He gives a private tour to a friend and an investor, showing them sculptures ofJoan of Arc,Voltaire, and his favorite,Marie Antoinette. It’s just that The Mystery of the Wax Museum is by nature on the dark side (morgue scenes abound), which puts it at a distinct disadvantage, demonstration-wise to, say, the bright sprightly colors of Universal’s two-color King of Jazz, which Criterion previously released. When the three-color process became available Warner Bros. was the first to use it for live-action shorts like Service With a Smile.[7]. Far more inventive and imaginative than the majority of horror films made today. The extremely bright light required for filming under the Technicolor process melted the wax figures, though many characters (Queen Victoria, Disraeli, Joan of Arc) were portrayed by actors. Horror, Certificate: Passed Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. … Title: Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) Cast: Lionel Atwill…Ivan Igor Fay Wray…Charlotte Duncan Glenda Farrell…Florence Frank McHugh…Jim Allen Vincent…Ralph Burton Released: February 18, 1933 Length: 1 hour, 17 minutes The imagery in this horror movie is really cool, helped by the 2-strip Technicolor and live people as wax figures. In Paris, a demented surgeon's obsession with a British actress leads him to secretly replace her concert pianist husband's mangled hands with those of a guillotined murderer with a gift for knife-throwing. An escaped convict uses miniaturized humans to wreak vengeance on those that framed him. Igor will not allow such a travesty, but Worth starts a fire anyway. He reports that the print subsequently began to decay and was destroyed. Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be? Michael Curtiz. When brought to the station, he eventually breaks down and admits that Igor is, in fact, the killer and that he has been murdering people (including a missing judge whose watch was found on Darcy's person), stealing their bodies, and dipping them in wax to create lifelike sculptures. Only the faster-than-the-speed-of-sound dialogue of Glenda Farrell truly lets the film down. How Roger Corman Finally Restored His Uncensored Vision for The Masque of the Red Death, The Criterion Channel’s December 2020 Lineup Features Terrence Malick, Afrofuturism, La Flor & More. As they fight, wax masterworks melt around them. In a turn-of-the-century Renaissance Italian mansion, its tyrannical owner, a one-handed, wheelchair-bound pianist, with a strong belief in the occult, is murdered. The Warner print, with superior color but still exhibiting pickups at reel ends culled from different prints, was the primary resource. He gives a private tour to a friend, Dr. Rasmussen and an investor, Mr. Galatalin showing them sculptures of Joan of Arc, Voltaire, and his favorite, Marie Antoinette. Horror, Certificate: Passed In London, sculptor Ivan Igor struggles in vain to prevent his partner Worth from burning his wax museum...and his 'children.' When his partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), burns down the museum for the insurance money, Igor is trapped inside. It and Warner's Doctor X were the last two dramatic fiction films made using the two-color Technicolor process.[5]. Mystery of the Wax Museum: | | | Mystery of the Wax Museum | | | | ... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and the … A unique quality of the film is that it’s in early two strip technicolor. Lionel Atwill is the creepy wax-maker and as always he's perfect at home in these kinds of roles. A precious few negatives survived, including the Eddie Cantor musical Whoopee!, which was taken in by Goldwyn in their vaults. Can you guess which one? An unsold TV pilot officially based on the earlier films Chamber of Horrors (1966), was salvaged as a theatrical feature release and offered its own gimmick, a "horror horn" that would blare as the image flashed red prior to scenes of violence and murder. Use the HTML below. In London, sculptor Ivan Igor struggles in vain to prevent his partner Worth from burning his wax museum...and his 'children.' Meanwhile, spunky reporter Florence Dempsey, on the verge of being fired for not bringing in any worthwhile news, is sent out by her impatient editor, Jim, to investigate the suicide of a model named Joan Gale. United Artists made their own low-contrast negative for TV prints, losing virtually all of the color. In Washington D.C. Mystery of the Wax Museum played on WTOP's Saturday night classic film series "Cinema Club 9" in late 1972. Whereas the original was more of a mystery film and set in a contemporary New York City, the remake focused more on the horror elements and took the story back to a gaslight, turn-of-the-century setting. At the same time, Igor spots Charlotte and remarks on her resemblance to his sculpture of Marie Antoinette. Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth who wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City. The film was remade as House of Wax (1953), starring Vincent Price and directed by Andre De Toth. Synopsis. Filmed in the early Two-Color Technicolor® process, The Mystery of the Wax Museum was considered a lost film for decades, until a well-worn print was discovered nearly 50 years ago. 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