The Vitaphone Corporation
Warner Bros. Pictures
Not part of a collection.
Mystery of the Wax Museum
The supreme thriller!
A wax sculptor opens a new museum years after he is severely injured during a fire that destroyed his original collection. The disappearance of both people and corpses coincides with this grand reopening and leads a reporter to start investigating.
- Original title
- Mystery of the Wax Museum
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US
- Budget
- —
- Revenue
- —
John Chard
Jan 9, 2017 · via TMDB
My dear, why are you so pitifully afraid? London 1921, and brilliant sculptor Ivan Igor struggles to keep his museum open due to lack of interest in his beautiful historical characters. His partner Joe Worth feels it's time to call it quits, a row over finances ensues and a fire breaks out and burns the museum to the ground, almost killing Igor in the process. On to 1933 and New York, where the wheelchair bound Igor has a new museum open, the figures sculpted by others under his guidance due to his horribly disfigured hands preventing him from crafting himself. When a female socialite dies and her body is stolen from the morgue, ballsy reporter Florence Dempsey starts to investigate. Could it be that the stealing of the body is linked to the opening of Igor's new museum? Mystery of the Wax Museum was long thought to have had it's elements lost in a (ironically) fire, so with no Technicolor negative or prints available, it was a cinematic godsend that a used print was discovered in Jack Warner's private vault. The UCLA Film and Television Archive restored the film, and now the film can be seen in all its former glory. Riding in on a high reputation, the restored film was met with less than favourable results by the critics, possibly due in some part to the rightful regard that the remake, House Of Wax 1953, was held. What it is safe to say is that the film is more of a mystery (the clue is in the title!) than an outright horror. Something I don't think many were prepared for. The critics derision back then is now on reflection, stupid. For it's a truly fine film from an interesting era in film making. The sets from Anton Grot are brilliant, Gothic pieces of work. While the performance of Lionel Atwill as Igor is superb, and arguably his best work. The actress' do well enough, Fay Wray (reuniting with Atwill again after their work in Dr X in 1932) as Charlotte Duncan hones her scream queen method, and Glenda Farrell is ebullient and sharp tongued as Dempsey. There's also daring themes involved in the story, necrophilia, drug addiction, insanity and bootlegging. With the horror elements of the piece born out by the grizzly secrets of Igor's museum. It's also not just an important film in the pantheon of colour pictures, but also in that it has a modern city setting. Helping to bring horror to the streets instead of some ye olde village or faraway castle. It's a smashing mystery/horror film that is now thankfully widely available on various DVDs, so see it if you can. 8/10
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Lionel Atwill
Ivan Igor
Glenda Farrell
Florence Dempsey
Allen Vincent
Ralph Burton
Fay Wray
Charlotte Duncan
Frank McHugh
Jim
Edwin Maxwell
Worth
Arthur Edmund Carewe
Professor Darcy
Gavin Gordon
George Winton
Matthew Betz
Hugo
Holmes Herbert
Dr. Rasmussen
Claude King
Mr. Galatalin
William B. Davidson
Detective (Uncredited)
Guy Usher
Detective (Uncredited)
DeWitt Jennings
Police Captain, 12th Precinct
Robert Homans
Desk Sergeant, 12th Precinct
James Donlan
Morgue Attendant (Uncredited)
Thomas E. Jackson
Detective at Morgue
Frank Darien
Autopsy Surgeon (Uncredited)
Wallis Clark
Autopsy Surgeon's Assistant (Uncredited)
Monica Bannister
Joan Gale
Robert Emmett O'Connor
Police Sergeant by Christmas Tre
Lon Poff
Tall Thin Henchman (Uncredited)
Max Barwyn
Museum Visitor (Uncredited)
Wade Boteler
Ambrose (Uncredited)
Otto Hoffman
Igor's Assistant (Uncredited)
Margaret Mann
Wax Figure of Queen Victoria (Uncredited)
Pat O'Malley
Plainclothesman (Uncredited)
Milton Kibbee
Reporter (Uncredited)
Harry C. Bradley
Reporter (Uncredited)
Frank Fanning
Policeman (Uncredited)
Lee Shumway
Policeman (Uncredited)
Frank Austin
Winton's Valet (Uncredited)
Walter Percival
Winton's Attorney (Uncredited)
Anton Grot
Art Direction
Arthur Pierson
Additional Camera
Orry-Kelly
Costume Design
Michael Curtiz
Director
Hal B. Wallis
Producer
Night of The Daniels
Waxhouse Rock
Vertigo
M
L'hypothèse de la reine rouge
Alarme
Freaks
King Kong
The Invisible Man
The Thin Man
The World of Dario Argento 3: Museum of Horrors
Frankenstein
Scarface
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dracula
Tess of the Storm Country
Island of Lost Souls
The Most Dangerous Game
House of Wax
Penthouse
Time After Time
The Mummy
The Black Cat
Condemned!
The Bat Whispers
Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation
The Murder Room
Evelyn Prentice
Waxworks
Kongo
Fog Over Frisco
The Maltese Falcon
The House That Dripped Blood
The Plot Thickens
Mad City
Svengali
The Relic
Mill of the Stone Women
Murders in the Rue Morgue
Tourist Trap
The Kennel Murder Case
House of Wax
Doctor X
White Zombie
The Heirloom
One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing
13 Ghosts
Murders in the Zoo
Behind the Mask
The Wax Mask
Rally
Chamber of Horrors
The Vampire Bat
The Death Kiss
A Shriek in the Night
The Sphinx
Waxwork II: Lost in Time
The Outing
The Unseen
The King of Fighters
The Runestone
Hear No Evil
Midnight Manhunt
Ingagi
Nightmare in Wax
Maniac
Alone in the Dark
Annabellum: The Curse of Salem
Marble
Crossword Mysteries: Abracadaver
Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Very Foul Play
Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: An Inheritance to Die For
The Maze Runner
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
The Pearl of Death
Deep Water
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Dead Zone
I See You
The Scarlet Claw
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
The Last House
The Medusa Touch
Silver Bullet
Escape Room
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Kept Woman
The Cellar
The City of the Dead
The Car
Race with the Devil
Mermaid Down
The Seven-Ups
The Invisible
Ten Little Indians
Force of Nature: The Dry 2
The Drowning Pool
Night Watch
Madhouse
Mark of the Vampire
The Mean Season
Mostly Ghostly
The Jester
The Astronaut
Eradication
Overdrive
The Mirror Crack'd
X: The Unknown
Murder at the Embassy
Cosmos
The Return of Doctor X
The Shed
The Hand
Fear in the Night
The Unhealer
Superhost
The Apology
Thirteen at Dinner
Feb 17, 1933
New York City, New York
Feb 18, 1933
