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House
Of Wax Stars: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Paul
Picerni, and Charles Buchinsky AKA Charles Bronson
Mystery
Of The Wax Museum Stars: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, and Frank
McHugh
Writer:
Crane Wilbur
Directors:
Andre De Toth/ Michael Curtiz
Feature
lengths: 88 minutes/ 77 minutes
Extras:
House Of Wax Premiere Newsreel and Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Surround Sound and English and Spanish Language Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese,
Chinese, Bahasa, That, and Korean Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Snap Case
Chapter
Stops: 30/ 25
Sound:
Dolby Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Years
of Theatrical Release: 1933/1953/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: PG/ Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Vincent
Price stars as renowned wax sculptor whose partner betrays him by burning down
the museum. Presumed dead, the sculptor emerges again with a new wax museum and
the most lifelike sculptures ever to be shown in turn of the century New York.
Of course being a man gifted at creating illusions, it is soon discovered that
he has an odd way of getting his models for his macabre creations. Vincent Price
delivers a deliciously wicked performance as the seemingly mild mannered owner
of the “House Of Wax” by day and as a disfigured phantom like creature at
night that looks sort of like “The Shadow” with the black fedora and all.
The film features Charles Bronson as “Igor,” a deaf mute servant of
Price’s character credited as Charles Buchinsky. The film was released in 1953
as a special three-dimension theatrical release from Warner Brothers. One can
see the various gags like a man paddling a ball directly at the camera or cancan
dancers kicking their legs up into the air to take advantage of the
three-dimensional exhibition, but unfortunately the DVD viewer will have to
settle for the 2-dimensional presentation since there is no 3D viewing option
included on the DVD.
Still
the (1.33:1) theatrical aspect ratio image looks quite good with solid and deep
blacks and nice detail. There is grain and a few specks on the source print, but
overall it is a pretty good DVD transfer. A well-rounded English Dolby Surround
Sound remix along with the original English Monaural Soundtrack and a Spanish
Language Monaural Soundtrack are also encoded onto the DVD. English Captions and
Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Japanese, Chinese, Bahasa, Thai and Korean Language Subtitles are also encoded
onto the disc as options. A newsreel of the premiere (2:15) and the theatrical
trailer (2:04) are also included.
On
the flip side is the original 1933 version entitled “Mystery Of The House Of
Wax” starring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. Also presented in the original
(1.33:1) theatrical aspect ratio, “Mystery Of The Wax Museum” was shot to
create a chilling effect by using an early two-color Technicolor process and the
film’s picture quality is remarkably clear considering the film’s age though
the color looks a bit faded. A clear and full English Two-Channel Monaural
Soundtrack is provided along with English Captions and Closed Captions for the
hearing impaired and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and
Korean Language Subtitles encoded as options.
The
menus for both films are standard interactive still frames that are easy to
navigate. Warner Home Video is done an admirable job providing both versions of
the film on DVD for fans of the film and Star Vincent Price. “House Of Wax”
with “Mystery Of The Wax Museum” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers
on and offline from Warner Home Video.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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