The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.
Absolutely fantastic movie, I’d say it’s even better than the “House Of Wax” remake that I watched to see Vincent Price. The two movies are nearly a shot for shot remake for the initial scenes: there’s a rainy night, there’s a money hungry patron, there’s an artist who refuses to compromise his moral stance, then there’s a fire. What happens after that isn’t the same movie in any regard. “The House of Wax” was obviously retooled to be a Vincent Price vehicle, which I can’t fault at all, but this original “Mystery of The Wax Museum” was another entry in a series of movies staring Glenda Farrell as Torchy Blane, a smart as a whip reporter who was reportedly the basis for Lois Lane. Every moment she’s on the screen she owns it, to a degree that now I want to see all the Blane films specifically, then watch more Farrell movies in genera.
The story has some pretty fun stuff, as unlike it’s remake it’s set in prohibition, but also set during New Year’s Eve, so there’s a fair bit of alcohol humor here that I find adorable for a nearly 85 year old movie that holds up very well. There’s some obvious foley work during the opening scene’s thunder storms, a few of the wax figures are obviously people (at one point an older woman wax figure was blinking 5-10 times in the 30 second scene!) but there can be no fault found in the movie over all, I really enjoyed it.
85 years old and still one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while, if you have a chance, check it out!
