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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - T 3 Mins Read

    Terror in the Wax Museum (1973)

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    This very standard but serviceable film features a lot of old actors going over a lot of old ground.

    John Carradine is killed off early, seemingly by one of his creations, as Claude Dupree, the owner of a London House of Horrors wax museum who is contemplating selling out to American showman Amos Burns (Broderick Crawford).

    His untimely death brings his lovely niece Margaret Collins (Nicole Shelby) onto the scene to claim her inheritance and, naturally, to be romanced and protected by the young Scotland Yard Sergeant (Mark Edwards) assigned to the case.

    Newcomers Shelby and Edwards, however, become lost among what is arguably the largest assortment of old-time stars and character actors ever assembled for a cheap horror film.

    Elsa Lanchester steals every scene as Miss Collins’ idiosyncratic guardian and financial advisor,

    Julia Hawthorn, while the burden of carrying the plot of this pile of old cliches rests heavily on Ray Milland, as the snobbish sculptor and manager of the wax museum, Harry Flexner.

    When Milland is curt and abrupt and snaps his lines, we are not sure whether he is merely being in character, whether as an actor he is just a little disgusted with the shoddiness of it all, or whether he is merely tired of Elsa Lanchester stepping on his lines.

    It is revealed in the end – to no one’s surprise – that the wax figures are not coming to life, but that the culprit impersonating them has been doing so in order to search the museum at night for hidden gold.

    Jameson Brewer’s derivative screenplay, based on a story by producer Andrew Fenady, also features such old staples as a deformed hunchback and a bubbling hot vat of wax into which our heroine nearly falls.

    Not that it matters much, for the fun here is strictly in seeing how many old faces you can spot.

    Harry Flexner
    Ray Milland
    Julia Hawthorn
    Elsa Lanchester
    Inspector Daniels
    Maurice Evans
    Claude Dupree
    John Carradine
    Sergeant Michael Hawks
    Mark Edwards
    Tim Fowley
    Louis Hayward
    Mr Southcott
    Patric Knowles
    Madame Yang
    Lisa Lu
    Karkov
    Steven Marlo
    Margaret Collins
    Nicole Shelby
    Laurie Mell
    Shani Wallis
    Amos Burns
    Broderick Crawford
    Constable Parker
    Leslie Thompson
    Jack the Ripper – Wax Figure
    Don Herbert
    Lizzie Borden – Wax Figure
    Judy Wetmore
    Mrs Borden – Wax Figure
    Jo Williamson
    Bluebeard – Wax Figure
    George Farina
    Girl in Red – Wax Figure
    Diane Wahrman
    Lucretia Borgia – Wax Figure
    Rosa Huerta
    Attila the Hun – Wax Figure
    Ben Brown
    Marie Antoinette – Wax Figure
    Rickie Weir
    Ivan the Terrible – Wax Figure
    Paul Wilson
    Willie Grossman – Wax Figure
    Ralph Cunningham
    Constable Henry Bolt – Wax Figure
    Don Williamson
    Flower Woman – Wax Figure
    Evelyn Reynolds

    Director
    Georg Fenady

     

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