10.15.2009

31 Days of Horror: Mystery of the Wax Museum

Sure the title doesn't sound menacing but this 1933 early two strip technicolor horror film is so memorable that it has been remade twice since - once in 1953 with the 3D movie House of Wax and again in 2005.

Mystery of the Wax Museum features Lionel Atwill (Doctor X) as a horribly burned sculptor who only works in wax. With the help of his two assistants - a drug addict and a deaf mute named Hugo - he recreates his previously destroyed wax sculptures by using a secret ingredient to give them that "life" like quality. Fay Wray (Doctor X, King Kong) co-stars as a young woman who looks a lot like Atwill's lost Marie Antoinette.

Directed by Doctor X's Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) - this was Warner Brothers last effort in using the two color technicolor film process. They didn't like it and as hard is it to believe - audiences didn't embrace colour films at that time.

The 1953 House of Wax featured Vincent Price in the Lionel Atwill role. The film is pretty close to the original but has more things flying at your face. The less said about the horrible 2005 remake the better.



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