Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Don Mullaly (screen play), Carl Erickson (screen play)

Stars:

Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lionel Atwill	...	Ivan Igor
Fay Wray	...	Charlotte Duncan
Glenda Farrell	...	Florence
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	...	Prof. Darcy
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Detective (as Thomas Jackson)
DeWitt Jennings	...	Police Captain
Matthew Betz	...	Hugo
Monica Bannister	...	Joan Gale

Storyline

In London, sculptor Ivan Igor struggles in vain to prevent his partner Worth from burning his wax museum...and his 'children.' Years later, Igor starts a new museum in New York, but his maimed hands confine him to directing lesser artists. People begin disappearing (including a corpse from the morgue); Igor takes a sinister interest in Charlotte Duncan, fiancée of his assistant Ralph, but arouses the suspicions of Charlotte's roommate, wisecracking reporter Florence.

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Plot Keywords:

psychotronic film | pre code | pre code era | stalker | year 1921 | 

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Taglines:

WOMEN or WAX? ...What is the strange EMOTION they experienced? Revealed at last...The love-riddle the people were afraid to solve! (Print Ad- New York Sun, ((New York, NY)) 17 February 1933)

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

To emphasize the similarities between the wax figures and the characters, some names are alike. For example, the suicidal Joan Gale inspires the statue of Joan of Arc. Charlotte, who should have been killed to recreate the figure of Marie Antoinette, was also the real name of the young lady who killed Marat, from the 'Assassination of Marat' depicted in the museum.

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Goofs

The wax statues are played by real people (see trivia). Marie Antoinette, Joan of Arc, and Queen Victoria breathe, twitch, flinch, and blink at several points throughout the movie. One statue, knocked over in the London brawl, withdraws her legs from the fighters' path.

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Quotes

Winton: [to Florence] Will you marry me?
Florence: How much money have you got?
Winton: [laughing] Heaven knows, a lot.
Florence: [smiling] Well that being the case, I'll take it up with the board of directors.

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Connections

Referenced in The Horror of It All (1983)

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Soundtracks

The Prisoner's Song
(1925)(uncredited)
Written by Guy Massey
Sung a cappella by Glenda Farrell

User Reviews

Landmark horror film that should not be missed

In the early 1930's Jack Warner was under contract to use the Two-strip technicolor process on a Warner Brothers film. Unfortunately, this primitive form of color cinematography had a limited pallet of colors. Everything had an unnatural pastel look. Warner wisely choose a genre not dependent on reality- the horror film. Their first color horror film was DOCTOR X, a wild and macabre who-dunnit complete with scary murders, truly mad doctors and a cannibal. DOCTOR X, released in 1932, was enough of a success, that Warner Brothers reunited it's director, Michael Curtiz, the two leads, Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, and the two strip Technicolor process for yet another horror film. The new film, simply titled WAX MUSEUM during production was a fast moving creepy chiller that mixed the gloom of Depression era New York with the creepy going-ons of a wax museum. The film begins in 1921. Sculptor Ivan Igor (a bohemian looking Lionel Atwill), so obsessed creating his wax museum, that he ignores that he and his partner, Worth (Edwin Maxwell) are in deep financial trouble. Worth sets fire to the museum to collect on a fire insurance policy. The museum is destroyed, and Igor is left a cripple with useless hands.

Twelve years later, in Manhattan, Igor opens a new wax museum. At the same time, a wisecracking reporter, Florence (Glenda Farrell) tracks a hot case of the corpse of a recently murdered socialite stolen from the morgue. She begins to suspect that creepy wax museum downtown of stealing bodies and posing them as wax statues. What makes things worse, is that her best friend, Ruth (Fay Wray) is dating the most innocent of the questionable wax-workers. THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is a DVD shelf must-have.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 February 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Mystery of the Wax Museum

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Vitaphone)

Color:

Color (2-strip Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1