House of Wax (1953) / Z-View

House of Wax (1953)

Director:  André De Toth

Screenplay:  Crane Wilbur based on The Wax Works by Charles S. Belden

Starring:  Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Roy Roberts and Charles Bronson (as Charles Buchinsky).

Tagline: UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE SEEN BEFORE!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Henry Jarrod (Price) is a skilled sculptor who creates life-like wax figures of famous people from history.  Jarrod’s business partner, Matthew Burke (Roberts) feels their wax museum would do better business if Jarrod sculpted scenes of murderers and their victims.  Jarrod refuses. So for the insurance, Burke sets the museum on fire.  He douses Jarrod with kerosene and leaves him to burn alive!

Months later a horribly disfigured man murders Burke.  Coincidently (?), Henry Jarrod reappears.  Although the fire didn’t disfigure his face or kill him, Jarrod is confined to a wheelchair.  His burned hands are no longer useful.   Jarrod plans to create a new wax museum with the help of his assistant, Igor (Bronson) and some of his art students.  When Burke’s fiancé is murdered by a disfigured man, the police begin looking for a serial killer.  And isn’t it strange that Jarrod’s new figures look amazingly like women who have recently been killed?

The disfigured man has his sights on more victims… will the police discover his identity in time to stop him?

House of Wax was originally presented in 3D, so there are some scenes specifically to take advantage of the process.  This is one of Vincent Price’s most famous roles and rightly so.  Carolyn Jones is a standout in one of her earliest roles.  Charles Bronson is effective as Igor, Price’s deaf/mute assistant.

House of Wax is a reworking of 1933’s Mystery at the Wax Museum (which is also worth a watch).  Interestingly enough, the success of the 1953 film, gave Warner Bros. the idea to create a weekly television series involving bizarre murders solved by a trio of amateur detectives who own a wax museum.  A pilot was filmed, but rejected as too intense for television.  The pilot was then expanded into a full length feature, titled Chamber of Horrors and released to theaters!

House of Wax rates 4 of 5 stars.