House of Wax (1953)

Preface: Ok, so I know that I have slacked off on getting reviews in to my brother. So here is a couple. You will notice that our styles are different and truthfully I am not as lenient on my ratings. You will also find that I am a large fan of old horror movies. From time to time I will chirp in with a real genre changing movie usually from the period of 1950-1979. Trust me; there were many of them during that time frame.

Director: André De Toth

Writer: Charles Belden, Crane Wilbur

Tagline: The Wax Figures Also Looked Like Other People…People Who Had Disappeared.

Actors: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Paul Picerni, Roy Roberts, Angela Clarke, Paul Cavanagh, Dabbs Greer, Charles Bronson

Runtime: 1h 30m

Category: Slasher, Torture

Synopsis: Renowned sculptor Dr. Jarrod has a beautiful wax museum in NY. His investor is not happy with the fact that Jarrod will not “sell out” to get more people into the museum. Jarrod is caught in a fire that destroys his work and himself. Later he starts up a new museum with an apprentice sculptor because Jarrod’s hands are burnt and he can’t sculpt. However, the secret on how he gets the sculptures to look so life like is murderous. Eventually a young woman notices things in the Joan of Arc that are an exact resemblance to her best friend. Jarrod swears that it is just modeled from a picture in the paper and everyone thinks he is a genius except for the woman. History is bound to repeat itself and it does when a fire is blazing through the museum and the wax melts showing dead bodies.

Review: This is one of those genre changing movies I was talking about. Even though this is a remake of the 1938 movie Mystery of the Wax Museum it is fantastic. Vincent Price is brilliant in horror movies. He is campy and creepy at the same time. It is not scary in today’s polluted market of violence but if you look at when it was made, this was a creepy movie. The acting was typical for the time and it was shot in Technicolor so it looks kinda cheesy. But it is an outstanding movie of kidnap, torture, kill and act like life is normal and so are you. This concept has been ripped off so many times that it has turned into its own genre, the torture movie.

Rating: I give this a 21. I only go that low because while Technicolor was revolutionary for its time it looks like I’m watching a TV that I had when I was 5 (That would be a TV from pre-1980). If you like old movies then you will love this one. If you like Vincent Price you will love this one. If you liked the remake, I’m very sorry and I will pray for your brain not to be turned to mush. Remake #2 2005, rates a 15. (21of25).