I've never been a particularly big fan of Vincent Price, but I'll give credit where credit is due. "House of Wax" is a very good movie, with a few scenes that make you jump even though they're not all that frightening (think of the guillotine slicing down just a moment too late to cut off Andrews' head) and a general sense of creepiness throughout, heightened by the fact that much of the action takes place in that most creepy of places - a wax museum, where even in the most normal of circumstances you're surrounded by these very lifelike creations. That setting was used to very good effect. The performances in the movie were of a pretty high calibre, and the story was generally a lot of fun. There wasn't a great deal not to like in this.
Price played Professor Henry Jarrod. This was an interesting character, who makes a 180 degree turn in the course of the movie. As it opens, he's a gentle sculptor - a lover of beauty who creates beauty out of wax and avoids the strategy of many wax artists by refusing to depict scenes of horror and violence. The result, though, is that his museum gets little business, and his business partner finally burns the place down after a struggle with Jarrod in order to get the insurance money. But Jarrod - though he was trapped in the building and horribly burned - survives, and having gone mad as a result of his experience, he becomes a master sculptor of violence - this time using real human bodies as the foundations for his wax creations. Price pulled off both sides of Jarrod's character wonderfully. You feel some sympathy even the evil Jarrod, because you know he's gone mad - this isn't really him or what he was like. The beautiful girl who's required in these movies is here played by an actress named Phyllis Kirk, better known for television roles, but never really well known. As Sue Allen, Kirk transforms as well - from a sort of plain-Jane type (who's uncomfortable in a music hall watching dancing girls who show off their legs) at the start of the film to a very beautiful woman who becomes Jarrod's choice to be Marie Antoinette in his new house of horrors. The movie has a very suspenseful turn after Sue is captured by Jarrod, who's prepared to coat her still living body in boiling wax. Those scenes are interesting; Kirk becomes a vaguely erotic subject to be honest. This was 1953. It's never pictured, of course, but Sue is clearly naked on the table as the wax is being prepared. The various shots of her struggling against her restraints are clearly intended to make that point.
This is an enjoyable movie; one of the better that I've seen of Vincent Price's work. I chuckled quietly when I discovered that one of Jarrod's assistants in his house of horrors was a deaf mute named Igor. Does every mad doctor (even a mad sculptor) need an Igor? Could anything have been more cliché? But that was just amusing. It didn't detract from the movie at all. (7/10)
Price played Professor Henry Jarrod. This was an interesting character, who makes a 180 degree turn in the course of the movie. As it opens, he's a gentle sculptor - a lover of beauty who creates beauty out of wax and avoids the strategy of many wax artists by refusing to depict scenes of horror and violence. The result, though, is that his museum gets little business, and his business partner finally burns the place down after a struggle with Jarrod in order to get the insurance money. But Jarrod - though he was trapped in the building and horribly burned - survives, and having gone mad as a result of his experience, he becomes a master sculptor of violence - this time using real human bodies as the foundations for his wax creations. Price pulled off both sides of Jarrod's character wonderfully. You feel some sympathy even the evil Jarrod, because you know he's gone mad - this isn't really him or what he was like. The beautiful girl who's required in these movies is here played by an actress named Phyllis Kirk, better known for television roles, but never really well known. As Sue Allen, Kirk transforms as well - from a sort of plain-Jane type (who's uncomfortable in a music hall watching dancing girls who show off their legs) at the start of the film to a very beautiful woman who becomes Jarrod's choice to be Marie Antoinette in his new house of horrors. The movie has a very suspenseful turn after Sue is captured by Jarrod, who's prepared to coat her still living body in boiling wax. Those scenes are interesting; Kirk becomes a vaguely erotic subject to be honest. This was 1953. It's never pictured, of course, but Sue is clearly naked on the table as the wax is being prepared. The various shots of her struggling against her restraints are clearly intended to make that point.
This is an enjoyable movie; one of the better that I've seen of Vincent Price's work. I chuckled quietly when I discovered that one of Jarrod's assistants in his house of horrors was a deaf mute named Igor. Does every mad doctor (even a mad sculptor) need an Igor? Could anything have been more cliché? But that was just amusing. It didn't detract from the movie at all. (7/10)