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The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 01, 2020 5:07 pm    Post subject: The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) Reply with quote



Until I saw this movie on TCM recently, I had no idea that it was primarily a great story about 1930s newspaper reporters who are following a story about a series of strange murders!

I LOVE 1930s and 1940s newspaper movies — the ones with shots of busy newsrooms, crowded with hard-boiled reporters as they pound away on their old typewriters, desperately cranking out each day's edition after scouring the city for sensational stories about scandals and murders and political corruption!

To my utter surprise, Mysteries of the Wax Museum is an early-color film that presents this kind of story brilliantly — with the amazing Glenda Farrel (star of the Torch Blane series which inspired Lois Lane) as a hyperactive blond female reporter who breaks the story about the murders of beautiful women across the city!

Fay Wray is insanely sexy as a lovely lady who just might become the next victim of the insane curator in a wax museum who wants to entomb Miss Wray's body in wax to create his lost Marie Antonietta statue, destroyed a fire years ago!

I've never been very impressed by the 1950s 3D version of this movie, but this original version is brilliantly done, with the focus on the "mystery" which is being pursued primarily by the newspaper reports.

The production values are superb, the photography is stunning, and the acting and directing are remarkable.

The only change I'd suggest for both this version and remark involves the claim that the poor disfigured main character (played brilliant by Lionel Atwill) was able to hide his horribly disfigured face (after it was badly burned in the fire) simply by covering it with wax mask.

This idea is ridiculous. The scenes in both this movie and the remake which show his face mask cracking and falling away are not the least bit convincing. Rolling Eyes

I would suggest, instead, that this brilliant artist discovered a new material which was both flexible and flesh-like, and he used it (instead of wax) to fashion both his artistic creations in the museum and his own amazingly real prosthetic face after the tragic accident.

However, other than this one change in the story's concept, I greatly enjoyed this 1933 movie.

I couldn't find the full movie or a trailer, but here's a clip of the opening which shows how beautiful the restored version looks.


_________ Mystery of the Wax Museum HD Open


___________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:41 am    Post subject: Re: The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:

I've never been very impressed by the 1950s 3D version of this movie, but this original version is brilliantly done, with the focus on the "mystery" which is being pursued primarily by the newspaper reports.

I can appreciate each version on its own merits. The two movies are basically the same story but with different tones and styles. The 1933 film plays as a crime procedural with hard-boiled, wisecracking police detectives and hard-boiled, wisecracking news reporters -- very typical of Warner Brothers in the 1930s. House of Wax, the 1953 remake, works well enough as a straight gothic horror thriller. If nothing else, it's notable for being the picture that made Vincent Price a horror star, with his first in a long line of portrayals of tortured madmen.

House of Wax is also remarkable for its restrained use of the 3-D process. The one gratuitous 3-D gimmick sequence that everyone remembers is, of course, the barker with the paddle balls -- flinging his balls right in the audience's face!

(Incidentally, the director of House of Wax, Andre de Toth, had only one functioning eye.)
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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well said, Scotpens.

I enjoy both versions of HOW. Different but entertaining in their individual way.

I vividly recall watching the Vincent Price version for the first time as a kid. It was on television and doggone if it did not scare the heck out of me.

Especially the scene where Price, all decked out in his dark cloak and hat, swings on a rope towards the window of the bedroom of the film's heroine.

That image stayed with me forever!

The performers were all wonderful and the music greatly contributed to the eerie atmosphere.

Read that our leading lady did not care for Charlie Bronson during filming. No details as to why.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 03, 2020 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Scotpens has skillfully zeroed in on exactly why the 1933 version stole my heart and inspired my great enthusiasm for this version of the story!

Glenda Farrell and her fellow newspaper colleagues gave this movie the elements which played to my ardent love for 1930s and 1940s newspaper dramas. The dastardly villain who killed young women and turned them into museum exhibits wasn't just being hunted by the police . . . he was also being tracked down by the noble men and woman of America's free press!

So, Mystery of the Wax Museum was not just a horror movie — it was also an unusual newspaper drama with delightful scenes of a hectic newsroom, crowded with reporters at their clutter desks as they pounding away on ancient typewriters, frantically working to fill the afternoon editions with entertaining stories for the news-hungry public!

As a devoted fan of the Torchy Blane series from the 1930s (which also stars Glenda Farrell, and I own the box set), this movie is an unofficial entry which pits Miss Blane against a diabolical killer who turns female victims into statues! Shocked

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~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production. Very Happy
________________________________

~ This film was produced before the Production Code. When it was re-made only 20 years later, as House of Wax (1953), all references to drug use were removed and a character was changed from a junkie to an alcoholic.

Note from me: I can't imagine why the Production Code would prohibit the mention of drug abuse and junkies. Did they think the public would be shocked to know that some people were drug addicts? Confused

~ The wax figures look like real people because they ARE real people. The original plan was to use actual wax figures, but they melted under the heat of the lights used at the time to film two-strip Technicolor.

Note from me: I was surprised when I realized that the "wax figure" of Marie Antoinette was Fay Wray when I saw this on TCM recently. The elaborate headpiece and the make up changed Miss Wray so much I didn't recognize her at first.

~ The British video release of "Mystery of the Wax Museum" presented the film in rather murky colors, unrelated to the carefully created and blended colors from the film's release in 1933. However, the DVD release shows the film as originally intended, with the correct technicolor intact.

Note from me: I bought the DVD of House of Wax (1953) to share it with Phantom (it's a favorite of his), and before it even arrived he mentioned that the flip side of the disc was The Mystery of the Wax Museum!

~ The color version was believed to be lost until the late sixties, when Jack L. Warner's personal print was rediscovered at his home.

Note from me: I've seen faded versions on TV before, but the TCM version which recently aired looked wonderful, especially after I boosted the color a bit on my TV.

~ Actress Monica Bannister is credited as playing Joan Gale, but she's never seen as a living person - only as a corpse and as Joan of Arc in the wax museum.

Note from me: "So, Miss Bannister, you want to audition for the movie we're making. I see that your film credits include The Mystery of the Wax Museum. What did you play in that movie?"

"Ummm . . . I played dead."

~ Ivan Igor's named is pronounced "EE-van EYE-gor."

Note from me: Egad! Marty Feldman's character in Young Frankenstein was pronouncing his name right! It IS "Eye-gor"! And Ivan the Terrible was "EE-van" the Terrible! Shocked

~ The British video release of "Mystery of the Wax Museum" presented the film in rather murky colors, unrelated to the carefully created and blended colors from the film's release in 1933. However, the DVD release shows the film as originally intended, with the correct technicolor intact.

Note from me: That's good to know, since I recently bought it. Very Happy

~ In an interview about the film, Fay Wray recalled how the scene where Lionel Atwill is unmasked was poorly rehearsed. After hitting the prop mask a couple of times, it failed to come off. In the finished film, Fay Wray pulls off what remains of the mask as it was the only way to make the scene work.

Note from me: The fact that Fay quickly snatches away the portion of the mask that didn't break away actually enhances the scene, because she does it as if the sight of his fractured "partial face" was repulsive. And then, of course, she got the full view of his hideously deformed face, and that really horrified her!


___ Mystery of the Wax Museum Unmasking Scene


__________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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