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Mystery of the Wax Museum

Mystery of the Wax Museum

Horror · Mystery · 1933

A wax sculptor opens a new museum years after he is severely injured during a fire that destroyed his original collection. The disappearance of both people and corpses coincides with this grand reopening and leads a reporter to start investigating.

Movie details

Mystery of the Wax Museum

“The supreme thriller!”

1933 Horror · Mystery 1h 18m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.5 / 10

Community rating

A wax sculptor opens a new museum years after he is severely injured during a fire that destroyed his original collection. The disappearance of both people and corpses coincides with this grand reopening and leads a reporter to start investigating.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Mystery of the Wax Museum?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Michael Curtiz

Written by

Carl Erickson · Don Mullaly · Charles S. Belden

Lionel Atwill

Lionel Atwill

Ivan Igor

Glenda Farrell

Glenda Farrell

Florence Dempsey

Allen Vincent

Allen Vincent

Ralph Burton

Fay Wray

Fay Wray

Charlotte Duncan

Frank McHugh

Frank McHugh

Jim

Edwin Maxwell

Edwin Maxwell

Worth

Arthur Edmund Carewe

Arthur Edmund Carewe

Professor Darcy

Court is in session

Put Mystery of the Wax Museum on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.