Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

Top cast38

Edit

Lionel Atwill

Ivan Igor

Fay Wray

Charlotte Duncan

Glenda Farrell

Florence

Frank McHugh

Jim

Allen Vincent

Ralph Burton

Gavin Gordon

George Winton

Edwin Maxwell

Joe Worth

Holmes Herbert

Dr. Rasmussen

Claude King

Mr. Galatalin

Arthur Edmund Carewe

Prof. Darcy

Thomas E. Jackson

Detective
(as Thomas Jackson)

DeWitt Jennings

Police Captain

Matthew Betz

Hugo

Monica Bannister

Joan Gale

Bull Anderson

Janitor
(uncredited)

Frank Austin

Winton's Valet
(uncredited)

Max Barwyn

Museum Visitor
(uncredited)

Wade Boteler

Ambrose
(uncredited)

Director
- Michael Curtiz
Writers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

6.4

7.0

6.2

6.4

7.1

The Most Dangerous Game

6.8

The Raven

7.0

The Old Dark House

6.3

Murders in the Rue Morgue

6.9

The Black Cat

7.6

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

7.4

Island of Lost Souls

7.2

Mad Love

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
This film was produced before the Production Code. When it was remade 20 years later, as House of Wax (1953), all references to drug use were removed, and a character was changed from a junkie to an alcoholic.

Goofs
Ivan Igor says that Jean Paul Marat's assassin, Charlotte Corday, was his mistress. Not so - they had never met until she came to his office posing as a courier and quickly stabbed him to death. After her execution a few days later, she was found to be virgo intacta.

Quotes
Florence: Listen, Joan Gale's body was swiped from the morgue, have you ever heard of such a thing as a death mask?
Jim: I used to be married to one.
Florence: Then it came to life and divorced you, I know all about that.

Alternate versions
This film was shot in two versions. One camera unit shot the film in two-color Technicolor. A second camera unit shot the scenes at the same time in black and white. The black and white version was meant for theaters who could not afford the higher rental cost of the color prints.

Connections
Edited into Mame (1974)

Soundtracks
Agitato
(uncredited)
Music by Bernhard Kaun
Stock cue played over main titles

Remember this forgotten masterpiece

A genuinely frightening film from Michael Curtiz, jack of no trades and master of all. Many of the tricks of classic 1930's horror are here, including the opening scene set in a dark, rainy London street, the long shadows on the wall, lengthy periods of silence, and all timed to perfection. Only the faster-than-the-speed-of-sound dialogue of Glenda Farrell truly lets the film down. But other than that it is a gothic masterpiece, an underrated movie probably due to the fact that it lay undiscovered, thought lost, for over half a century. Far more inventive and imaginative than the majority of horror films made today.