Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com September 12, 2022

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Years before the groundbreaking 3D thriller with Vincent Price, there was the original. It’s good and entertaining. We watched the nice-looking restored version. It’s dated, which adds to the charm that it has. The direction and cinematography are excellent. It’s worth the watch.

Synopsis

In 1921 London, we begin at a wax museum. Vincent Price– no, no, this was Lionel Atwill in this version, is at work on a new statue for the museum. Ivan Igor the artist goes to the door and lets in a stranger, Mr. Galatalin. Ivan shows a few of the features of the museum, and the two visitors compliment his work. His greatest work is Mary Antoinette. Galatalin wants to submit Ivan’s work to the Royal Academy upon his return.

As the two men leave, a creepy stranger waits outside. The man is Worth, Ivan’s business partner, who complains about expenses and financial losses. Neither of them has a penny left, but they do have fire insurance. Burning the place down will get their money back. Ivan doesn’t want to see his work destroyed and refuses. He’s a little eccentric, okay maybe almost crazy, referring to the statues as his children and talking about them like they are alive. Worth starts a fire right in the middle of their discussion, and Marie Antoinette is the first to burn. The two men struggle and fight, and as the fire spreads, Ivan is left behind to burn to death as Worth flees.

Time passes, and now it’s New Year’s Eve 1933. We see that Ivan is alive, albeit a little older-looking, in a wheelchair with gnarled hands. The police load a dead body onto a wagon and cart it away. The newspaper later reports that beautiful actress Joan Gale was declared a suicide.

Later, at the morgue, a disfigured man comes in on a table disguised as a corpse. He checks out the dead bodies until he finds the one he wants: Joan Gale. He ties a rope around her waist and lowers her out the window to his waiting accomplices.

At the newspaper, Florence gets fired; Editor Jim says she can save herself if she gets a good story for the next edition. She gets a tip from a cop that Joan’s husband, George Winton, may have murdered her. Florence goes to see George at the jail, and he knows nothing about the missing body. Eight bodies have gone missing in the past eighteen months. Florence suspects a connection.

There’s a new wax museum opening in town. Ralph Burton is a young sculptor, but he isn’t very good in his new boss’s eyes. His deaf assistant isn’t much better. The boss’s hands are disfigured, and he’s bitter about not being able to sculpt himself anymore. Plus there’s the wheelchair. The boss is, of course, Ivan Igor. They get a delivery from Professor Darcy, a new figure; it’s a new Joan of Arc.

Ralph calls his girlfriend Charlotte to lunch. Charlotte’s roommate is Florence. George Winton is released from jail. Florence sneaks into the museum and sees them setting up the statues; tonight is the grand opening. George comes in; his father has financed the museum. When Ivan Igor sees Charlotte, he immediately recognizes his new Marie Antoinette. What a coincidence! He asks if she’d like to pose for one of his sculptors.

Florence goes back to the office and wants to see photos of Joan Gale. She looks just like the museum’s version of Joan of Arc. Florence thinks they made a “death mask” after stealing Joan’s body. Her boss, Jim, thinks she’s crazy.

At the opening, Ivan explains how many of his statues are re-creations of his old works. He’s hired young sculptors to do the work since his hands are ruined. The shady Professor Darcy recognizes someone and tells Ivan. Florence checks out the Joan statue again. Ivan says that Darcy created the Joan of Arc statue under his direction. We see that Darcy has a connection with Mr. Worth, who is also still alive. For now.

Florence sneaks back into the museum after closing time, and she sees the disfigured man working down there. She comes out and tells George and the police that the Joan statue is really Joan Gale. She describes the man from the basement, but the cops are skeptical. They go into the basement and open a box; inside, they find bunches of alcohol bottles. They catch Darcy who incriminates the bootlegger, Worth. They all leave, but at least Florence snags a few bottles. Darcy has Judge Ramsey’s watch on him; the Judge went missing several months ago.

Later, we see the disfigured man carrying a body in a lair with a giant boiling vat of wax in the center. Darcy, an addict, starts going through withdrawal, and the cops know it’s just a matter of time before he spills the beans.

Charlotte goes to the museum looking for Ralph, and she runs into the mute Hugo instead. Ivan sends her downstairs to find Ralph, but she ends up locked in down there. Ivan follows soon after and shows her his secret waxwork factory. He stands up and grabs her, so she screams. Seems he was faking that whole wheelchair thing.

Florence arrives at the museum, but George is delayed. Ralph arrives and lets Florence inside. She figures out that the statue of Voltaire is really the missing judge. Darcy confirms all this to the police. “The whole place is a morgue!” shouts Darcy.

Charlotte fights back against Ivan and tears off his wax face disguise, revealing the deformed man beneath. The ugly man is Ivan’s real appearance. Ivan opens up a box, revealing Worth’s dead body. Ralph and Ivan fight and Ivan knocks out the other man. Then Ivan wheels Charlotte over to the wax-pouring machine, one with a complicated system so there’s a nice suspenseful chance to rescue her in time. Upstairs, Florence arrives with George and the police to help, but they can’t get in.

The police break in and chase Ivan around until they shoot him, and he falls into the wax tub. Ralph pulls Charlotte out from under the wax just in time. Later, Florence gets the biggest scoop of her career. Jim the editor suddenly wants to marry Florence.

Commentary

We watched the restored, pseudo-color 2019 version of this one. The cinematography is interesting, with lots of shadows and expressionistic weird angles. The film only consists of red and green shades, but you’d barely notice it.

It’s both very dated and also a little ahead of its time. The main protagonist turns out to be the annoying, brash Florence, who figured everything out eventually. Of course, in the end, she has to marry the editor, because that’s what women did in the 30s.

Ivan Igor doesn’t hide the fact that he’s the same sculptor from London. In the remake, Vincent Price pretended to be someone else after his “rebirth.”