It's Monsterous Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots the very first movie filmed in 3-D by Warner Bros. and it stars the awesome Vincent Price as the mad sculptor. This film's budget was a whopping $658,000, but, it grossed an astronomical... $23,750,000!!!
Eegah!! sent over a musical soundclip of the dude with the paddle ball (with screams at the end) from this flick,
sooooo, you can push the big red
'GO' button there next to the hot wax machine,
NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for...
HOUSE OF WAX!
Roy Roberts plays Matthew Burke, business partner of Professor Henry Jarrod, creator of the magnificent wax figures. The heartless Burke decides to set the place on fire in order to collect insurance money, the same way Wall St. did the American people when they crashed the economy in 2008.
Burke and his high maintenance girlfriend, Cathy, played by Dungeon fave Carolyn Jones, discuss how they will spend all the money they have now!
But, greed is one of the 7 deadly sins and the sinner will soon pay for being a little bitch.
Then, being an accomplice to the crime gets this girlie a quick trip to the old wax works, she'll soon be a new attraction at the House Of Wax!
Jarrod shows patron Sidney Wallace, played by Paul Cavanagh, how his creations are made after an accident that left him crippled. That's his mute helper, Charles (MASTER OF THE WORLD, THE GREAT ESCAPE and DEATH WISH) Bronsan as Igor, working on a bust.
Here's a good look at the intricate wax applying machine.
Jarrod then shows off the newest murder victim to be installed in the House Of Wax, his former business associate, Matthew Burke.
Here's the paddle ball barker right after intermission as heard in the soundclip.
For 1953, this make up job is amazingly creepy!
Phyllis Kirk plays Sue Allen, a friend of Cathy's, she cannot get over how much this wax figure looks like her. This causes trouble for her as Jarrod is watching.
Let's not forget about these two guys, Dabbs Greer and Frank Lovejoy! Dabbs has 307 acting credits and was in THE VAMPIRE, IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE,
THE AQUANAUTS,
THE OUTER LIMITS,
THE INVADERS and
MOD SQUAD! Frank played a tough guy detective most of the time, he had 55 acting credits and died at the age of 50 in 1962.
Weird shot of Igor as he prepares the guillotine to decapitate Sue's beau!
Then, it's Sue's turn to taste the wax, Jarrod looks absolutely terrifying here!
In the end, Jarrod falls into the hot wax vat, it causes wax to spill onto the fragile glass tubes, destroying everything!
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Director Jack Arnold is one of the all-time best, period!! His titles speak for themselves!! Besides, SOUNDCLIP NO LONGER AVAILABLE he is also responsible for "It Came From Outer Space", "Creature From The Black Lagoon", and "Tarantula" just as a couple of examples, not to mention another 30 years of directing prime time TV shows!
But, since we are here to talk mostly about the music, I gotta tell you that they missed a very golden opportunity here. Somebody was real smart and used trumpet player Ray Anthony as a soloist during the theme music, and it is quite beautiful, rich and you're really going to dig it! Here's my problem, why only during the theme? There are very long parts of this movie with no dialogue when teeny tiny Robert Scott Carey is trapped in the basement, and has the adventure of his life, and all the music is totally orchestrated, and loses all it's character! Supposedly stellar names like Irving Gertz, Elliot Lawrence, Hans J. Salter, and Herman Stein are responsible, but as you can see on the credits, it's only music supervision by Joseph Gershenson. 
A fantastic duo, Grant Williams as Scott Carey, and the enchanting Randy Stuart as Mrs. Louise Carey! Life is perfect!! But then........
Here it comes, whatever it is! This story was written by another Sci-Fi master, Richard Matheson, and combined with a great cast, you've got yourself one real classic monster movie!! Another great film where there is no need to explain anything, weird stuff just happens and you deal with it!!
Right here's where the good music and the good times stop! Reality for Scott and Lou is a thing of the past, and it's all down hill from here!!! The movie just got started and you've already got the moral of the story! Get your own beer!!
You know what's causing the shrinking, but you will never know why! So what the heck was in that fog anyway? Pixie dust? Space Debris? No, just regular shrinkin' stuff!!!
They throw a real midget, the ultra famous face of Billy Curtis, into the act, for a quick bit just to legitimize things! See Mildred, I told you they was midgets!!
Maybe after they built all those killer sets, they didn't have enough money to pay Ray Anthony to blow throughout the whole film! Don't get me wrong, it's a great movie, it just could have been that much better!!!
This film doesn't exactly have a happy ending, here Louise gets ready to drive off in a very nice Chrysler with Scott's brother, never to return!
This movie never ends, it just keeps getting smaller!!
