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House Of Wax [1953]
![House Of Wax [1953]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5165R8C6BDL._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £13.99
Our Price: £3.97 (subject to change)
Decent film with a wonderful extra!
Review date: 2007-06-22 Rating: 8 out of 10
The Vincent Price film is fun for most of its running time. Price is good value as always and there are some good set pieces - including the initial fire in the wax museum and some well staged fogbound stalking. However it is let down by a plodding pace and a weak supporting cast that gives the film a very 'buttoned down' fifties feel.
As noted by the first reviewer an 'extra' on this disc is the earlier Michael Curtiz version from the 1930s which is simply fantastic. This is scripted at a much faster pace and has a far more satisfying story based around a newspaper reporter (wise cracking blonde Glenda Farrel)investigating the case. It is filmed in the early two strip technicolor process which has a muted and limited colour range but in fact this really adds to the atmosphere of the film. Fay Wray gets to scream a lot and look pretty (she succeeds on both counts) and Lionell Atwill makes the villain a believable human being (and therefore all the more chilling). Echoes of art deco in some of the set designs adds another pleasing dimension to the staging of the film. A marked contrast to the flat - almost televisual - look of the later version. The biggest puzzle is why this delight is buried away and barely mentioned on the packaging of the DVD.
Both films are worth watching - just make sure you watch fifties version first and then follow up with the sharper version from the thirties.
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Reviews
GREAT NEWS!!! - UNDISCLOSED EXTRAS! - EXTRA FILM!
Review date: 2005-11-03 Rating: 10 out of 10
Wow! not only do you get HOUSE OF WAX starring Vincent Price on this DVD but also MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, the earlier, 1933 film starrin LIONELL ATWILL on which its based. AND.... some great, silent newsreel footage of the premiere of the VINCENT PRICE version, you see BELA LUGOSI turning up with a man dressed as a gorilla!!!!!!!! really bizarre.
NOT as bizzare though as WARNERS strange decision NOT to advertise these extras on the packaging, I only noticed that under the cast/credits of the VINCENT PRICE version on the back of the box there was also in tiny writing the cast list of the LIONELL ATWILL version...and so put it in my DVD player and WOW!
This is a GREAT dvd with 2 superb movies...it would sell tons more if WARNERS done a proper job on the packaging.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Phyllis Kirk
Carolyn Jones
Vincent Price
Charles Bronson
Frank Lovejoy
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900110549
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2005-05-23
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 85 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1953
Language: English (Original Language)