Terror in the Wax Museum (1973)

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