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From the ancient La Brea Tar Pits to the latest hotels and cultural attractions, read on for a timeline of the incredible history of Los Angeles. Definitely, one of my top films from the 50s, House of Wax is now widely regarded as a classic. Apparently, the viewing public has changed its mind in the past 70 years as House of Wax now has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2014. Price, of course, riding the wave of House of Wax, went on to fright film glory in his many Roger Corman-produced Poe adaptations that came after. He even managed to revisit the “disfigured genius out for revenge” trope to great effect in the Dr. Phibes films. We rank every one of the British director's movies by Metascore, from his debut Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels to his brand new film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
Storyline
Tobacco magnate turned real estate developer Abbot Kinney carves out canals near the beach, naming the district the Venice of America. The following is a general historical timeline of the city of Los Angeles, California in the United States of America. Though likely captivating to a typical 1950s audience, the 3-D gimmicks featured in House of Wax occasionally detract from the flow of Crane Wilbur’s narrative. Particularly distracting are the antics of a barker played by Reggie Rymal, whose implicit violation of the fourth wall (i.e. shooting a paddleball in the viewer’s direction) is overemphasized to the point of absurdity. Find a list of new movie and TV releases on DVD and Blu-ray (updated weekly) as well as a calendar of upcoming releases on home video.
It's Such a Beautiful Day
For the above reasons, fans of classic horror and suspense movies in particular should enjoy this film—mild camp factor notwithstanding. Upon its release, House of Wax, despite being trashed by critics, was a resounding box office hit, earning almost $24 million on a $1 million budget (in adjusted numbers). Audiences were thrilled by the lavish colors and the surprisingly effective 3-D, as well as with the reemergence of the “master of menace” Price.
American period
Vincent Price in ‘House of Wax,’ Now in a 3-D Blu-ray - The New York Times
Vincent Price in ‘House of Wax,’ Now in a 3-D Blu-ray.
Posted: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Jarrod, whose dependence on a wheelchair was feigned, sneaks up behind her and, after confirming her suspicion, chases her around the museum. When her struggling causes a plaster mask to break off from his disfigured face, she faints. Meanwhile, at the police station, after being plied with drinks, Leon confesses that Jarrod uses real corpses dipped in wax for his exhibits and that the body of the missing city official is on exhibit as Booth. Leon goes on to confess that Cathy was killed for her resemblance to Jarrod's vision of Joan of Arc and that Burke was killed in revenge for setting fire to the original wax museum.
‘EASTER BLOODY EASTER’ Director and Star Diane Foster Interview
After a struggle in the museum, the murderous Jarrod (who had only feigned his paralysis) falls to his death into a cauldron of hot wax. By substituting mystery elements with horror-themed subject matter, House of Wax offers a fresh and compelling update on the premise for Michael Curtiz’ aforementioned Mystery of the Wax Museum. Although the entire newspaper angle of the earlier film was eliminated and Mystery was set in the year it was released, whereas House of Wax was set in circa 1902, the two films have many similarities in plot and dialogue. Sue attends the grand opening of the museum with Scott and is troubled by how the Joan of Arc wax figure resembles Cathy. Jarrod overhears her and claims he based the figure on photos of Cathy he saw in the newspaper.
To Jarrod's horror, Burke then starts a fire, which spreads rapidly, and the duo fight while Jarrod's work is destroyed. House of Wax is a 1953 American color 3-D horror thriller film, about a disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated corpses as displays. Directed by Andre DeToth and starring Vincent Price, it is a remake of Warner Bros.’ Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). Price portrayed Prof. Henry Jarrod, an ingenious sculptor of wax statues and part owner of a wax museum that is burned down by his business partner in an attempt to collect insurance money.
House of Wax revitalized the film career of Vincent Price, who had been playing secondary character parts and occasional sympathetic leads since the late 1930s. After this high-profile role, he was in high-demand for the rest of his career to play fiendish villains, mad scientists, and other deranged characters in genre films such as The Tingler (1959), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971). Supporting actress Carolyn Jones, who had her first credited role in House of Wax, gained a much higher profile more than a decade later when she played Morticia Addams in the TV comedy horror spoof The Addams Family. The police, having learned about everything from a guilt-ridden Averill, race to the museum as Scott returns and battles Igor, who attempts to decapitate the former using a guillotine featured in one of the displays. Arriving just in time to apprehend Igor and save Scott, the police break into Jarrod's workshop.
In the 1890s, in New York City, Matthew Burke, part-owner of a wax museum, needs money and is impatient over his partner's, the refined and eccentric wax sculptor, Prof. Henry Jarrod's, insistence that the museum avoid lucrative sensationalism. Jarrod, horrified to see his exquisite wax figures of famous historical people, which he considers "friends," melt away, fights Burke and tries to put out the flames, until gas fumes unite with the fire and the building explodes. Later, Burke receives all of the insurance money, as Jarrod is believed to be dead, but Burke is then killed and left dangling in an elevator shaft. At a boardinghouse, a giddy, promiscuous blonde, Cathy Gray, who was dating Burke, is found dead in her room by her friend and fellow boarder, Sue Allen. Sue is chased out the window and through the streets by a man in black, until she takes refuge with friends of her family, Mrs. Andrews and her son Scott. The next day, when the Andrewses and Sue visit the police, Lt. Tom Brennan mentions that Cathy's body, as well as several others, have disappeared from the morgue.
After being shown Jarrod's basement laboratory, where plaster-of-paris figures are dipped in a vat of boiling wax, Wallace agrees to finance the museum. Scott, who has grown fond of Sue, takes her on opening day to the Grand Wax Museum and Chamber of Horrors, where they wander through recreations of executions by electrocution, torture and guillotine, as well as recent events, such as the mysterious hanging of Burke. When Sue sees the figure of Joan of Arc, she is shocked by its likeness to Cathy, which, except for its dark hair, is exact, even to its pierced ears. After Wallace introduces Scott and Sue to Jarrod, the sculptor remarks that Sue resembles his favorite creation, Marie Antoinette, who was destroyed in the fire, and offers Scott, who is also a sculptor, work in the museum. Sue's concern about the wax Joan of Arc's likeness to Cathy prompts Scott to take her to visit Brennan, who promises to investigate further. Brennan and his men check out the museum and find that the wax figure of John Wilkes Booth bears striking resemblance to a murdered city official, whose body recently disappeared.
Soon thereafter, the partner and his girlfriend go missing, and Jarrod, who was thought to have died in the fire, shows up alive but disfigured and wheelchair-bound. He approaches a wealthy financier with a plan for a new wax museum, a “Chamber of Horrors” that will exhibit eerily lifelike wax figures. It is soon noticed, however, that the waxworks bear a striking resemblance to persons mysteriously missing from the community, and this leads to the horrific discovery that the figures on display are actual corpses dipped in wax.
Newly struck prints of the film in Chris Condon's single-strip StereoVision 3D format were used for this release. The state-of-the-art stadium is the home of the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. The 3.1 million square-foot stadium is the largest in the NFL, as well as the first indoor-outdoor stadium to be constructed.
After examining the guillotine, Picerni said he would do one take and no more, which is exactly what happened. The 13-story United Artists Building is built in Downtown LA and is home to the flagship movie theatre of United Artists. He had full support of the Olympic committee for the 1932 Summer Olympic Games taking place in Los Angeles. Jack Dempsey, World Heavy Weight Champion, and Estelle Taylor, film actress, were present. House of Wax is a 3-D horror delight that combines the atmospheric eerieness of the wax museum with the always chilling presence of Vincent Price. In 1971, House of Wax was re-released to theaters in 3D with a full advertising campaign.
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