House of Wax (1953)

This 1953 horror mystery starring Vincent Price, a remake of the 1933 The Mystery of the Wax Museum, is preoccupied with getting all it can out of its state-of-the-art 3D technology and so features drawn out scenes like one of a high-kick cabaret dance and another featuring a street performer doing odd things with three ping pong bats and balls, which show-off the 3D tech but add nothing to the horror and mystery involving body snatching, murder, and a hideous figure stalking through the shadows of NYC, and so this reviewer prefers the 1933 original!

★★★☆☆

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The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

Remade in 1953 as House of Wax with Vincent Price, this superior 1933 original is not distracted by 3D gimmickry and instead delivers a deliciously creepy horror mystery that is, for its time, surprisingly risqué, featuring policemen reading pornography, a smart-talking no-nonsense female journalist who backchats her boss, body snatching, squirming embalmed bodies made noisy by their fluids, and even casual references to suicide!

★★★★☆

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