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For a 1953 feature, it boasts some pretty creepy subject matter, what with bodies covered in wax, and some pretty graphic melting sequences. The film itself is a remake of the 1933 Lionel Atwill-Fay Wray thriller Mystery of the Wax Museum but achieves so much more than its predecessor on the strengths of its sharp color, excellent performances, and yes, the 3-D effects. However, Jerrod isn’t quite dead, he opens a new museum with a new partner Wallace (Paul Cavanaugh; Jungle Jim), and changes his tune on the paying public’s demands, but not after first dispatching those who wronged him. Upon its release, House of Wax, despite being trashed by critics, was a resounding box office hit, earning almost $24 million on a $1 million budget (in adjusted numbers). Audiences were thrilled by the lavish colors and the surprisingly effective 3-D, as well as with the reemergence of the “master of menace” Price. The scene where 'Picerni, Paul' is rescued from the guillotine by Frank Lovejoy seconds before the blade came down was filmed in one take, using a real guillotine blade.
TCM Remembers Charles Bronson - Sept. 13th - TCM Remembers Charles Bronson this Saturday, Sept. 13th 2003.
Sue attends the grand opening of the museum with Scott and is troubled by how the Joan of Arc wax figure resembles Cathy. Jarrod overhears her and claims he based the figure on photos of Cathy he saw in the newspaper. He then hires Scott, who is a sculpting protégé of Wallace, as an assistant and asks Sue to model for a new Marie Antoinette wax figure, as she strongly resembles his earlier one. Believing Cathy's body was used to create the figure, Sue talks to Detective Lieutenant Tom Brennan. He agrees to investigate Jarrod and his museum and Sergeant Jim Shane recognizes Averill as criminal Carl Hendricks, who is wanted for breaking parole.
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Price, of course, riding the wave of House of Wax, went on to fright film glory in his many Roger Corman-produced Poe adaptations that came after. He even managed to revisit the “disfigured genius out for revenge” trope to great effect in the Dr. Phibes films. I hope you enjoyed the exhibits; those who didn’t may become one themselves! House of Wax has been reinvented several times, but the core concept remains fresh through every new iteration.
Horror
A New York sculptor who opens a wax museum to showcase the likenesses of famous historical figures runs into trouble with his business partner, who demands that the exhibits become more extreme in order to increase profits. Although the entire newspaper angle of the earlier film was eliminated and Mystery was set in the year it was released, whereas House of Wax was set in circa 1902, the two films have many similarities in plot and dialogue. Wallace receives a letter that indicates Jarrod had miraculously survived the fire, though he is now bound to a wheelchair and his hands are crippled, leaving him unable to sculpt. Jarrod gives Wallace a proposition to invest in his new wax museum, which will feature statues made by his assistants, deafmute Igor and alcoholic Leon Averill.
The film was eventually found in Jack Warner’s private vault, yet it remains relatively obscure, almost entirely overshadowed by the Vincent Price remake (I’ll get to that). Though the 1953 retelling is an undeniable classic, I feel that the original doesn’t receive the appreciation it deserves. I won’t say which is the superior version, but the pre-code Wax Museum is certainly darker and a bit more unsavory (Wax Museum features a character who is a junkie; the 1953 film turns him into an alcoholic). Featuring some superior storytelling by director Andre De Toth, an amazing musical score from David Buttolph and a near-perfect cast, House of Wax holds up really well today.
Charles Bronson
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Jarrod, horrified to see his exquisite wax figures of famous historical people, which he considers "friends," melt away, fights Burke and tries to put out the flames, until gas fumes unite with the fire and the building explodes. Later, Burke receives all of the insurance money, as Jarrod is believed to be dead, but Burke is then killed and left dangling in an elevator shaft. At a boardinghouse, a giddy, promiscuous blonde, Cathy Gray, who was dating Burke, is found dead in her room by her friend and fellow boarder, Sue Allen. Sue is chased out the window and through the streets by a man in black, until she takes refuge with friends of her family, Mrs. Andrews and her son Scott. The next day, when the Andrewses and Sue visit the police, Lt. Tom Brennan mentions that Cathy's body, as well as several others, have disappeared from the morgue. Meanwhile, Sidney Wallace, a wealthy financier, is contacted by a wheelchair bound Jarrod, who has survived the fire, but claims that he suffered permanent loss of his hands and legs.
He hopes to recreate his favorite pieces from his old museum, but will also concede to popular taste by including a chamber of horrors showcasing historical acts of violence, including the apparent suicide of Burke. I generally try not to spoil movies, but anyone with a passing familiarity with the story can surmise both that Igor is the body-snatching fiend and what he intends to do with that poor model. Much like the Phantom of the Opera, Igor is a disfigured, mask-wearing madman who kills to serve his art.
Museum had some levity, but it mostly came from the reporter’s zingers; the majority of the film is mood and shadows. House, on the other hand, is a comparatively light picture with a campy sense of humor and the lush spectacle one expects from a major studio. It also exchanges expressionism for a Gothic aesthetic that anticipates Hammer. Fay Wray, the OG scream queen, co-stars as the woman Igor intends to turn into a wax Marie Antoinette.
13 Thrilling Facts About House Of Wax - Mentalfloss
13 Thrilling Facts About House Of Wax.
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When Leon informs them that Jarrod wants Sue as his Marie Antoinette, the police race to the museum. Scott, who is waiting outside the museum for Sue, goes in and is confronted by Igor, who wants to behead him with the guillotine. The police arrive in time to save Scott, then break down the laboratory door. Inside they find that Jarrod is preparing to dip the drugged and naked Sue into a vat of wax. Just before her body is lowered into the cauldron, Brennan turns off the control switch and covers Sue with his jacket. Later, at the station, Scott and Sue thank Brennan for his help and Sue expresses an additional thanks for the use of his coat.
Arriving just in time to apprehend Igor and save Scott, the police break into Jarrod's workshop. Jarrod attempts to fight them off, but he ultimately dies after being knocked into the workshop's vat of boiling wax and Sue is saved. In 1971, House of Wax was re-released to theaters in 3D with a full advertising campaign.
De Toth threw him 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. House of Wax revitalized the film career of Vincent Price, who had been playing secondary character parts and occasional sympathetic leads since the late 1930s. Supporting actress Carolyn Jones, who had her first credited role in House of Wax, gained a much higher profile more than a decade later when she played Morticia Addams in the TV comedy horror spoof The Addams Family. The police, having learned about everything from a guilt-ridden Averill, race to the museum as Scott returns and battles Igor, who attempts to decapitate the former using a guillotine featured in one of the displays.
A disfigured man in a cloak strangles him and stages the murder as an act of suicide, and a few weeks later the same man murders Burke's fiancée, Cathy Gray. Her unemployed roommate, Sue Allen, comes home and stumbles upon the murderer. After a brief chase with him, Sue makes it to safety at the home of her friend, Scott Andrews. We rank every one of the British director's movies by Metascore, from his debut Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels to his brand new film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. MovieMeter aims to be the largest, most complete movie archive with reviews and rankings, in the World.
Atwill was a mainstay in vintage fear flicks, but this is the one time he got to play the monster, and he absolutely made the most of it. With a cultivated demeanor that conceals his monstrous evil as the mask hides his face, Atwill is an urbane-but-insane villain that brings to mind Karloff, Lugosi and other sophisticated spooksters from the era. He’s not quite as lovable as Vincent Price, but that’s just fine for a maniac. Outside of the removal of a wisecracking reporter (Glenda Farrell of Torchy Blane fame) who investigates the murders in the original, the major scenes play out in basically the same way. What is significantly different is the overall tone, which is like a Hollywood musical without the numbers (though there is an extensive can-can routine).
But as the museum starts to flounder, Jarrod's partner, Matthew Burke, insists on taking a new direction, a row ensues and Jarrod is knocked unconscious. Burke seizes the opportunity to torch the museum and get the insurance money, with Jarrod still in the premises. Thought long since dead, Jarrod resurfaces, apparently wheel chair bound and with horribly burned hands. Opening up a new museum, his new figures (made by his protégé under his instruction) look ever more lifelike than bef... The same night, Sue arrives at the museum after hours to meet with Scott, but Jarrod had sent him on an errand when he heard she was coming. Finding the place vacant, Sue’s suspicion is confirmed when she uncovers the horrifying truth that the wax figures are actually wax-coated corpses stolen from the morgue, including Burke and Cathy.
Her iconic scream is a considerable boon to the production, especially during the infamous unmasking scene. Rather than simply remove the mask à la Phantom of the Opera, Wray’s character smashes Igor’s false face until his gargoyle visage is revealed. Presented without music, it’s a powerful bit of horror, with gruesome makeup that can still stop a heart. Based on an unpublished short story by Charles S. Belden titled “The Wax Works” and directed by Michael “Casablanca” Curtiz, Mystery of the Wax Museum was the first of the wax-weirdies and possibly the eeriest. It was released by Warner Bros. in 1933 as a companion to their 1932 chiller-diller, Doctor X. Like its predecessor, Mystery of the Wax Museum was shot in two-color Technicolor (it was the last feature film to be filmed in that process). With unearthly color and surreal set design by Anton Grot, the film is an expressionistic nightmare unlike anything before or since (and that includes the subsequent Wax films).
