Customer Reviews

House of Wax (Keepcase)

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies, and it was beautiful looking and entertaining and atmospheric and I just LOVE Vincent Price. So to me it seemed a perfect idea to own this DVD. But I should have read more of the professional reviews about how awful the picture quality is. Too many reviewers on Amazon talk about how great the movie is (and it is), but we're supposed to also be reviewing the DVD itself. And I feel I must warn anyone who cares about good quality DVDs to STAY AWAY! This is one of the grainiest, blurriest and worst looking DVDs I've ever seen (not exaggerating). On first impression, even my wife said, "Why is that so grainy looking?" I had to tell her that it was the DVD. She was sure something was wrong with our player or the tv, because DVDs are NOT supposed to look like this. It didn't help that we had both recently seen the movie on TCM, where it was beautiful and crystal clear. So I have to ask: If TCM can show the movie in perfect condition, why can't the DVD do the same?

Horror films in the 1950s were often set in earlier times - including "House of Wax" - a gothic-styled thriller. Vincent Price stars, and this movie was his first of many, many horror films. He's perfect in this role, and it's puzzling why no one had cast him as this type of character before. He plays Prof. Henry Jarrod, a wax figure sculptor who's far too obsessed with his work. He's the head of an unsuccessful wax museum and watches in disgust as other museums make money by showing horror style wax figures, such as mass murderers. When his museum is burned to the ground, he re-emerges and seeks vengeance on persons responsible.

The film received a great deal of buzz as the second 3-D film released by a major studio ("Bwana Devil" was the first); not surprisingly, it was a major hit, becoming the 7th biggest money-maker of 1953. "House of Wax" was actually a remake of a 1933 film, "Mystery of the Wax Museum." In addition, a remake of this film is currently in the works, and should be released in 2005. One of the stars of the upcoming film is Paris Hilton, which should be interesting!

Although I prefer Castle's horror films from this period, Price alone makes this film worthwhile. Carolyn Jones ("Addams Family") is also fun as a kind harlot. Overall, the movie holds up pretty well, mostly because of its creepy tone. I saw the movie in 2-D but still enjoyed it quite a bit.

This movie has wit, excellent pacing and a strong supporting cast (including a blonde Carolyn Jones "Morticia" from the Addams Family) and a small role for Charles Bronson (playing Igor and billed as Charles Buchinsky). Prince gets to be both understated and hammy in the brilliant film, that he is likely best know for.

It catches the atmosphere of the Gaslight period, and is lighting speed, as Price goes from a brilliant artist of life-like wax figures, to a scarred man, nearly killed by his partner wanting the insurance. He is forced to watch his two crowning glories, his Joan of Arc and his Marie Antoinette destroyed in the fire. With scared hands, he is forced to use bodies to fill his new house of wax, while Price also manages to meet out a little revenge to his former partner.

At first bodies are vanishing from the morgue, but when Price sees Jones - the living image of Joan of Arc - and Phyllis Kirk, his Marie Antoinette come to life in his mind - he knows he must possess the bodies of both women to see if greatest works recreated.

Is so spooky, and Kirk ably screams her way from one mishap to the next. Just does not get any better.

In the tiny print on the "House of Wax" cover it says that you are also getting the 1933 classic, "Mystery of the Wax Museum." Which makes this DVD a great deal. The House of Wax is the classic 1950's remake of the Lionel Atwill/Fay Wray classic. Both movies are great and present great villians who stalk great beauties. They are equally eerie and scenic but the "Mystery of the Wax Museum" has the advantage of being pre-code which allows it to be saucy and even a little daring.
Both films have fantastic supporting casts. The Mystery... has the wise-cracking Glenda Farrell and House... has Frank Lovejoy and an early performance by the great/late Charles Bronson.
Both films have wonderful sets and fine mad sceintist's labs (well, insane wax modeler's museums) The Mystery...is also a nice example of early two strip technicolor process. Also both movies are presented in good clean, clear form. I applaud the company for using good master copies to create this DVD.

Halloween is coming and you need a good movie to watch. These films are two goodies from days gone by that are good to watch and hear. Lose youself in foggy streets and shadowy museums. They are of an age when masters created horror forms of wax and whacked-out disfigured artists created figures in boiling wax.

Five stars don't do this DVD justice. It's more than I hoped for. "House of Wax" is a wonderful time capsule of what going to the movies were about in the 50's. Technicolor and 3-D. The print is gorgeous on this disc and the sound is great---allowing the "terror music" full impact. A remake of 1933's "Mystery of the Wax Museum" (also included on the flip side), it's a full-blooded chiller done right. Never a dull moment. When an unscrupulous partner burns his prized wax collection for the insurance money, Prof.Jarrod (Vincent Price) survives and seeks revenge to recreate his creations. Set in turn-of-the-century New York, the gaslit streets never looked so sinister as a horribly burned black-cloaked man wrecks murderous mayhem and stalks the heroine Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) whom Jarrod wants for his wax recreation of Marie Antoinette. The men are one in the same, of course, as Jarrod has used his considerable skill to fashion a new face of wax and assembled an equally skilled crew of ex-cons to aid him in rebuilding his collection in a new show place called the "House of Wax". Charles Bronson is featured in an early role as a mute assistant to Jarrod and Carloyn Jones is memorable as Cathy, Sue's roommate, who falls victim to Jarrod and becomes his "Joan of Arc". Jones is delightful and shows the comic skill she would use later as Morticia Adams in TV's "The Addams Family". But of course, it's Price's show all the way. You can see why he was a natural for horror films...honing his florid style as Jarrod. The famous 3-D effects show through with the action aimed straight at the camera and that paddle ball man. But of some interest also is the "Intermission" that pops up on screen. This was never in any print of "House of Wax" I've ever seen. I loved it. But it's "Mystery of the Wax Museum" that I found a treat also. The print is remarkable---a few scratches here and there but overall a truly excellent print. I had never seen it before, it's been so rare. "House of Wax" follows it faithfully with only a few minor changes. Lionel Atwill and a lovely Fay Wray enact the mad wax artist and potential Marie Antoinette. It's in a clever early Technicolor process and features wonderful, cavernous sets and some racy dialogue like Glenda Farrell (as an aggressive reporter) asking a cop, "How's your sex life?" Just a hoot. Enjoy them both--"House of Wax" and "Mystery of the Wax Museum". A fabulous DVD package.

I saw this movie at my school in a somewhat theatre experience, but it was worth it. I wish that I could've seen this film in the original 3-D process, because then it would've been much better. But I thought that Vincent Price gave a really great performance as the mad curator of a wax museum that was burned down by his money hungry partner that wanted the insurance money. In a very creepy few minutes, all of the wax figures melt down as Vincent Price tries to get out. Then VIncent Price opens a wax museum that a woman recognises her friend as the Joan of Arc model. She then gets to suspecting, but we already know that Price uses real dead bodies for his models. I won't give away the ending, but I think that you must see this movie. Price is the best villan of all because he gives in more acting than anyone else in the film. I suggest that you see this movie because it shows 50's horror at its peak. Watch this movie. It shows Vincent Price when he first got into the horror market, which was made for him

This delicious double bill features "Mystery at the Wax Museum" and its remake, "House of Wax." Both tell the tale of a turn-of-the-century sculptor in a wax museum who develops an unusual attachment to his creations and becomes horribly disfigured when his partner sets fire to the museum in order to collect the insurance. Mad for revenge, the sculptor sets up a new wax museum, this time using the dead bodies of his murder victims beneath the wax glaze.

The best of the two great films is "Mystery at the Wax Museum" (1933). Among the many things it has going for it is Glenda Farrell as Flo Dempsey, a wisecracking, rapid-talking, saucy blonde reporter who suspects the nefarious goings-on and goes with gusto after her story. Farrell rated her own "Torchy Blaine" film series in the 30's and is ace here, providing lots of energetic fun. Also featured is exquisitely beautiful Fay Wray and a wonderful Lionel Atwill as Ivan Igor, the demented sculptor. The dialogue is sharp and vibrant, being pre-code. With the influence of German Expressionism, it's also great to look at with an early two-strip Technicolor process and interesting sets. Another fascinating aspect is the look at New York City in that period: Greenwich Village apartments with their skylights and fireplaces, and Times Square on New Years Eve 1933. The whole thing is a delight.

It's companion "House of Wax" is also a deliciously fun film, originally shown in 3-D, and worthy of a big bowl of popcorn and a rainy night. Vincent Price is priceless (honk honk) as the disfigured sculptor, Henry Jarrod, and gives one of his best performances. Also in the story are Phyllis Kirk as Sue Allen, a young woman who becomes suspicious of the sculptor when her roommate, Cathy Gray (Carolyn Jones), is murdered and a wax figure uncannily resembling Cathy turns up in Jarrod's exhibition. A very young Charles Bronson (listed in the credits as Charles Buchinsky) appears as Igor, a deaf mute, one of the professor's sinister assistants. The 3-D influences are still apparent throughout. A man advertising the opening of the new House of Wax, for instance, bangs away on elastic-tethered paddle balls in front of the building and in 3-D, these balls looked like they were coming right over the heads of the movie audience. With no blood and gore, only lots of atmosphere, it's also pure fun and not unpleasantly sadistic as some other Price horror films. Especially delightful is Carolyn Jones, best known as "Morticia" on "The Addams Family," as golddigger Cathy. She's a hoot!

This is a great combination. I only wish it was possible to see "House of Wax" in 3-D (as it appeared on the screen) through DVD, because that would make this double bill perfect.

We don't need no water let the mother fer burn said Vincent Price's partner in the unprofitable wax museum that he sets ablaze for the insurance money. The price of the insurance money is no match for Price's revenge which is priceless.
Prof. Henry Jarrod (Price), who was thought to be killed in the blaze was only badly burned and now wants to rebuild his wax museum with a little help from his friend (a jacked up, real life, Charlie Bronson named Igor), where art not only imitates life but also death.
This is a staple to any horror fans dvd collection and one of Price's best films and there are many. I've heard negative things about the transfer of this dvd but thought it to be very good.

Special dvd features:
House of wax premier newsreel - interactive menus - theatrical trailer- scene access- mystery of the wax museum

This marvelous DVD offers two versions of the same story! First, the 1953 "House of Wax" starring Vincent Price ... plus the original film on which it was based, the 1933 "Mystery of the Wax Museum" starring Lionel Atwill. Each film offered viewers a technological gimmick when first released to theatres: "House" was exhibited in 3-D, and "Museum" was filmed in early two-strip Technicolor.

The Vincent Price remake is arguably the scarier of the two versions. Although it duplicates many scenes and sections of dialogue from the earlier film, it adds a couple of effective sequences involving the villain of the piece. In one, the scarred fiend chases heroine Phyllis Kirk through dark, rain-slicked streets in the dead of night; in the other, he commits a gruesome murder. Price is deliciously hammy in the role. He constantly threatens to go over the top, but pulls back just in time (at least until the end, when he lets go with relish). Miss Kirk, with her china doll beauty and deep modulated voice makes a wonderful heroine, and Charles Buchinsky (later Bronson) stands out as a muscled and menacing deaf-mute who lurks among the shadows of the museum. The production's color and lighting are outstanding ... the viewer is often left wondering which figures are human and which are wax, and there are several shocks and surprises along the way. The DVD offers an exceptionally fine film-to-video transfer, and don't forget to watch the Original Theatrical Trailer! It's an example of Hollywood ballyhoo at its best, and features some gorgeous color graphics.

The legendary 1933 original version was believed, for decades, to be a "lost film". Film buffs all over the world rejoiced when a surviving print was finally located in the late 1970's; unfortunately, (and unsurprisingly) the actual film was unable to live up to the hype that built up around it during its absence. Despite its considerable virtues, including great performances from Lionel Atwill as the villain and Fay Wray as the gorgeous screaming heroine, "Mystery of the Wax Museum" is marred by an over-abundance of comic relief. Playing a hard-boiled newspaper "dame" who delivers her peppery dialogue in machine gun fashion, Glenda Farrell is neither comic nor a relief. She's simply obnoxious. Still, she's lovely to look at in early two-strip Technicolor. This process, which registers color most heavily in hues of blue and orange, was a crude forerunner of the three-strip "candy-box" Technicolor that made its feature-film debut two years later in the 1935 production of "Becky Sharp". It should be noted that this DVD offers the best restored version of "Wax Museum" yet seen; the color is more vivid and the sound much clearer than that featured on any TV prints or on the earlier MGM VHS version.

All in all, this is a DVD package that should please both horror buffs and film historians alike; it's certainly a great value to receive the 1933 version as a "bonus feature". Here's a double feature made to order for a chilly evening; enjoy it with a bowl of popcorn ... and maybe a burning candle.

The cleaned up and brightened WB print to the original 1933 MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is the true find here. I compared it to WB's 1987 VHS release and the latter looks positively murky, compared to the brightness and cleanliness of this dvd transfer. It's a revelation and is still the supreme achievement in two-strip Technicolor.

Differences between the two films:

Original is set in both the past and the 1933 present. Remake is set solidly in the early 20th century past. Original takes place first in London, then NYC. The remake takes place continuously in NYC.

The characters of the newspaper reporter and editor, as well as the wealthy boyfriend of the first victim are scrapped. Phyllis Kirk in the remake absorbs both the Farrell and Wray characters of the original in being both the curious snoop and the sought after model for the Marie Antoinette.

In the remake the initial visits by the co-owner villain and the entrepreneurs are reversed. The remake has a gas explosion intensifying the supposed effects of the fire. In the remake the murder of the villain is actually seen and takes place early in the film.

The murdered girl who becomes the body of Joan of Arc becomes Kirk's roommate in the remake.

The morgue body stealing sequence is intact in both versions, down to the dialogue.

Among the new sequences added is the return of the original entrepreneur who is shown the waxing process in the basement.

There is an intermission in the remake, occurring 43:30 minutes into the film, just before the Wax Museum opening.

The sculpture boyfriend is new to the Museum in the remake, not an already established worker. In the remake the stoolie is an alcoholic, not a junky.

The police investigation is much more proactive in the remake. Nice added touch of the almost guillotined boyfriend in the remake.

Both are fun films - this is a great double bill dvd - especially with the restoration of the 1933 original.