Masques de cire

Titre original : Mystery of the Wax Museum

NOTE IMDb

6,8/10

7,2 k

MA NOTE

The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.

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Horror Mystery Thriller

Une journaliste enquête sur le suicide de Joan Gale et sur la disparition de son cadavre. Ses recherches la mène dans un musée de cire où travaille un sinistre sculpteur.Une journaliste enquête sur le suicide de Joan Gale et sur la disparition de son cadavre. Ses recherches la mène dans un musée de cire où travaille un sinistre sculpteur.Une journaliste enquête sur le suicide de Joan Gale et sur la disparition de son cadavre. Ses recherches la mène dans un musée de cire où travaille un sinistre sculpteur.

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

NOTE IMDb

6,8/10

7,2 k

MA NOTE

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

Avis des utilisateurs132

Commentaire à la une

A Thirties Movies Made for the 30s.

Considering the fact that this 1933 movie was produced during the depression, when moviegoers expected pure entertainment, the results were exactly what they wanted. Glenda Farrell's hard-boiled Florence Dempsey was what filmgoers were looking for. Please note that many of the movies of the period had male and female stars who were fast talkers and wise-crackers. Such stars as Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Rosalind Russell, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Mae West, W. C. Fields, William Powell, Myrna Loy, etc. were the norm and not the exception.

This wonderful movie was way ahead of its time. It's two-color look was also something very different for the 1930s and its washed-out looked helped give it a more sinister appearance. The later "House of Wax" used 3-D and having seen it in the movies I can tell you it was probably the best of the 3-D movies. Even better than "The Creature from the Black Lagoon".

Fay Wray was pure candy and she practiced her scream well for the upcoming "King Kong". I have seen most of Lionel Atwill's work and I believe the underplaying of Ivan Igor helped make him a more credible monster. The movie was well cast and one can not help but notice the uncanny fact that most of the actors in "The House of Wax" were chosen because they looked like the earlier actors except for the difference between Charles Buchinsky (Bronson) and Matthew Betz as the loyal mute assistant.

Although enjoyable, "The House of Wax" was no match for the earlier edition. It's understandable that "The House of Wax" did not use the characters of Florence Dempsey and Gavin Gordon. Sidekicks didn't work as well as in the 50s.

I wonder what the movie critics of the 30s thought of the "Mystery of the Wax Museum?"

pfeinman
13 sept. 2003
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Anecdotes
This film was produced before the Production Code. When it was remade 20 years later, as L'Homme au masque de cire (1953), all references to drug use were removed, and a character was changed from a junkie to an alcoholic.

Gaffes
Ivan Igor says that Jean Paul Marat's assassin, Charlotte Corday, was his mistress. This is incorrect; they never had 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.

Citations
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.

Versions alternatives
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.