Mystery of the Wax Museum
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Don Mullaly and Karl Erickson
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel
Florence: [to her boss] I’m gonna make you eat dirt, you soap bubble, I’m gonna make you beg for somebody to help you let go. You may mean the world to your mother but you’re a…
[walks away without finishing her sentence]
I usually think comedy horror movies of the classic era fail but Michael Curtiz manages to pull off a movie that is both funny and scary.
Lionel Atwill plays a brilliant sculptor in wax who takes pride in his life-like creations. He’s not making money though and his evil business partner decides to start a fire for the insurance money. Poor Lionel is inside and the wax figures are all destroyed.
Segue to London and Lionel is trying to recreate his wax museum. His hands do not function however. Simultaneously, there is a string of murders and morgue robberies. Fay Wray plays a woman who greatly resembles Lionel’s Marie Antoinette. Glenda Farrell is Fay’s hot-shot reporter roommate who’s onto a hot story here. Frank McHugh plays Glenda’s editor.
Made in two-strip Technicolor, this is a really fun movie. My favorite parts involved Farrell and McHugh.
It’s the same story as “House of Wax” with Vincent Price, which I might just have to revisit next.
