[.ca] House Of Wax

From Amazon.com:
House of Wax brought Vincent Price into the horror genre, where he fit as snugly as a scalpel in a mad scientist's hand. A remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum, this entertaining Gothic shocker casts Price as a sculptor of wax figures; his unwilling victims--er, "models"--lend their bodies to his lifelike depictions of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc. The film was one of the top 10 moneymakers of its year, thanks in part to the 3-D gimmick, which explains why so many things are aimed at the camera (why else would the paddleball man be there?). Footnote to history: director Andre De Toth was blind in one eye, and thus could not see in three dimensions. Not at all a musty relic of the early-sound era, the original Mystery of the Wax Museum (shot in a soft, trial version of Technicolor) is saucy, pre-Code fun. As corpses disappear from the morgue, Lionel Atwill's wax museum adds to its displays. Coincidence, or the work of the hideously deformed fiend stalking the Manhattan night? Most of the snappy dialogue comes courtesy of reporter Glenda Farrell, a vintage wisecracking dame. --Robert Horton

Should have included a Field Seqential 3-D version!:
Not that many people are aware of the Field Sequential 3-D. This is a 3-D TV system that uses special shutter glasses that can be purchased here through Amazon in a set that includes 3 DVD's using this process. This system Is the only way to view a 3-D film effectively on TV to date. The result is about 90% close to the effect you will see in a theatre showing.. like IMAX and Disney and Universal. These glasses are made of sturdy plastic and clear not these cardboard red and blue pieces of garbage, so you can view the film without constricted to seeing red and blue colors and with this system you will see more actual 3-D depth with the films true colors.. It's really amazing! For some add reason the big studios haven't adapted to include a separate version of a 3-D title in this great format. Films like: "House of Wax","Kiss Me Kate","Friday the 13th Part 3", "Robot Monster, "Cat Woman on the Moon", "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and "Jaws 3" are all now in 2-D DVD, but were originally shown in 3-D and could have been included using the Field Seqential 3-D system on the same disc with the 2-D version. In Japan in the late 80's there were a few 3-D titles released using Field Sequential and can be found on e-bay converted to DVD and VHS. Why aren't the studios producing these now! I boycott any film DVD release that was originally intended to be seen in 3-D that's only presented in a 2-D version or anaglyph (Red and Blue Glasses). The studios should really be awaken to this great 3-D system.

a brilliant horror film:
Vincent Price gives a brilliant character study {even though he probably didn't mean to} of a man pushed into insanity when his life goes up in smoke, literally. as the film opens we see Jarrod {Price} at work, his greedy partner later arrives. after happily going over his plans for more sculptures, Price is in for a shock when his partner asks how much insurance the place is worth. the guy later sets the place on fire, and gets into a fight with Jarrod. The man escapes, leaving Jarrod to watch his "family" melt away and the museum going up in smoke. Jarrod, presumed dead, is actually alive. His assistant is a mute man named Igor {played by the action movie legend Charles Bronson in a very early role}. Jarrod is now wheelchair bound and he plots revenge on his assistant; but soon he begins to use dead bodies as wax sculptures. The "incredibly real" look to them amazes many except the woman played by Phyllis Kirk. The opening night of Jarrod's new museum is memorable for the paddleball man scene...hamming it up as the barker. Jarrod's face isn't real {he made one to look like his old face; his real one is hideous due to all the burns}. dressed all in black, he has a memorable street chase scene where he strolls around as if he were Quasi Moto from the Hunchback film. Vincent's radio peer, Frank Lovejoy, co-stars as the policeman on the case of several murders in town {the victim's likenesses all amazingly appear the next day as wax figures in Jarrod's museum}. Paul Cavanaugh, Paul Picerni, Angela Clarke, and Roy Roberts also make appearances. Carolyn Jones {Morticia Addams} has a memorable role in the beginning of the film. this is the role that forever linked Vincent with bad-guys, villains, and horror.

Great flick!:
Has anyone ever portrayed the Nice Man Gone Crazy as well as Vincent Price? Of course not, and in House of Wax, Price is in top form as a loving sculptor who emerges from a fire with a different, errr, method for creating his wax sculptures. I don't know about you, but just the thought of being alone in a wax museum after dark gives me the creeps. Add a dose of homicidal mania, and there's your recipe for terror. Most people will find this movie creepy even today; those who love camp will enjoy the prolonged ping-pong paddle scene catered to the orginal 3-D audience. All in all, one of Vincent Price's best films, proving once again that nobody goes horribly insane quite like Vincent Price.

A Great Horror Film!:
I mananged to see a version of "House of Wax" on Turner Classic Movies and I thought that it was a great horror movie. Not being a big fan of horror films, I can't compare to other ones of that time, but this one was great. It stars horror movie legend Vincent Price and a young Charles Bronson who is credited as Charles Buchinsky. Having been to wax museums in the past, I can relate to the fact that after seeing the was figures for so long, you could begin to believe that all of the people around you who are not moving are actually made of wax, something that was briefly mentioned in the movie. A big problem with the movie was that it was made in 3D during its first release. This could create a problem for the present viewings because some things are pointless. They made things for the movie just so people can see the 3D effect. For example, a three minute sequence of women dancing, throwing their legs in the air. When it was made, it was cool seeing the legs come out of the screen, but while I was watching it, it was pretty much pointless. The movie begins with Vincent Price as Professor Henry Jarrod. He takes pride in his wax figures which he often refers to as his friends. They speak to him, and he understands them well, and how they want to be made. In a way to make more money, an investor burns up the museum and flees the sight leaving Jarrod for dead. A couple of years later, people begin to disappear, kidnapped in the night. This happens at the same time that Jarrod, who is now in a wheelchair, wants to reopen his museum, with new figures that resemble some of the people that disappeared. He claims that he uses pictures of the missing people in the paper as a muse for the figures, but a women named Sue knows better. She swears that the figure of Marie Antoinette looks like her kidnapped friend Cathy Grey. Sue decides to make it her mission to find out what is going on at the house of wax. Another great thing in "House of Wax" is the acting. In the recent Harry Potter film, the director has long takes. Scenes of about five minutes all in one take. The same happens in "House of Wax" except some scenes could be closer to eight or nine minutes. This is amazing considering some actors nowadays act for about thirty seconds before cutting away. The actors back then really had to act for many minutes at a time. "House of Wax" is a great horror film, and try and catch it on tv. ENJOY! Rated Approved back in 1953, but if I had to rated it probably a PG for brief violence.

A Classic Horror Flick From The 50's:
1953's "House Of Wax" launched the career of horror film star Vincent Price. He would later become the king of classic horror films from the 50's, including House On Haunted Hill, the original The Fly and others. This is a remake of the 30's version, which on DVD, comes as an extra bonus. Vincent Price stars as a wronged artist whose wax figures, stunningly life like, cause a jealous rival to burn down his museum. I may be mistaken but I saw this film a while ago late night but I'm sure that's the plot. The fire also left Vincent Price's character horribly scarred so that he looks like the Phantom Of The Opera. The wronged artist takes his revenge by creating a House Of Wax or Chamber Of Horrors in the style of today's Ripley's Believ It Or Not Museum. Wax figures pose in scenes of dramatic violence taken directly from history - the beheading of the wives of Henry the 8th in Tudor England, the burning of Joan of Arc, the guillotine executiones of the French Revolution, etc and a very impressive Ford's Theatre replica in which John Wilkes Booth shoots Abraham Lincoln. Vincent Price's character is killing his victims and then uses their corpses as wax statues. The heroine of the film picks up on his little scheme since the death of her friend (played by Carolyn Jones who would later play the role of the tv mom Morticia Addams in The Addams Family 1964-1966). Her body became encased in wax as the Joan of Arc statue. The film was originally made for 3-D, the current rage in the movies of the 50's especially for sci-fi films and monster movies. Much of the movie is scary because it's so subtle. The creepy, eerie sense of being alone in a wax museum, where the eyes of the figures watch you is very predominant. Suspense builds and there is a sense of mystery typical of a Gothic novel of the 19th century or an Edgar Allan Poe story. The film is set in 19th century New York City. A great film to watch and suited for fans of the older horror genre. Not exactly Alfred Hitchcock nor Bela Lugosi films but Vincent Price carries the movie with aplomb and this style of horror became his trademark. Five stars all the way. The performances by all the lead actors are well done. The movie is subtle, psychological horror drama with no blood but with a very scary sense of criminal madness. This "artist" is really the kind we don't want to have around these days.