Vincent Price - House of Wax

Price sure did solidify his status as a horror icon in the 50s before even working for Corman in the 60s. I don't think I have gotten to Price in my 2020 "campaign to remark one last time on the classics that made me the horror fan I am today."

Timing was great today as Turner Classics had several films with Price and two were on my mind not too long ago...House of Wax (1953) and The House on Haunted Hill (1959).

Before Carolyn Jones was a Munster she was a giggly blond looking for a rich husband in House of Wax, a victim of scarfaced Price, reeling from nearly being burned alive, hoping to secure the right face and form for Joan of Arc.

I always have a hard time watching Price's waxworks go up in flames. As each figure melts and burns, it's like bearing witness to murders. Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) setting the place on fire for insurance, genius wax sculptor, Henry Jarrod (Price) trying and failing to prevent him from torching all his hard work. Fights over the work as the workshop is on fire, Burke getting away, Jarrod tirelessly and futilely trying to save it; it's devastating and tragic, with Jarrod burned crispy and gone mad. Price's eyes are so reflective of where his emotional state is, shifting from wounded, envious, and woeful to longing, obsessive, and psychopathic. Whether in his "wax mask" or "burn face", those eyes tell a whole story of wide-ranging emotions.

We get plenty of the Wax museum which I was especially proud of. That was important to me, and that definitely influenced my fondness for horror films with the wax museum as a back drop or setting. And prop heads of Phyllis Kirk and Chuck Bronson (an early film,b changing his name) were fun sight gags. I enjoy that one moment in the darkened wax museum when Chuck's Igor's head can barely be distinguished from other waxworks. And Picerni as young sculptor, Scott, Kirk's love interest, nearly a guillotine victim when knocked unconscious by Igor makes for a brief bit of suspense before the police detectives of Lovejoy and Dabbs Greer arrive. The Max Steiner score really gets the chills bumping when burn-face Price, in Jack the Ripper garb, haunts apartments for female victims as supply for his waxworks. The Warner sets as Jarrod pursues Kirk's damsel in the night with Steiner's score ratcheted up is to me THE GOOD STUFF.

Price is a great host, treating Cavanaugh to a visit around his workshop before Burke set it afire and again for patrons when he opens the chamber of horrors. These history lessons and macabre pieces with the waxworks are my favorite portions of the film. Two different museums, two different Jarrods, Price altering the before and after burn personalities expertly. Five years before The House on Haunted Hill, Price was well on his way to becoming a horror icon. I favor this one just a bit over the Atwill/Wray/Curtis (Curr-teez) version in the 30s. 4/5

While working through the year, some of these films just feel so right in October. It's very much always an early month favorite of mine, so 2020, a year that's gone quite mad, would be the year I watch it out of sorts.