Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

[bschulte]

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

WOW. This movie surprised me for several reasons. First, I came in expecting this 1933 film to be in black & white. Instead, it was filmed in early two-strip technicolor. Second, I expected a pretty reserved early horror film and instead got a pretty cool Pre-Code talkie. I especially liked Glenda Farrell as the stereotypical wisecracking dame (reporter Florence Dempsey) so common in the 30's. In fact, she did such a good job she reminded me a lot of my favorite actress Ginger Rogers in 42nd Street, who was so good in that movie and others before her more famous musicals with Fred Astaire. Lionel Atwill puts in a good to great performance as Ivan Igor, a sculptor who moved on to wax figures because he felt he could recreate life so much more beautifully through that medium rather than cold, gray stone. Unfortunately for Mr. Igor, an unscrupulous partner in his wax museum decides to burn it down (and Mr. Igor with it). Igor moves to America after surviving this terrible act, and he says he hires others to create his wax figurines. However, not everything is as it seems at the Wax Museum. Fay Wray plays the beautiful damsel in distress, drawn near the Wax Museum because her boyfriend works there. Florence is determined to get to the bottom of the Mystery of the Wax Museum before it is too late. This movie is definitely a "buy" for anyone who likes classic horror. And to make matters even sweeter, it comes packaged on a double disc with the remake House of Wax, starring Vincent Price. I give Mystery of the Wax Museum a very solid 8/10, and I encourage you to see this film if you haven't before. I was VERY pleasantly surprised.

I haven't yet been able to watch House of Wax, (on the other side of the DVD) but I've heard plenty of good things about it.

[The_Return]

Great movie...personally, I thought the Vincent Price version was better [I watched them back-to-back], however Im a HUGE VP fan...

[dev!ls advocate]

both of them kicked some major ass, and the remake did too, although not many people would agree.

[bschulte]

Originally posted by dev!ls advocate
both of them kicked some major ass, and the remake did too, although not many people would agree.

I watched the remake on Memorial Day. I liked it a lot better than I thought I would. Paris wasn't that bad either, and yes I'm saying that with a straight face.

[Gnaghi]

The vincent price version is the best of the 2 but the '33 version was quite amazing for its time and actually is able to hold up today.

[alkytrio666]

I agree with every one of you. House of Wax ('53) was the best of the three "wax" films. "Mystery" was very good too, and I thoroughly enjoyed the '05 remake. Yes, even if it did have Paris.