The House of Wax

The House of Wax (1953)

***1/2

This is billed as the "best" 3D movie ever made (I'm partial to Jaws 3, personally, but oh well), but I wonder how it was originally handled. I actually suspect that they might have handed out the 3D glasses during the intermission because I had no idea it was a 3D movie until after then, when some guy starts hitting a paddle ball at the screen.

And from then on, it's pretty obvious that a lot effects are geered towards the the 3D thing. Just a theory--probably way off base, and maybe I just missed the early cues because I wasn't looking for them.

Anyway, it's a solid and fun Vincent Price spookfest. I actually was leaning towards a higher score early on, but there's a lull in the middle act that the movie never totally recovers from (though the climax is quite well done). Still, Price is great, and there's a young Charles Bronson playing the deaf mute Igor (seriously).

There's some great sets here too--a misty deserted alleyway chase is particularly well done, and of course all the wax is gorgeous and creepy. There's also this really elaborate and chilling looking guillotine setup in the museum, and I came across this true story about the making of that scene. Basically, the actor who gets put in the REAL FUCKING guillotine was supposed to pull his head out just as some set assistant would release the heavy metal blade.

From an interview with Picerini:

"So we get to this sequence and we shoot the first part of it. And De Toth says, "Now, Paul, you are in the guillotine. Charlie [Bronson!], you standing here. Frank, you come in with the cops. This is the next shot. You grab Charlie. You grapple with him. You say to him, ‘Where’s the girl?’ You see Paul in the guillotine. You rush over to Paul. You take out the block of wood. You pull Paul out and zoom, down come the blade! That’s the next shot. Light it." And I said, "André, you’re going to shoot this in two cuts, aren’t you? And he says, "No, we do it in one cut!" And he walked away.

So I said, "André, I don’t want to impose on your duties as director of this film, but how do you propose to do this in one shot?" He said, "Red Turner, the prop man, will sit on top of the guillotine. He will hold the block of wood between his legs. When the head is clear, he will release the blade, so we do it all in one cut."

And I said, "André, supposing Red Turner has a heart attack or there is an earthquake and he drops the blade prematurely?" André said, "It’ll only hurt you for a second. Now don’t worry. Get away."

"Look, this isn’t a case of being hurt if something goes wrong. It’s a case of being beheaded!"