Ivan Igor
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Mystery of the Wax Museum is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery-horror film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, and Frank McHugh.It was produced and released by Warner Bros. and filmed in two-color Technicolor; Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum were the last two dramatic fiction films made using this process.
- Overview
- Plot
is directed by Michael Curtiz and released on 1933 by Warner Bros.
The film stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, and Frank McHugh.
Ivan Igor is asculptor who operates a wax museum in 1921 London. He gives a private tour to a friend and an investor, showing them sculptures of Joan of Arc,Voltaire, and his favorite, Marie Antoinette. Formerly a stone sculptor who did wax modeling as a hobby, he explains he turned to wax sculpting completely because he felt more "satisfied" that he could reproduce "the warmth, flesh, and blood of life far more better in wax than in cold stone". The investor, impressed by his sculptures, offers to submit Igor's work to the Royal Academy after he returns from a trip.
Unfortunately business at the museum is failing due to people's attraction to the macabre (a nearby wax museum caters to that). Igor's partner Joe Worth proposes to burn the museum down for the insurance money of £10,000. Igor won't have it, but Worth starts a fire anyway. Igor tries to stop him, and he and Worth get into a fight. As they fight, wax masterworks are melting in the flames. Worth knocks Igor unconscious, leaving the sculptor to die in the fire. Igor survives, however, and reemerges 12 years later in New York City, reopening a new wax museum. His hands and legs have been badly crippled in the fire, and he must rely on assistants to create his new sculptures.
Meanwhile, spunky reporter Florence Dempsey , on the verge of being fired for not bringing in any worthwhile news, is sent out by her impatient editor, Jim , to investigate the suicide of a model named Joan Gale . During this time, a hideous monster steals the body of Joan Gale from the morgue. When investigators find that her body has been stolen, they suspect murder. The finger initially points to George Winton , son of a powerful industrialist, but after visiting him in jail, Florence thinks differently.
Florence's roommate is Charlotte Duncan , whose fiancé Ralph works at Igor's new wax museum. While visiting the museum, Florence notices an uncanny resemblance between a wax figure of Joan of Arc and the dead model. At the same time, Igor spots Charlotte and remarks on her resemblance to his sculpture of Marie Antoinette.
Igor employs a couple of shady characters: Prof. Darcy , a drug addict, and Hugo , a deaf-mute. Darcy also works for Joe Worth, now a bootlegger in the city, among whose customers is none other than Winton.
While investigating an old house where Worth keeps his bootlegged alcohol, Florence discovers a monster connected with the museum, but cannot prove any connection with the disappearance of Joan Gale's body. Darcy is seen running from the house and is caught by the police. When brought to the station, he eventually breaks down and admits that Igor is in fact the killer and that he has been murdering people (including a missing judge whose watch was found on Darcy's person), stealing their bodies, and dipping them in wax to create lifelike statues.
Apr 21, 2020 · Released at the tail end of the 1930s horror craze, Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) delivered chills with its macabre plot (thought “too ghastly for comfort” and “unhealthy” by one New York Times critic) and effective use of the surreal two-color Technicolor palette, which was soon phased out for the more realistic three-color process.
A remake of the studio's own 1933 film, Mystery of the Wax Museum, it stars Vincent Price as a disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated corpses as displays.
Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) is the sculptor at a famous wax museum in London. When his partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), burns down the museum for the insurance money, Igor is trapped inside.
- (13)
- Lionel Atwill
- Michael Curtiz
- Horror
Apr 24, 2020 · Now a classic, “Wax Museum” was believed to be lost for decades until an original nitrate print was located in the collection of studio mogul Jack Warner. In 2019, the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Film Foundation undertook a new restoration with funding from the George Lucas Family Foundation, combining and repairing the best ...
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Sep 10, 2012 · In the early '30s, when Universal were riding high with Frankenstein and Dracula, Warners hunted round for their own horror subject, and found one in the idea of a sculptor who murders his...
