 |
The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) Starring: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Screenplay by Don Mullaly, Carl Erickson. Based on “The Wax Works" by Charles S. Belden. Producetarring: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh. Directed by Michael Curtiz. r Uncredited. Run time: 75 minutes. Color. Pre-Code. Horror.
Capitalizing on the success of Doctor X (1932),
Warner Bros. brought back the director, Michael Curtiz, as well as several of
the stars from that film, Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, in another horror film, The Mystery
of the Wax Museum. They also added to the cast Glenda Farrell, who was a
rising star at the studio, and the reliable character actor Frank McHugh.
The Mystery of the Wax Museum was the last film to use
the two-strip Technicolor process and was considered lost for a number of
years. Color was still a bit of a novelty in the early 1930s and Technicolor
was an expensive process. The process
required extremely bright lights, resulting in hot temperatures on the set and
even eye damage to many actors during that period. In The Mystery of the Wax
Museum, the enormous heat generated by the lights needed for the two-color
process made the wax figures melt, so in most scenes, the figures were played
by actors.
