House of Wax (1953)
Genre: Horror / Mystery
Duration: 91 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: André De Toth
Stars: Vincent Price, Phyllis Kirk and Frank Lovejoy
IMDb score:
7,0 (23.108)
Releasedate: 16 April 1953
House of Wax plot
"You've never been scared until you've been scared in 3-D."
A wax figure maker for a museum (Professor Henry Jarrod) is horrified when his partner suggests setting the museum on fire to collect the insurance money. The fire is lit, and as the wax figures melt, the men begin to fight. The professor is left for dead among the flames. Years later, he reappears at the opening of his own wax museum. At the same time, corpses disappear from the local morgue.
Actors and actresses
Henry Jarrod
Tom Brennan
Sue Allen
Cathy Gray
Scott Andrews
Matthew Burke
Mrs. Andrews
Sidney Wallace
Shane
Igor
Reviews & comments
Shadowed
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- 12083 messages
- 7064 votes
Not wrong.
I'm not a big fan of the older horror movies, but since this one was nominated for the Horror KO I just watched it. I actually quite liked it too, at the same time Hollywood007 introduced me to Price, who clearly steals the show here.
It all looks quite clumsy at times, especially the fistfights have a kind of comedic charge as far as I'm concerned. Phyllis Kirk is truly terrible and that annoyed me throughout the movie, but many miracles are cured by Price's wonderful playing.
A great horror film with some mysterious use of fog machines and nice sets here and there. Acting is very changeable, the story could have taken a little more time in my opinion. Still, this is better than the 2005 remake.
I did enjoy myself, I'm not a big fan of the old movies, so that this gets a pass says a lot.
Translated from Dutch · View original
scorsese
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- 13671 messages
- 11438 votes
Good film about a wax maker whose studio is set on fire while he is also inside. This classic within the horror genre has an original story and an excellent opening and final. A nice decoration and the wax figures also look good. Of course the presence of Vincent Price does the film no wrong.
Translated from Dutch · View original
thunderball
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- 5999 messages
- 1432 votes
These have just been watched on a nice English Blu-ray/DVD edition.
Saw this one on TV for the first time in the early 1980s (one of the first so-called night films that was broadcast on the Netherlands at the weekend) and I found it dead scary (and turned out not to be the only one, because everyone in my class , who had seen it, thought it was a scary movie). Times are changing, because I'm sure thirteen year olds today won't find this at all.
This was the film that catapulted Price to horror icon status and also the start of a 3-D boom that was over within two years.
Price in a fantastic role as an initially gentle artist, who makes wax figures with great love, but is betrayed by a money-hungry partner, who sets the place on fire and leaves Price for dead. He shouldn't have done that.
We see how a mysterious deformed creep kills people and goes after our heroine of the story. But how is this possible? The character played by Price still has his own unblemished face and is also, after apparently having escaped the fire, in a wheelchair.
Who, how, what, why? The experienced viewer will get his suspicions.
Film is extremely inventive and made with a great sense of style and love for the macabre. It also has a nice fast pace and the final is very exciting.
A big eight, or four stars.
PS: the movie had just come out around 1 am (at night) and suddenly there was a loud knock on the door twice outside. I was shocked and didn't open it anyway. You never know... maybe it was Price's ghost...!
Translated from Dutch · View original
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