Pre-Code Wax Museum

 I am so glad I decided to record the UCLA Archive (funded by the George Lucas Family) restoration of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) the other day from Turner Classic Movies. The process of how this film was restored so painstakingly cannot be emphasized enough, and I think if you love horror films of a time long gone, you will feel rewarded of their hard work. And that this is Pre-Code, where even a newspaper reporter, Flo (Glenda Farrell), arrives at a police station and asks a cop she's friendly with (and shares information with to give her a story for a paper that often threatens to fire her) about his sex life!

So in this era of Hollywood films, the wisecracking news reporter was featured in a lot of horror films. Often speaking really fast, full of energy and spirit, engaging and silly, with lots of quips and broad comedy; this archetype could be expected. Thing is, this character will be absolutely obnoxious for some horror fans who want their Grand Guignol without so much yapping wordplay between a reporter and cops or her frustrating editor demanding a good story or else. I don't blame that on Farrell, who occupied a role as a woman that was often a snappy guy (as seen in another Curtiz classic, "Dr. X"). She could really hold her own opposite Paul Muni and Edward G Robinson, and considering "Mystery of the Wax Museum" needed her to talk shit and nose around where unwanted, Farrell could very well do exactly that. I have no idea why her Flo would agree to kiss and marry the paper editor, but that was a script inclusion I find perplexing, considering she had great chemistry with Gavin Gordon (Lord Byron of "Bride of Frankenstein"), a suspect in a judge's murder. She goes on and on about dating and marrying someone rich and even if Gordon's activities were less than always completely kosher, he seemed to fit her selection for an approved date. I digress...

I think Fay Wray's roles in films like "Dr. X", "The Most Dangerous Game", and "King Kong" are more sizable 30s parts, I was rather surprised she isn't in "Mystery of the Wax Museum" as much as I seemed to recall. I've watched this on and off quite a bit over the years, often more than not as a double feature with Curtiz' "Dr. X". They just always felt compatible. Still, when Fay Wray is in the film, it just reminds me why she was cast a lot in the early 30s. She's even more stunning in color. The archivists who restored the film really provided an incredible print, the best I've ever seen of it. The colors are so pronounced, so rich, and the details over Curtiz' newspaper set with all the reporters at their typewriters, as if assembly line workers moving through product, and the busy city (and derelict, empty streets at night), not to mention, the morgue, police station, and wax museum as well, are brought to life as if seen in a theater in 1933. It is damned impressive. On an evening in late October, "Mystery of the Wax Museum" was a perfect choice. I'm still cleansing my palate after "Halloween: Resurrection" and following "Dead of Night" (1945) with this has most certainly helped.

I know that fans of "House of Wax" will always compare and contrast it with "Mystery of the Wax Museum" and rightfully so. While some scenes remain (the drunk in the '59 film is a junkie/addict in the '33 film; the dirtbag co-financier who burned down the museum in the '59 film is hung by Price through an elevator shaft and displayed as much while the fate of the same creep in the '33 film is only revealed dead by Atwill to Wray at the end; Picerni, Kirk's love interest in the '59 film fights Chuck Bronson's mute, while Atwill himself fights Wray's beau, knocking him out in the '33 film), others are slightly different in some respects. Carolyn Jones is strangled by Price in the '59 film and her body stolen, with him eventually using her for Joan of Arc in his museum in more detail while Monica Bannister's fate in the '33 film isn't so elaborated. While I prefer the '59 film because Price is just so much fun and larger than life, that doesn't mean I don't revel in Atwill's own delicious portrayal of the mad sculptor who, through the burning of his prized pieces and museum thanks to an unscrupulous co-financier he later kills as Price did, is driven crazy because of the burns and what they do to his hands, depriving him of his ability to craft and shape from his genius. I think both films still give us our wax museum candy, but it does seem the '59 film gives us just a bit more of it...that might also be why I prefer it. But Wray's absence from the '59 film is felt, no offense to those who like Kirk. All these years, and Wray remains so striking. Curtiz might have been difficult, but you can see his talents at composing grand setpieces. I moved my rating of "Mystery of the Wax Museum" from 3/5 to 4/5 thanks to this incredible restoration. The Two-Strip Technicolor pops.