House of Wax (1953 film)
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| House of Wax | |
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 House of Wax Original Film Poster |
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| Directed by | André De Toth |
| Produced by | Bryan Foy |
| Written by | Charles S. Belden (play) Crane Wilbur (screenwriter) |
| Starring | Vincent Price Frank Lovejoy Phyllis Kirk Carolyn Jones Charles Bronson |
| Music by | David Buttolph |
| Cinematography | Bert Glennon J. Peverell Marley Lathrop B. Worth |
| Editing by | Rudi Fehr |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | April 25, 1953 |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $658,000 (estimated) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
House of Wax is a 1953 American horror film starring Vincent Price. Director André De Toth’s remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) was the first 3-D film of the 3-D craze of the early 1950s.
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[edit] Plot summary
Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price) is a devoted wax figure sculptor with a museum in 1910s New York. When his financial partner Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) demands more sensational exhibits to increase profits, Jarrod refuses. In retaliation, Burke deliberately sets the museum on fire, intending to claim the insurance money. He fights off Jarrod in the process, and splashes kerosene over his body, leaving him to die in the fire. Miraculously, Jarrod survives with severe injuries, and builds a new House of Wax with help from threatening deaf-mute sculptor, Igor (Charles Bronson).
The museum's popular "Chamber of Horrors" showcases both famous crimes and more recent ones, including the murder of Jarrod's former business partner by a cloaked, disfigured killer. Burke's fiancée, Cathy Gray (Carolyn Jones) is also killed. But when Cathy’s friend, Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk), visits the museum, she makes a discovery that leads to the horrifying truth behind the House of Wax - that all of the waxworks are the wax-coated bodies of Jarrod's victims.
[edit] 3-D
Stereoscopic 3-D was an alternative technology (like Cinemascope and Cinerama) used by 1950s studios attempting to compete with the new threat of television. Just over 50 titles were released in the 3-D process during its 2-1/2 year heyday. House of Wax was always shown in dual interlocked 35 mm projection with polarized glasses. The film was re-released in the period of 1975 through 1980 in both single strip 35mm Stereovision 3-D and in Stereovision's pioneering 70mm 3-D process, where it played in major venues like Grauman's Chinese Theater, in Hollywood, and the huge Boston Music Hall (seating 4300 patrons).
House of Wax, originally titled The Wax Works, was Warner Bros. answer to the 3-D hit, Bwana Devil, which had been released the previous November. Seeing something big in 3-D's future, WB contracted the same company, Natural Vision, run by the Gunzberg Brothers, Julian and Milton, to shoot the new feature. The film is ultimately a remake of the studio's 1933 film, The Mystery of the Wax Museum, which in itself was written and based on Charles Belden's three-act play, The Wax Works.
Among the scenes featured in the film that make the best use of 3-D are a museum fire, a paddleball man, and can-can girls. Ironically, the director De Toth was blind in one eye, and unable to experience stereo vision or the 3-D effects. “It’s one of the great Hollywood stories,” Price recalled. “When they wanted a director for [a 3-D] film, they hired a man who couldn’t see 3-D at all! Andre de Toth was a very good director, but he really was the wrong director for 3-D. He’d go to the rushes and say, ‘Why is everybody so excited about this?’ It didn’t mean anything to him. But he made a good picture, a good thriller. He was largely responsible for the success of the picture. The 3-D tricks just happened—there weren’t’ a lot of them. Later on, they threw everything at everybody.”[1]
A 2005 remake starred Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray, and had a significantly altered plot.
[edit] Main cast
- Vincent Price — Professor Henry Jarrod
- Frank Lovejoy — Lt. Tom Brennan
- Phyllis Kirk — Sue Allen
- Carolyn Jones — Cathy Gray
- Roy Roberts — Matthew Burke
- Paul Picerni — Scott Andrews
- Paul Cavanagh — Sidney Wallace
- Charles Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinsky) — Igor
