Reviews

Here's a review of the film I wrote way back in 1973 for a fanzine called " Huitoxopetl"-On Friday, Nov.9,1963, on the "Today" show, Fay Wray reminisced about "Mystery of the Wax Museum" with Jack Lescoulie: JL: " There was 1 scene I remember with Lionel Atwill where you reached up &struck his face &it cracked &there was this hideous make-up underneath." FW : " That was 1 time my technique absolutely deserted me, I must admit.There was a wax face that he had created himself to cover his own ugliness. I was in his cluthes &I had to hit him on the face. It was necessary for the audience to see this &be shocked. But when I struck him, &the moment I saw part of him, I just froze! I wanted to run- I just couldn't go on ! So they had to make another mask &do it over when I recovered. It was just so real." Little did I dream that almost 10 years after this interview I would get a chance to see this long-thought-lost film on TV. On Feb.24, 1973. Louisville's channel 41 showed "Mystery of the Wax Museum" ! It was indeed a mystery, emphasizing the mystery potential rather than the horror potential as was done with its superior remake, "House of Wax" (1953). The film opens with Edwin Maxwell burning down the London waxworks of Prof. Igor (Lionel Atwill) with its proprietor in the center of the conflagration.("House of Wax" was extremely faithful in reproducing this scene.) " Mystery" then moves 12 years into the future, to New York , New Year's Eve,1933, where a crippled Lionel Atwill watches the celebration. ( This 12-year lapse is 1 of the film's advantages over the remake- the reason, no doubt, , Atwill's unmasking is considered superior to Vincent Price's. The time lapse made it easier for earlier audiences to disassociate the crippled Prof. Igor from the body-snatching monster. In "House" there is never any doubt that Price's Prof. Jarrod &the disfigured murderer are 1 &the same; in "Mystery", the audience can think the cripple is the unwitting victim of the still living Edwin Maxwell,making the unmasking , revealing the extent of Atwill's injuries, all the more effective. While Atwill watches the celebration, morgue attendants pick up the body of a supposed suicide.The scene then changes to the morgue where the body is brought &abit of dialogue from "House" is clarified. The attendant's epitath is " Her husband says she talked too much." The corpse rises up, a reaction to the embalming fluid &as they push the body back down, the attendant says " Just like a woman, always has to have the last word." ( "House" kept the punchline without the rest of the joke.) After the attendants leave, another body rises up, the sheet slips down to reveal the gnarled walnut face of the monster who steals the body. It later shows up in Atwill's new Wax Museum as Joan of Arc. Glenda Farrel, the film's wisecracking reporter, is the roommate of Fay Wray ( who is the exact double for Atwill's old Marie Antoinette statue.) Miss Wray's fiancé is an art student under Prof . Igor. Miss Farrel finds the suicide's toetag on the new Joan of Arc statue &becomes suspicious. Atwill tells her the statue is the work of Arthur Edmund Carewe ( who the film has already established is a junkie,a drug slave to Edwin Maxwell. "House" remade him into a "mere" alcoholic.) Miss Farrel follows Carewe to the basement of a deserted house where the audience gets its 2nd glimpse of the monster.He is seen moving a box Miss Farrel suspects contains the suicide's missing body. ( She thinks molds are being made from the missing corpses &the wax statues are cast from the molds.) Miss Farrel calls the police &the box turns out to be only bootleg whiskey. Carewe is arrested &a watch is found on him belonging to a missing judge. Miss Wray goes to the Wax Museum to meet her fiancé &finds Atwill. The famous unmasking scene then occurs. "Fiend, Fiend !" screams miss Wray. " "Yes, there is a fiend but it is not I, my Marie Antoinette"says Prof. Igor." A fiend who did this".( He gestures with his burnt hands) For 12 years this living deadman has hunted for this fiend. Now here he is, behind the door !" Atwill opens the door &out tumbles the wax-coated corpse of Edwin Maxwell ! Miss Farrel goes to the Museum to compare the Museum's Voltaire with the photo of the missing judge. She hears Fay Wray's scream when the Prof. plans to immortalize her by embalming her in wax &summons the police. Miss Wray is rescued &the Prof. tumbles into a vat of wax. All in all,the film was a thrill to watch. "House" is probably the better of the 2, not having the many subplots that detract from "Mystery"s" main storyline. "House" combines the 2 characters of the girl who is suspicious of the wax museum &the girl who is the Marie Antoinette double into the Phyllis Kirk character to strengthen the story , but "Mystery" still has the performances of Lionel Atwill &Fay Wray going for it &that in itself makes it a classic.- Jim T.