Mystery of the Wax Museum (film)
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| Mystery of the Wax Museum | |
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| Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
| Produced by | Henry Blanke |
| Written by | Play Author: Charles S. Belden Script:Carl Erickson Don Mullaly |
| Starring | Lionel Atwill Fay Wray Glenda Farrell Frank McHugh Allen Vincent Gavin Gordon |
| Music by | Cliff Hess |
| Cinematography | Ray Rennahan filmed in Technicolor |
| Editing by | George J. Amy |
| Release date(s) | February 17, 1933 |
| Running time | 77 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Mystery of the Wax Museum is a mystery/horror Technicolor film from 1933, directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Brothers, starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and Glenda Farrell.
[edit] Plot
The setting of the film opens in 1921 London and switches to 1933 New York City, where reporter Glenda Farrell solves a series of murders that coincide with the opening of a new wax museum.
Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) is a sculptor who operates a wax museum in 1921 London. When the business fails, Igor's investment partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), burns the museum down for the insurance money, leaving Igor for dead. Igor is not killed, however, and reemerges 12 years later in 1933 New York City, reopening a new wax museum. His hands and legs have been badly crippled in the fire, and must rely on assistants to create his new sculptures.
Meanwhile, reporter Florence Dempsey is sent out by her editor, Jim (Frank McHugh) to investigating the suicide of a model named Joan Gale. During this time, a hideous monster steals the body of Joan Gale from the morgue. When investigators find that her body has been stolen, they suspect murder. The finger initially points to George Winton (Gavin Gordon), son of a powerful industrialist, but after visiting him in jail, Florence thinks differently.
Florence's roommate is Charlotte Duncan (Fay Wray), whose boyfriend Ralph (Allen Vincent) works in Igor's newly opened museum. While visiting the museum, Florence notices an uncanny resemblance between a wax figure of Joan of Arc and the dead model. At the same time, Igor spots Charlotte and remarks that she looks similar to his favorite figure in his original museum, a sculpture of Marie Antoinette.
Igor employs several shady characters-- Prof. Darcy (Arthur Edmund Carewe), a doper, and Hugo, a deaf-mute (Matthew Betz). Darcy, at the same time, is working for Joe Worth, who is still alive and working as a bootlegger in the city. Winton also purchases liquor from him.
While investigating at an old house where Worth keeps his bootleged alcohol, Florence discovers a monster who is connected with the museum, but cannot prove any connection with the disappearance of Joan Gale's body. Darcy is seen running from the house and is caught by the police. When brought to the station, he breaks down and admits that Igor is in fact the killer and that he has been murdering people, stealing their bodies, and dipping them in wax to create life-like statues.
Charlotte, going to visit Ralph at the museum, is trapped by Igor. When Charlotte tries to get away, she pounds away at his face, breaking a wax mask that he has made of himself, and reveals that he is the horribly mutilated monster. He also shows her the dead body of Joe Worth, who Darcy has been tracking down for him. When she faints, he ties her up and sets her on a table, awaiting her to become his lost Marie Antoinette when she is doused with wax. Florence leads the police to the museum just in time: Charlotte is saved, and Igor is gunned down into a giant vat of wax.
When Florence reports her story in, Jim proposes to her. Having to finally choose between money (Winton) and happiness (Jim), she picks the latter.
[edit] Production/Background
Mystery of the Wax Museum was the last picture from a major studio in the two-color Technicolor system. Primarily shot in the system in order to fulfill their contract with the company, the process combined red and green dyes to create a color image with a reduced spectrum. But to the credit of the cinematographer, the result is pleasing if not accurate.
Based on the unproduced three-act play, The Wax Works by Charles Belden, Warner Bros. picked up the story after Belden started writing dialogue for the studio in the early 1930s. A follow-up to their previous horror success Doctor X (1932), Mystery involved some of the same cast, including Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill, and Arthur Edmund Carewe.
A similar storyline was also used for an episode of the hit radio mystery drama The Shadow, with Orson Welles. It was entitled The Murders In Wax and first aired on 7/24/1938.
The film was remade as House of Wax (1953), directed by Andre De Toth and starring Vincent Price. Whereas the original was more of a mystery film, the remake focused more on the horror film elements. However, the two films shared a common theme-- while Mystery was shot in the early two-color Technicolor system, House of Wax pioneered two other film making techniques: 3-Dimension and stereophonic sound.
In 2005, a film called House of Wax was released, but had nothing to do with the initial Belden story.
The film was once thought lost as the last known print was destroyed in 1953. With no Technicolor negative or b/w print, it was fortunate that a slightly used, but otherwise complete print was discovered in Jack Warner's private vault. In the 1980s the UCLA Film and Television Archive restored the film so it can be seen as intended, although the 2004 DVD from Warner Bros. maladjusts the colors to give some shots a blue-bias. The film makes fine use of elaborate modern gothic settings and is essential viewing as a landmark of early color and the early 1930s horror cycle.
