House of Wax (1953)

Prof. Henry Jarrod : "The morbidly curious. Heh, I won't cater to them."

By André De Toth
With Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy and Phyllis Kirk

Well, I saw the remake House of Wax (2005) about the time it came out so when I came across the old one I decided to give it a try.

A wax sculptor, Henry Jarrod is unable to fight off competition of other wax museums that portray macabre scenes, as he focuses on depicting historical events. His partner who is mostly interested in the revenue decides to burn the place down in order to cash in the insurance money. This is what he does as Henry Jarrod watches his work and artistic creation burn to the ground, so much so that a few months after his body has been missing and the partner gets all the money of the insurance. However, it is about the same time that an horribly disfigured man starts killing people and take their bodies away.

I was slightly disappointed by the movie, it started off with a great premise but it failed to capture my interest after that. I was maybe expecting too much from it. The artist who seemed very passionate about his work becomes obsessed by his inability to create due to burnt hands. While this is a good idea, it wasn't exploited at all and it seemed to have more interest in the botched police work and woman in shock.

The most scary part in my opinion is the young Charles Bronson's appearance. The wax creations are quite interesting but we don't see much of the process.

I liked: The main concept. The guillotine and historical murders.

I disliked: Stumbles upon itself in the second half. Filling scenes of dances.

58/100
I wouldn't call it a classic horror film but it has an interesting core story.