{"id":3894,"date":"2007-08-06T21:17:06","date_gmt":"2007-08-07T04:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3894"},"modified":"2021-09-03T13:04:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T20:04:55","slug":"house-of-wax-1953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3894","title":{"rendered":"House of Wax (1953)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Each subject must be taken from life&#8230; How can I convince my audience they&#8217;re alive if I don&#8217;t believe it myself?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-1953-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-1953-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-29760\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-1953-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-1953-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-1953-Poster.jpg 505w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen his unscrupulous business partner (Roy Roberts) burns down his beloved wax statues, the badly disfigured Professor Jarrod (Vincent Price) enlists the help of a deaf-mute (Charles Bronson) and an alcoholic ex-con (Nedrick Young) in killing Roberts and creating new masterpieces &#8212; this time using corpses as models. Soon, however, a young woman (Phyllis Kirk) notices that a statue of Joan of Arc looks just like her murdered roommate (Carolyn Jones), and begins to suspect foul deeds.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Artists<\/li>\n<li>Carolyn Jones Films<\/li>\n<li>Charles Bronson Films<\/li>\n<li>Disfigured Faces<\/li>\n<li>Frank Lovejoy Films<\/li>\n<li>Horror<\/li>\n<li>Mad Doctors and Scientists<\/li>\n<li>Vincent Price Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary votes this enormously popular Warnercolor extravaganza the &#8220;best 3-D movie&#8221; ever made, noting that &#8212; despite its flaws &#8212; it possesses a &#8220;nice mix of humor and chills&#8221;. He applauds director Andre de Toth&#8217;s gimmicky use of 3-D &#8212; a barker throws paddle balls right at the audience:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle-1024x658.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"411\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-55323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle-1024x658.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle-128x82.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle-768x494.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle-1536x987.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle-420x270.png 420w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Paddle.png 1613w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; can-can girls kick their legs out &#8212; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs-1024x646.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"404\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-55324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs-1024x646.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs-300x189.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs-128x81.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs-768x484.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs-1536x968.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs-428x270.png 428w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/House-of-Wax-Legs.png 1629w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and it&#8217;s certainly easy to imagine audiences at the time being thrilled by these scenes; nowadays, however &#8212; watching it on DVD rather than in the theater &#8212; the 3-D effects aren&#8217;t all that impressive. Instead, it&#8217;s Vincent Price (in his first horror role) who is the true draw of the movie &#8212; he&#8217;s <em>so <\/em>earnestly campy that we can&#8217;t help feeling awful for him when his beloved statues (his <em>friends<\/em>) are cruelly &#8220;killed&#8221;; and we certainly understand his desire for bitter revenge. Unfortunately, Phyllis Kirk as the female lead is bland, and can&#8217;t hold a candle to spunky Glenda Farrell in the original version of the film &#8212; which (unlike Peary) I find the superior of the two. With that said, this remake remains a &#8220;must see&#8221; film in its own right.    <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vincent Price as Professor Jarrod (chatting here with &#8220;John Wilkes Boothe&#8221;)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Price.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Price.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Price.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Price-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Price-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Price-360x270.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The wax museum burning down (though the same scene in the original film is even creepier)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Burning.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Burning.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Burning.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Burning-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Burning-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Burning-360x270.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Kirk&#8217;s late-night walk through the new museum<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Night.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Night.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Night.jpg 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Night-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Night-128x96.jpg 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/HOW-Night-360x270.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, for its historical relevance as an enormously popular 3-D film, and as the movie that began Vincent Price&#8217;s career as a horror icon. Discussed at length in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=5986\">Peary&#8217;s <em>Cult Movies<\/em> (1981)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=1784#historical\">Historically Relevant<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0045888\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moriareviews.com\/horror\/house-of-wax-1953.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s915wax.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/16092\/house-of-wax#articles-reviews?articleId=88209\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/newyork\/reviews\/72330\/House_of_Wax.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Each subject must be taken from life&#8230; How can I convince my audience they&#8217;re alive if I don&#8217;t believe it myself?&#8221; Synopsis: When his unscrupulous business partner (Roy Roberts) burns down his beloved wax statues, the badly disfigured Professor Jarrod (Vincent Price) enlists the help of a deaf-mute (Charles Bronson) and an alcoholic ex-con (Nedrick Young) in killing Roberts and creating new masterpieces &#8212; this time using corpses as models. Soon, however, a young woman (Phyllis Kirk) notices that a&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3894\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3894"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75735,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894\/revisions\/75735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}