House of Wax

The sculptor Henry Jarrod works in a wax museum; his figures are so good that people take them for living. His partner burns the place down for the insurance and Jarrod is trapped in the fire. Years later he returns with a new museum. His hands are burned, he can no longer sculpt, and his figures are more lifelike than before. The subject is not horror but an artist losing his work. What drives Jarrod mad is not money but being made to watch his Marie Antoinette burn. The best sequence in the film is the fire and the melting wax. The form was shot in three dimensions and became the most-watched 3D film of its period. The gestures towards the audience are deliberate: a street barker paddles a ball at the camera in a passage with no connection to the story at all. There is an odd detail in the production: the director André de Toth had one eye and, with no depth perception, could not see the three-dimensional effect he was shooting. The film is a remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum from 1933. Charles Bronson, then billed as Charles Buchinsky, plays the deaf-mute assistant. Vincent Price plays Jarrod and Phyllis Kirk the woman being pursued. Who it is for: viewers who like fifties colour horror and Vincent Price. Who it is not for: anyone who will find the scenes designed for 3D pointless; watched flat, some passages make no sense.