Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Charles Belden (play)
Don Mullaly (writer) ...

Release Date:

17 February 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

IS SHE WOMAN OR WAX??? Solve it -- if you dare!

Plot:

In London, sculptor Ivan Igor struggles in vain to prevent his partner Worth from burning his wax museum...

Plot Keywords:

Corpse | Reporter | Morgue | Wax Museum | Fire

Cast

Lionel Atwill	...	Ivan Igor
Fay Wray	...	Charlotte Duncan
Glenda Farrell	...	Florence Dempsey
Frank McHugh	...	Jim
Allen Vincent	...	Ralph Burton
Gavin Gordon	...	George Winton
Edwin Maxwell	...	Joe Worth
Holmes Herbert	...	Dr. Rasmussen
Claude King	...	Mr. Galatalin
Arthur Edmund Carewe	...	Sparrow (Prof. Darcy)
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Detective (as Thomas Jackson)
DeWitt Jennings	...	Police captain
Matthew Betz	...	Hugo (the deaf-mute)
Monica Bannister	...	Joan Gale

Also Known As:

The Mystery of the Wax Museum (USA) (poster title)
Wax Museum

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (2-strip Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Vitaphone)

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:Unrated

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Although the title had been changed to "Mystery of the Wax Museum", the leaders on the original release prints still gave the title as "Wax Museum".

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: If you look closely at Ivan Igors burned hands you can tell that he's wearing gloves.

Quotes:

Jim: [handing Florence a drawing] Here’s your portrait.
Florence: [looking at picture of a mouse riding a horse, mouse has hand in the shape of a gun] Which ones me, the horse?
Jim: Will you get out of here
[throws tobacco pouch at her]
Jim: .

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Carry on Screaming! (1966)

Soundtrack:

Agitato

Colorful Horror Film

London after dark. A gallery of life-like wax figures. An argument, a fight & a fire. A man left to die in the flames. And as they melt, the figures seem to weep at their own destruction.

So starts MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, credited as the first horror film with a modern urban setting - New York City. Glenda Farrell is the brash, blonde reporter trying to help her pal Fay Wray discover the secrets of a new wax museum just about to open, and those of its director Lionel Atwill, who is confined to a wheelchair due to a past accident. Murder & mayhem & wax-covered flesh will all figure into the plot before the mystery is solved.

This was one of Atwill's best roles, playing an artist driven to dementia by the destruction of the only things he ever really loved. His is a very special, nuanced performance.

Like DOCTOR X the year before, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM benefits from wonderful Anton Grot sets (especially the wax bath) and from having been filmed in early two-strip Technicolor, which makes all the ghastly figures seem to come alive...