Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  A very cool movie, I especially love Atwill, he's a favourite of mine, and he does a great job in this movie. The story is really engaging, the special effects are awesome, there are some funny moments, and the ending was interesting too. I just wish that the wax figures could… More
  A very cool movie, I especially love Atwill, he's a favourite of mine, and he does a great job in this movie. The story is really engaging, the special effects are awesome, there are some funny moments, and the ending was interesting too. I just wish that the wax figures could have been creepier like they are in real life. Overall I really liked this movie, though, and I highly recommend it.

• Stella D

  
  a landmark mystery/horror made by warner brothers, this was later remade (twice) as house of wax. much as i love vincent price, i think this one is superior altho it has a healthy dose of comedy too. after being disfigured in a fire at his london museum, lionel atwill moves to new… More
  a landmark mystery/horror made by warner brothers, this was later remade (twice) as house of wax. much as i love vincent price, i think this one is superior altho it has a healthy dose of comedy too. after being disfigured in a fire at his london museum, lionel atwill moves to new york and tries to recreate his masterpieces in wax. when bodies start vanishing from the morgue, intrepid reporter glenda farrell is on the case. also starring fay wray as farrell's rommate, who looks a little too much like marie antoinette...this was the last picture from a major studio in the early two color technicolor process

• Matthew Y

  
  Mystery of the Wax Museum is a solid Horror flick from the 30's that is often overlooked especially because most people catch the 1953 Vincent Price version. The film is at both times an atmospheric, intriguing murder story and a sassy investigation film. When the female… More
  Mystery of the Wax Museum is a solid Horror flick from the 30's that is often overlooked especially because most people catch the 1953 Vincent Price version. The film is at both times an atmospheric, intriguing murder story and a sassy investigation film. When the female reporter replies "So, how's your sex life" I nearly sprayed my soda across the room. How'd that one get past the sensors in 1933? This humorous side, along with lots of enjoyable prohibition dialog, keep the film entertaining and certainly worth recommending.

• Ryan M

  
  7.0/10 There is one fatal flaw to "Mystery of the Wax Museum". It does not have the twist that it wants to have. Thanks to the existence of plot synopses and the like, we already know what the big reveal is going to be. That's not to say that the film has a… More
  7.0/10 There is one fatal flaw to "Mystery of the Wax Museum". It does not have the twist that it wants to have. Thanks to the existence of plot synopses and the like, we already know what the big reveal is going to be. That's not to say that the film has a bad ending, but it is underwhelming compared to the fear that we are intended to experience. Otherwise, the movie still makes for a pretty solid, creepy time. It is thoroughly entertaining. It is engaging. And while it's not really scary, it has a heck of an atmosphere, and that's more than enough. It's probably not as good as its first remake, "House of Wax", but it's still worth seeing just for what it's got; and believe me, it's got plenty. I liked how it looked, how it felt, and pretty much everything else. It was well-acted, somewhat well-written, and with only that one little-big flaw keeping it from absolute greatness. Ivan Igor, the owner and operator of a wax museum (which he sculpts for), loses his creations to a fire, the source of which was his greedy business partner; whose reason for burning the place was to use the insurance money for himself. Igor was left burn and disfigured both internally and externally after the incident, but it's clear that he's not ready to give up on life. Twelve years after the destructive fire, Igor re-opens a NEW Wax Museum for the entertainment and admiration of those who like his hard work. But will the wax make a Marie Antoinette? Will the man's "children" live once again? The answers to each question are predictably answered in the end, but I guess it's worth sticking around. Meanwhile, a reporter-woman investigates the disappearance and possible suicide of a local model. She is given the possibility that maybe it was murder, so she goes as deep as she possibly can with the case. The body is stolen from the morgue in which it resided, which adds to the mystery. The story is simple in an endearing sense. But what makes the movie work, as I said, is the fact that it redeems itself through atmosphere. It was tense, undeniably creepy, and man, I liked it quite a bit for that. The production is lush, colorful, and the cinematography is at least fairly interesting. I also liked how the film made time for humor and comic relief, which never really consists of stuff that I laughed at, but it made the experience a better one than it needed to be. I enjoyed myself, as much as I possibly could, whilst watching it. And I'm glad I sat through it. There are better horror movies. There are worse horror movies. I don't recommend this one, per se, but "Mystery of the Wax Museum" is definitely a good thriller if not a good horror movie. It works, as a chiller and a thriller; but I don't know about something that's actually scary. But what is "scary"? I mean, come on; you could do worse. I didn't jump, I didn't cringe, but the film definitely has a lot going for it, and I liked what I saw. I also would like to take some time to acknowledge the performance of Lionel Atwill, who plays Igor. He is very good in this role. He's one of the finer attractions, of the entire product. And while the film may be a tough sell with this generation of horror fans, you don't need to be an old-timer to appreciate such fine acting. All-in-all, I'd tell you to see this movie only if you like the genre, and if you're willing to accept a flawed ending. I'm eager to watch "House of Wax" now; and I'm hoping that it will be better; because better is...well, better.

• Hal M

  
  An abrasively brassy female newspaper reporter stumbles on the suspicious fact that a new figure featured in a wax museum strikingly resembles the missing corpse of an heiress. This is such a good premiss it inspired several later movies. Unlike those though this is played as a… More
  An abrasively brassy female newspaper reporter stumbles on the suspicious fact that a new figure featured in a wax museum strikingly resembles the missing corpse of an heiress. This is such a good premiss it inspired several later movies. Unlike those though this is played as a whodunit mystery, not as a horror movie. This is a sound movie ("Talkie") but the filmmakers are strangely oblivious to how it could be enhanced by scary or suspenseful music. This fact would make this a good choice for a cinema professor to play certain scenes for his class to show "gee, this scene fails for want of music!" The cinematography is notable here. Quite good for its day--check out the two-tone Technicolor. In 1933! (Instead of RGB, it's just RG, that is, Reds and Greens). As for dialogue? It's unintentionally hilarious at times--the repartee between the reporter and her hardboiled boss. Again, it's worthy of viewing in a cinema class as exemplary. As for the last-second, completely unexpected marriage proposal and assent of reporter and editor, I'd point to that as a paradigm example of some studio boss's interference: "Fine, fine. Mystery's solved, but where's the romance, damnit! Somebody's gotta get married at the end!" Haha. But still--cut this picture some slack. People who give it a terrible grade need to view some other less well-known pictures from the same era to realize what "Bad" is.