Genre: Horror; Mystery For 50 years, Warner Brothers believed the print was lost due to a variety of issues. The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor. In interviews, Rennahan said he was proudest of his work in “Doctor X” and “Wax Museum.” In 1970 when he saw the earliest attempt to restore “Wax Museum” with the basic tools of the day, he was so dismayed that he walked out of the theater. And it was in color in the 1930s? [email protected]. Sporting multiple locations, stunning makeup and probably Fay Wray’s best performance; Mystery of the Wax Museum deserves way more attention. Lost films being found is the closest thing to a human interest story that I care about. The Warner Bros. film reunited legendary director Michael Curtiz with his “Doctor X” (1932) cinematographer Ray Rennahan, a master in the art and technique of early color film, and actors Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. So it was always in the back of my mind, as it was for many of my generation who started to embrace old movies growing up. What more can be said? Producer: Henry Blanke, Run Time: 78 MIN 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. We were able to electronically grade it to match the Warner print. Color: COLOR. Technicolor patented a camera that allowed two exposures to be shot on one piece of film through a prism that split the light through two apertures and used two filters—red and green. We probably picked up half a dozen shots from it, though it had inferior color. He uses a crack team of unknown heroes to bring you the latest and greatest in Entertainment News. Michael Curtiz was one of Warner Brothers’ greatest directors of the Golden Age. THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) New to Blu-ray: https://bit.ly/MystWaxBD Fay Wray wasn’t even really the lead actress in this film. He used it to add an ominous green to the horror aspects, mixing it with white light on the principal actors so they could move through a spooky world, and red-orange for danger. The pseudo Front Page style domestic drama evokes Bram Stoker at best and screwball newspaper comedy at worst. It has a clarity now we’ve never experienced, quiet without sounding processed. You can see how a panicked artist might make the wrong decision only to have it burn his ass. Subscribe to a UCLA Newsroom RSS feed and our story headlines will be automatically delivered to your news reader. In this interview, the Archive’s head of preservation, Scott MacQueen, discusses the film’s production history and recent restoration. 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 surviving 35mm elements. If you give a horror loving mouse a cookie, then he wants to launch a historic entertainment line of films during a Pandemic. Horror restored. Pingback: Selena highlights underrated 90s talent [Warner Archive review] | AndersonVision, Pingback: Romance on the High Seas | AndersonVision. He’d say, “That’s it, go home.”, Marisa Soto The Blu-ray of The Mystery of the Wax Museum from Warner Archive features 1080p resolution, and is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. We were also able to get lost frames back, including a line of Glenda Farrell’s: “I asked you to keep your trap shut!” The Warner print has a splice there. Shot almost back-to-back with Doctor X, this film is clearly the superior production. I feel that many people get that confused due to how prominent Wray was during the finale. That’s right, kids. Whether it’s Waxworks or The Mystery of the Wax Museum, there is something creepy about wax figures. Language: English Thanks to the meticulous new restoration presented on this disc, the film can now be experienced as intended. Growing up, I found this story via Waxworks and Vestron Video. Thankfully, Jack Warner had an archive of prints that he kept for the ages. Is it true they used actors in place of wax figures because of the extremely hot lights? Yet, they recovered and the George Lucas Family Foundation, UCLA and the Film Foundation were able to save Mystery of the Wax Museum. We partnered with Roundabout Entertainment on the picture clean-up and grading; they digitally cleaned the damage and made major repairs and full color correction, as dye transfer prints frequently don’t match across reels. The restored color is more consistent than the original print. While I prefer House of Wax to The Mystery of the Wax Museum, I find Ivan Igor to be a little sympathetic than Price’s later turn. But, that goes to show you how pulling a film out of circulation can shift the popular culture. Filmed in the early Two-Color Technicolor process, The Mystery of the Wax Museum was considered a lost film for decades, until a well-worn print was discovered nearly 50 years ago. Sure, it the two-strip style that is virtually painted Black and White film stock, but it looks so cool. 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 surviving 35mm elements. This restored version will be released on Blu-ray/DVD by the Warner Archive Collection in May. My parents knew it as House of Wax and the Zoomers have the Paris Hilton one from the 00s. They also wanted some of the actors to really look like their wax counterparts. The art and craft of restoration has come a long way in 50 years. I got a paper route in the late-’60s on my little country road in New York and actress Glenda Farrell was one of my customers. Bodies are mysteriously disappearing all over town, and a new wax museum has just opened. Glenda Farrell gets most of the focus, but they kind of have a similar look. “Mystery of the Wax Museum” before (left) and after the restoration (right). Sure, it the two-strip style that is virtually painted Black and White film stock, but it looks so cool. 310-206-8588 Staggering the opening across a 12 year period, we learn of the injured Ivan Igor. He did all their tests, was there all through the evolution of the process, and was probably the greatest cinematic color expert at the time. We used a 1933 nitrate print that was discovered around 1969 in Jack Warner’s vault at Warner Bros. A second nitrate copy was found in the 2000s by a collector and is now in the Packard Humanities Institute collection. He would keep on shooting, and then finally one of the wax heads would just fall off. The Mystery of the Wax Museum is one of the first American horror films shot in Technicolor. Audio: MONO - English, DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English While Curtiz would move on from horror movies to historical epics and romance films, there is something killer about his approach. Due to how film was processed back during the Depression, a lot of prints didn’t survive that long. Subtleties that have been forever masked, like the heavy breathing of the morgue monster, are heard for the first time. Both film stars Fay Wray and Glenda Farrell talked to me about that, it was just awful. Shot almost back-to-back with Doctor X, this film is clearly the superior production. I was an old man of 13. You will receive a link to create a new password via email. Is Zoomer the right word? The Mystery of the Wax Museum is one of the first American horror films shot in Technicolor. (Check your inbox or spam filter for confirmation.). Thanks to the meticulous new restoration presented on this disc, the film can now be experienced as intended. In this horror classic, Fay Wray (King Kong) stars as the intended next victim of a mad wax sculptor obsessed with her resemblance to one of his prior creations. Thanks to the meticulous new restoration presented on this disc, the film can now be experienced as intended. The film was shot in the early, two-color Technicolor process. The last one they restored was Dodsworth and that has never looked better. Curtiz finally sent everyone home when the drooping wax figures hit the floor. It was clear that the Jack Warner print had been cobbled together from a variety of prints with different color balances. There were places where it was undamaged and had additional frames compared to the Jack Warner print. Q&A with Scott MacQueen, the Archive’s head of preservation discusses the film’s history and recent restoration, © 2020 Regents of University of California, Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) information for the UCLA campus community, UCLA Health scientists pioneer faster, cheaper COVID-19 testing technology, Andrea Ghez wins 2020 Nobel Prize in physics, We see you: Department name change acknowledges and uplifts Central Americans. He also provides in-depth audio commentary as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray/DVD. We worked with Audio Mechanics to restore the sound, removing any noise and adding the missing words. These Warner Archive discs make my classic movie loving self happy. Wow, I want to see this.” And then I heard it was lost. What was two-color Technicolor film in the early 1930s and what happens to it over time? He is a troubled sculptor who was partially crippled during an early museum fire. The Mystery of the Wax Museum was considered a lost film for decades, until a well-worn print was discovered nearly 50 years ago. Glenda Farrell plays a quintessential wisecracking newspaper reporter, and noted actor Lionel Atwill is the deranged artist who loses his studio to a fire set by his partner. The actors were also falling down. Variety reported a month before production that Warner Bros. was advertising for vaudeville performers who were good at holding poses, so it was clearly intended that some of the figures would be portrayed by humans. The two nitrate prints were scanned at 4K resolution at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging. Does that sound bad? From one negative they optically separated the frames into two “matrix” positive films, inked them up, one red and one green, and transferred the dyes onto a blank film that had the soundtrack pre-printed on it. The Generational nomenclature gets lost on me, yet I can babble on and on about Pre WWII cinema. Rennahan was the first Technicolor cameraman. Is there a connection? What doesn’t work is everything else not involving Ivan Igor. But, the movie still matters. I had seen the remake House of Wax (1953) on late-night TV so I knew the story and thought, “There’s an earlier version? I think Rennahan would be proud of the way it looks now. But of course! We now hear the subtle sound of a museum employee slipping a dagger into the chest of the wax figure of Marat. Artifice in relation to humanity has been explored from the myth of Galatea to our modern worries over Artificial Intelligence. The Mystery of the Wax Museum [Warner Archive Blu-ray review], Gamera in the 90s [Gamera Collection review], Selena highlights underrated 90s talent [Warner Archive review] | AndersonVision, Romance on the High Seas | AndersonVision. How did “Wax Museum” cinematographer Ray Rennahan pioneer the use of color in film? Get top research & news headlines four days a week. 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. It was thought to be lost until a well-worn print was discovered nearly 50 years ago. 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. MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) (BLU-RAY), KARATE KID PART II (REMASTERED / EXPANDED / 3000 EDITION), HOLIDAY IN SPAIN (SCENT OF MYSTERY) BLU-RAY PLUS BONUS SCORE CD. They were like lithographic printing plates. What’s your personal connection to this movie? Aspect Ratio: 4 X 3 FULL FRAME, ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO - 1.37:1
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