Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
(Michael Curtiz, US 1933, 77 min., 35mm)
Senior Matinee—Free for 55+. A companion of sorts to Doctor X (screening May 28), this film reteams director Michael Curtiz with actors Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill in another pre-Code, two-color Technicolor thriller. This time, Wray is Charlotte, whose fiancée, Ralph (Allen Vincent), works at a new wax museum in New York City run by the mysterious Ivan Igor (Atwill). Charlotte notices a similarity between Ivan’s wax statue of Joan of Arc and recently deceased model. . . . When Ivan mentions that Charlotte bears a striking resemblance to his lost wax model of Marie Antoinette, her life becomes endangered. This film’s unorthodox mix of coffins, comedy, and makeup may just be the last word in gruesomeness.