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"The verbal sparring over which "Wax" thriller is best continues to this day..."
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Some issues back, we ran an article on the use of wax figures in horror films and we cited Mystery Of The Wax Museum and House Of Wax as two fine examples of the subgenre. Well, Warners recently put the two on DVD together as a double feature and the result is so grand that we thought we should take a special look at these two wax horrors. So, herein, we present...
As part of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the release of Warner Brothers House Of Wax (1953) Warner Home Video gave it the DVD treatment, along with Warner’s Mystery Of The Wax Museum (1933) that turned 70 this year. Both look better than ever and provide viewers with a paraffin double dip to delight their hearts. In their review, USA Today referred to House Of Wax as the Darkman of its generation. That’s a fair comparison, although House Of Wax probably shares more in common with the first remake of The Phantom Of The Opera (1943), while the second Phantom remake would model it’s anti-hero’s disfigurement even more after House Of Wax. The review went on to refer to "the lesser 1933 original Mystery Of The Wax Museum."
Well, that’s all well and good for a generic review limited to half a paragraph, but there are many fans whom take exception to Mystery being written off quite so casually. A side-by-side comparison of Mystery Of The Wax Museum and House Of Wax is not likely to change too many minds in regard to which film is best, but now such comparison is more inevitable than before. Frankly, they’re both terrific. Touted as the first horror film with a contemporary urban setting, Mystery Of The Wax Museum begins in 1921 London with sculptor Ivan Igor (pronounced "eye-gore" and played by Lionel Atwill) under pressure to find a new partner by his current partner Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell). The impatient Worth proposes to burn down the museum and split the insurance money with Ivan, but the shocked sculptor would rather die than see his creations destroyed. A fight ends with Worth escaping and Igor trapped in the inferno as wax figures melt like decomposing corpses.
Twelve years later, a wheelchair-bound Igor resurfaces in New York City without a scar on his face, but with a new wax museum. Coinciding with this are a number of missing persons including the corpse of a young woman plucked out of the morgue mere hours after her death was ruled a suicide. Wisecracking reporter Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell) helps crack the mystery and lovely Fay Wray cracks open the villain’s wax mask to reveal a fire-scarred face of terror to rival that of The Phantom Of The Opera from eight years earlier. Fay is spared from becoming the Marie Antoinette exhibit, and the madman is shot and sent plunging into his own vat of boiling wax.
Directed by the efficient Michael Curtiz on the heels of his earlier two-color Technicolor horror hit DR. X (1932), which also co-starred Atwill and Wray, Mystery Of The Wax Museum, likewise done with the color process, was believed lost after the 1940s. An original 35mm print found in Jack Warner’s personal archive in the late 1960s put Mystery back in the spotlight at a time when new generations had only seen the remake. Touted as the first major studio feature film to utilize the 3-dimensional process (Arch Oboler’s moneymaking 1952 jungle bungle Bwana Devil being the first feature length 3-D picture), House Of Wax premiered to great fanfare in 1953. Some of that festivity is on view in the DVD’s added newsreel feature with a gala premier attended by such notables as Bela Lugosi accompanied by a man in a gorilla suit on a leash.
Set in turn-of-the-century New York, House Of Wax opens much the same as its golden age predecessor based on the story by Charles Belden. Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price) cares too much for his wax creations to allow partner Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) to burn the museum for insurance. Following a fight (complete with objects hurled about to make the most of 3-D), Jarrod suffers a fate similar to Ivan Igor, though the fire is capped with a gas explosion. Before too long, Burke is murdered by a fire-scarred fiend even as the still handsome, but wheelchair-bound Jarrod resurfaces with a new wax museum in need of funding as well as exhibits. Bodies are disappearing from the morgue (sound familiar?), and Jarrod has his eye on pretty Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) as the spitting image of Marie Antoinette.
No wisecracking reporter on the case this time, but Sue herself solves the mystery only to fall into the villain’s clutches. One shattered wax mask and several terrified screams later she is rescued by the police while her mad captor is knocked to his death in the wax bubble bath. Directed by Andre DeToth, who was actually blind in one eye and could thus only see in two dimensions, the 3-D filmed House Of Wax still delivered the goods and plays well when viewed flat, too, as it is presented on the DVD along with Dolby Surround Stereo sound.
Mystery Of The Wax Museum doesn’t have the effective music soundtrack or the 3-D gimmick going for it, but like House it doesn’t really need the gimmick to succeed. And succeed it does with Atwill providing pathos and conviction, backed by an able cast including reliable Arthur Edmund Carew as the drug-addicted assistant who cracks under police pressure. Unlike Mystery, which was made prior to the restrictions of the Motion Picture Production Code, House replaced the junkie character with an alcoholic one. Other pre-code Mystery moments include Florence breezing into police headquarters for a story and starting a conversation with "How’s your sex life?" She sees the officer’s copy of Naughty Stories and responds with "Uh-oh." Then there’s the mention that everyone knew of Joan Gale and her boyfriend (played by Gavin Gordon) living together.
Snappy patter was very much part of Warner Brothers house style during the 1930s along with working class heroes and villains, though usually in gangster movies and musicals. As Dempsey, Glenda Farrell provides most of Mystery’s comic relief as the typically brassy reporter constantly at odds with authority, whether it be the cops or with her own boss. She’s a contemporary connection to identify with, and she pulls it off well. In House Of Wax, the comedy is handled first by Carolyn Jones (later of television’s Addams Family fame) as Burke’s giggly smart girlfriend and Sue’s concerned roommate-turned-victim and eventually a Joan of Arc statue. From there, House sprinkles in some other winks at the camera, courtesy of Price himself during a public tour of the museum ("Smelling salts, anyone?").
And there’s the corny but enjoyable paddleball man. His 3-D antics interact with the movie audience and prove too much for the fainting female from the tour. House shuffles scenes and characters, combining heroine and would-be victim into one character, effectively played by Phyllis Kirk. The scene of her stalked along empty streets at night by the killer was, and is, particularly chilling.
Mystery’s celebrated screamer, Fay Wray, had less to do besides provide a pretty target for Atwill and his deaf mute henchman. Fay had her hands more full, though, or rather was a handful for a certain ape named King Kong released the same year as Mystery. Also in the House Of Wax cast, as deaf mute henchman Igor (pronounced "Ee-gore"), was a young Charles Buchinsky who soon changed his last name to Bronson and moved on to stardom. Frank Lovejoy as the head detective on the case, and Paul Picerni as Sue’s boyfriend who almost loses his head in a fight with Charlie, round out the cast.
Subplots abound in Mystery Of The Wax Museum with the Joe Worth character running a successful bootlegging racket and other shady operations until finally being mummy-wrapped up to his dead neck as Atwill’s last acquisition. Meanwhile, the dead Joan’s boyfriend falls in love with Flo, who ultimately has to turn him down in favor of her verbal sparring partner/boss. The verbal sparring over which "Wax" thriller is best continues to this day. With the beautiful transfers provided on the Warner double feature DVD, it’s more difficult than ever for some of us to decide. Thanks, Joe. As to which "Wax" flick is best, we have to call it a draw. The Vincent Price version has slick production values, terrific staging, a few strong performances, and we were lucky to actually see it once in 3-D. The Lionel Atwill version has Fay Wray, the more "adult" pre-Code touches, and the amusing mix of horror film and the Warner Brothers "streetwise" attitude of the period. We say, enjoy them both, and thank goodness both are now available on DVD. Article copyright © Joe Winters |
 HOUSE OF WAX 3-D BONUS!
Hey, boils and ghouls, here's three 3-D stills from House Of Wax. You'll need the anaglyphic (red and blue/green) 3-D glasses to capture the 3-D effect. Enjoy!
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