Fairly lively horror whodunit which follows a familiar refrain: a talented artist is victimized by his shady business partner who sets their waxwork museum on fire. The artist miraculously survives albeit horribly scarred and then plots his murderous revenge in the shadows of society. “Phantom of the Opera” used a similar story line but had a musical composer who covertly got even with his enemies.
Vincent Price is fine as the unfortunate sculptor who opens a new waxworks emporium that now concentrates on sensationalism and horror to draw in the crowds. To get the enterprise up and running in a short amount of time, Price employs the recently dead bodies of tragedies and his own murderous hand to cover with wax and represent both current event stories and historical incidents and characters of a diabolical nature. (See “A Bucket of Blood” (1959))
My main objection to the film are the smarmy, wooden characters that Price is surrounded by. The hero and heroine and authorities on the case are a bit bland and boring.
Adding to the gaudy spectacle of the film is the usage of the 3-dimensional shooting process that was a popular fad back when this movie was made. The theater barker’s paddle balls hitting you in the face certainly would give you a stiff neck as you tried to avoid their impact! That being said, the scenes of the crippled Price madman stalking the heroine in fog enshrouded streets does provide some atmospheric, horror chills.
