah, we are, I guess."

I go to Jim McMahon, the assistant director, and I say, "Jim, is André pulling my leg? Is this a joke?" Jim McMahon says André is going to do this in one take. He says, "I just called Charlie Greenlaw from the production front office and told him to get his ass down here right away." I ask the prop man, "Red, are you going to go up there (on the guillotine)?" He says, "Yeah, what else can I do? He’s the director. I called Eric Stacey in the props department and told him what’s going on."

I go to my little dressing room and I ponder a bit and finally I walk over to André and tell him, "Look, this isn’t a case of being hurt if something goes wrong. It’s a case of being beheaded!" He says, "What are you—chickensh*t?" "No, André. I’m not chickensh*t, but this is dangerous. If something goes wrong, I’m dead. Is there any other way we can do it?" He says, "No. This is the way we’re going to do it. Now don’t talk about it. You just make yourself more scared."

So I go stand by my portable dressing room off to the side. I say to Frank Lovejoy, "Should I do this?" He says, "No, I wouldn’t do it if I were you." There’s a stuntman on the set named Charlie Horvath and I say, "Charlie, would you do this?" He said, "No way. The only way I would do it as a stuntman would be if I had control over the release of the blade. I would never do it the way it’s set up."

Pretty soon someone yells, "Everything’s ready, André!" The lights are all set. Jim McMahon says, "Positions, everyone!" Frank takes his position. Charlie Bronson takes his position. Red Turner is sitting on top of the guillotine holding the block of wood (with the blade in it) between his legs. And I’m standing there. And finally, André says, "Come on, Paul, take your position." And I said, "I’m not gonna do it, André." He screams in front of the whole company, "Take your position, you coward!"

The hair stood up on the back on my neck. (Editor’s note: Picerni flew 25 combat missions in the China-Burma-India theatre during the Second World War and received the Distinguished Flying Cross.) I said, "André, if you call me a coward again, I’m going to fucking kill you." He said, "This man is finished in the picture. McMahon, send him home. He’s finished." So McMahon comes over and says, "You better go home, Paul."

I leave. I don’t hear anything for three days. I’m wondering, "What the hell is going to happen to my career? Am I really finished?" Finally Joe Breen comes to my house and says, "Paul, I’ve been sent here by André and Bryan Foy (the producer). André has asked me to ask you to come back to work tomorrow and requests that the scene be shot as he planned it." I said, "What do you think I should do, Joe?" He says, "I don’t think you should do it." So that was my answer: I wasn’t going to do the scene that way.

So they finally called me back to work and I go on the set. Silence on the set. Now they modified the guillotine a bit. They had Eric Stacey, the head of props, standing on a parallel platform about 10 feet high. They had a steel bar through a hole underneath the block of wood. Red Turner was no longer sitting there. They wanted me to do the scene all in one take, but instead of Red Turner holding the thing, there is a steel bar under it and at the precise moment my head is clear, Eric pulls the bar out and down comes the blade.

So in effect, the scene is still done in one take. I didn’t know what the hell to do. It was still dangerous, but I did it that way, because I didn’t want to create any more problems. André wanted to save face and that was the only way he could do it. He got it his way, even though it still was a dangerous take.