House Of Wax [VHS] [1953]

Wow! not only do you get HOUSE OF WAX starring Vincent Price on this DVD but also MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, the earlier, 1933 film starrin LIONELL ATWILL on which its based. AND.... some great, silent newsreel footage of the premiere of the VINCENT PRICE version, you see BELA LUGOSI turning up with a man dressed as a gorilla!!!!!!!! really bizarre.

NOT as bizzare though as WARNERS strange decision NOT to advertise these extras on the packaging, I only noticed that under the cast/credits of the VINCENT PRICE version on the back of the box there was also in tiny writing the cast list of the LIONELL ATWILL version...and so put it in my DVD player and WOW!

This is a GREAT dvd with 2 superb movies...it would sell tons more if WARNERS done a proper job on the packaging.

The Vincent Price film is fun for most of its running time. Price is good value as always and there are some good set pieces - including the initial fire in the wax museum and some well staged fogbound stalking. However it is let down by a plodding pace and a weak supporting cast that gives the film a very 'buttoned down' fifties feel.

As noted by the first reviewer an 'extra' on this disc is the earlier Michael Curtiz version from the 1930s which is simply fantastic. This is scripted at a much faster pace and has a far more satisfying story based around a newspaper reporter (wise cracking blonde Glenda Farrel)investigating the case. It is filmed in the early two strip technicolor process which has a muted and limited colour range but in fact this really adds to the atmosphere of the film. Fay Wray gets to scream a lot and look pretty (she succeeds on both counts) and Lionell Atwill makes the villain a believable human being (and therefore all the more chilling). Echoes of art deco in some of the set designs adds another pleasing dimension to the staging of the film. A marked contrast to the flat - almost televisual - look of the later version. The biggest puzzle is why this delight is buried away and barely mentioned on the packaging of the DVD.

Both films are worth watching - just make sure you watch fifties version first and then follow up with the sharper version from the thirties.

Henry Jarrod is a very talented sculptor of wax figures for a museum. But as the museum starts to flounder, Jarrod's partner, Matthew Burke, insists on taking a new direction, a row ensues and Jarrod is knocked unconscious. Burke seizes the opportunity to torch the museum and get the insurance money, with Jarrod still in the premises. Thought long since dead, Jarrod resurfaces, apparently wheel chair bound and with horribly burned hands. Opening up a new museum, his new figures {made by his protégé under his instruction} look ever more lifelike than before, could he be responsible for some despicable crimes in the area?.

This marvellous film is a remake of the 1933 chiller, The Mystery Of The Wax Museum, directed by Michael Curtiz. Here this film is taken on by Andre de Toth, originally filmed in 3-D with the then bonus addition of Warner Phonic Sound, it's a picture that thankfully holds up real well even in its basic flat format. The reason it does hold up well is because director de Toth didn't get carried away with the gimmick, it's used sparingly so the narrative never gets lost amongst any trickery, and thus House Of Wax's excellently creepy story comes to the fore.

Having the ever supreme Vincent Price as your leading man {Jarrod} will always help your horror genre picture, here he two folds the performance brilliantly. At first his Jarrod is charming and carrying a grace about his dedication to his craft, but then, devilment takes control as Price pumps creepy ardour into Jarrod's fractured mind. Quite a turn from Price who most definitely suffered for his art during the shoot, forced to do his own stunts {the 3D process needs more than one camera}, he was involved in an accident that set him on fire and almost saw him crushed!. Then there was the long and often painful make up sessions to get the desired effects of a burns victim, layers of rubber strangling his skin to the point of passing out, oh yes Vincent earned his money on this one!.

We even get one of the earliest credited performances from Charles Bronson {here under his real name of Buchinsky} as Jarrod's assistant Igor, whilst fans of The Addams Family TV series will no doubt enjoy the performance of future Mortica, Carolyn Jones. The film was a big success on its release, and hugely popular with critics, and it's not hard to see why, because today it still stands proud as one of the finest exponents of classic horror, both as a story and as a technical construction. 9/10