House of Wax (Keepcase)

I was one of the first people standing in line to see The House of Wax when it opened in Houston Texas back in 1953. I was only eleven years old in 1953, but the film made such a powerful impression on me that I still remember it like it was yesterday. I saw it at a first-run downtown theater in dual-projection through polarized glasses and the theater was equipped with the new Warnerphonic stereo surround sound. When a mace from a suit of armor was thrown at Vincent Price in the beginning of the film, he ducked, and the mace seemed to fly out over the audience and I heard the mace hit the floor behind me. I looked around and saw that speakers had not only been installed on the sides of the theater for this film, but also on the wall in the back of the theater. I remember thinking how cool it was that not only was the picture in 3-D, but so was the sound. Flaming heads fall into your lap, can-can girls kick you in the nose, the House of Wax has something for everyone.After I saw House of Wax in 1953, I was sold on 3-D and I saw almost every 3-D movie made in the fifties, as well as nearly every 3-D film that has been made since the fifties, including nearly all the 3-D movies that are made today. I even bought a Stereo Realist camera in 1954 so I could take my own 3-D pictures. When 3-D TV came out and 3-D Blu-ray players became available, I was an enthusiastic early adopter of the new technology. 1953 was the last time I saw The House of Wax in 3-D in a theater, so I was one of the first people to get on the waiting list when I learned that Warner's was going to bring out a Blu-ray 3-D disk of House of Wax. I already had the Warner's 3-D Blu-ray disk of Dial M for Murder and I could hardly wait for Warner's to release House of Wax. I waited for months and the disk finally arrived from Amazon last week. I was not disappointed, the disk was worth the long wait.Warner's has done a remarkable job of restoration on this great classic 3-D film. It's a perfect copy with no bad sections, no missing scenes, and no faded color. The overall quality is as good as I remember it from the fifties, and the 3-D is absolutely spectacular. The 3-D in House of Wax is as good as the 3-D in the best 3-D movies made today and better than the 3-D in many films made today. The Natural Vision 3-D camera had the ability to show the full roundness in the faces of people when photographed close-up and that seems to be missing in 3-D films made today. Great care went into arranging every scene in the film to accentuate depth perception. Of course, there is the famous paddle ball scene, which is still the best 3-D gimmick I've ever seen, but this film is not just one 3-D gimmick after another. The story, the acting, the careful attention to background and detail make this more than one of the first 3-D films, this film is a true classic in every way. Ironically, it was directed by a man with only one eye who could not see 3-D, but he understood the principle involved.In addition to House of Wax, the disk also contains The Mystery of the Wax Museum, which is an older Warner Brothers film on which House of Wax was based. The Mystery of the Wax Museum is worth seeing for it's own merit. It was also a technically innovative film when it was made, because it was filmed in two-strip Technicolor. I've seen many two-strip Technicolor films and the color in this film from 1933 is outstanding. This bonus film has also been very well preserved and restored. The only early two-strip Technicolor film I've seen with better color than Mystery of the Wax museum is Whoopee made in 1930. There are other special features of interest on the disk and the commentary is worth running House of Wax a second time with the commentary turned on. I didn't think there was anything I didn't know about the early days of 3-D, but I learned a number of interesting things about Milton Gunzburg who, along with his brother, developed the Natural Vision camera used to film House of Wax.As much as I love the Warner's restoration, I have one minor complaint about the picture quality. The 3-D is ghost free, but the image looks slightly grainy on my sixty inch plasma TV at close distances. I also noticed the grain in the Warner's restoration of Dial M for Murder, but ironically I didn't notice the grain on the older 1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum which was filmed in two-strip Technicolor and printed with the dye-transfer process. I don't believe the problem has anything to do with the restorations, I have a theory about the grain which has to do with the original camera film. Although Warnercolor used Eastman color film exclusively for prints (including the prints of House of Wax), I believe the Gunzburgs used Ansco monopack color film in the Natural Vision camera to photograph The House of Wax. This is the same film they selected to use in the Natural Vision camera a few months earlier when they filmed Bwana Devil. The Ansco monopack produced excellent color fidelity, but early Ansco color monopack had more noticeable grain than the Eastman color momopack used to photograph later Warnercolor features. This is only a theory based on the graininess of the picture and I don't have any facts to back it up. Please note that the grain I'm talking about is only noticeable when the Blu-ray disk is viewed on a large screen HDTV at close distances. It probably wouldn't be possible to see the grain on a screen smaller than fifty inches, or on a NTSC DVD copy of the film (due to the lower video resolution of NTSC video).Warner's could have removed the grain digitally during restoration. However, that would have resulted in slightly lower resolution and it may have upset the purists who want the picture to look exactly as it did on the motion picture screen. In any case, the restoration job is outstanding and I may be nit-picking by expecting the picture to look better than it did when it was originally projected. The restoration people did take some liberties with the sound track to make it sound more like the original stereo sound heard in theaters. The original Warnerphonic stereo sound was recorded on synchronized magnetic tape, but unfortunately the magnetic tapes have been lost over the decades leaving only the monophonic optical soundtrack. I think Warner's did a good job of creating fake stereo sound for this disk to simulate what people heard in theaters equipped with Warnerphonic sound. The background music holds up remarkably well and still sounds creepy today.Thanks to feedback from people on this forum, I've learned that the new 3-D Blu-ray disk does not play properly on some (possibly all) non-3D Blu-ray disk players even though the disk contains both a 3-D and 2-D version of the film. So, if you do not have a 3-D Blu-ray player and a matching 3-D HDTV, then you would be better off buying the non-3D Blu-ray disk. But, this should not discourage those folks who do have a 3-D Blu-ray player and a properly configured 3-D HDTV from buying this wonderful 3-D version of the classic 3-D film.

I am very pleased with the condition of the movie and storage case since it is used and not new. Also, pleased with it being priced within my purchasing range. This may eventually become one of the many movies that I can no longer find to purchase as physical media. Many I can stream but prefer having in my vast movie collection. Thank you for providing me with a movie I will enjoy watching over and over again. You can't go wrong with the great Vincent Price.

House of Wax, Warner’s 3-D spectacular from 1953, was issued on Blu-ray seven years ago (photo).Amazon charged $30 for it in 2013, but it went out of print in a couple years.Last month, new copies were were selling for upwards of $100 on the internet.Now Warner Home Archive has reissued it for $18.Apart from the cover art, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO BLU-RAYS.The new cover is based on the original 1953 movie poster.The back cover is identical.There is no point in reviewing the new Blu-ray:The old Blu-ray had 650 reviews with an average grade of five stars.It’s up to you if you want to spend extra for the 3-D Blu-ray player, special glasses, and 3-D television.Fortunately, Warner also prepared a 2-D presentation of the film (very few theaters were equipped for 3-D in 1953).Both versions are included on the Blu-ray.Did I mention that there is NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO BLU-RAYS?Save yourself some money.1953 was an important year in Hollywood.To combat the threat from television, Hollywood introduced three innovations in 1953: CinemaScope, Stereophonic Sound, and 3-D.‘House of Wax” was filmed in Stereo and 3-D, but not widescreen CinemaScope.It was filmed in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio, which had been the industry standard since the 1920s.The picture is pretty good.It would have looked better if it was filmed in Technicolor, but Warner used their own process Warnercolor to save money.In 2014, ‘House of Wax’ was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.I only own a standard Blu-Ray player, but I saw the 3-D version a few years ago at the home of a friend who had a 3-D home video set-up.It is probably the best 3-D movie ever made.Alfred Hitchcock's 'Dial M for Murder' (1954) is a better film, but the 3-D effects are not as impressive.Bonus Features, carried over from 2013:--- Audio Commentary by David del Valle and Constantine Nasr.--- Documentary: “House of Wax: Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen Before!” (48 minutes)--- Theatrical trailer--- Newsreel of 1953 premiere (2 minutes)--- English SDH subtitles for the feature and the documentary--- bonus film: ‘Mystery of the Wax Museum’ (1933).MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933)The original 1933 version of this film is in no way inferior to ‘House of Wax’.But the transfer included on the ‘House of Wax’ Blu-ray dates back forty years to the era of analog television.‘House of Wax’ is presented in 1080p.‘Mystery of the Wax Museum’ is presented in 480p, the old NTSC TV standardBUT in 2020, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and the UCLA Film Foundation funded a new 1080p transfer of ‘Mystery of the Wax Museum’.A lot of time and money went into this, and the result is stunning - documented in an eight-minute featurette, and two new audio commentaries.‘Mystery of the Wax Museum’ was filmed in the old two-strip Technicolor process.The Technicolor film in use from 1928-1933 was incapable of reproducing the colors red and blue.In place of red and blue, the colors beige and green were substituted.Also possible were yellow, orange, brown and salmon (not to mention ecru, ochre, and taupe).This may sound like a handicap, but once you get used to it, the picture is quite stunning.I have included two screen shots of the same scene with Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill.The old transfer - included with ‘House of Wax’ - attempted a color correction using red and blue computer enhancement with disastrous results.The new digital print shows an artfully applied pallet of beige, green, brown and orange.Flesh tones are especially well-captured by the two-strip process.Three-strip Technicolor, with a more accurate color palette, was introduced in 1935.To find the new 1080p Blu-ray of ‘Mystery of the Wax Museum’ on Amazon, enter “ Mystery Wax Museum Blu ray ” in the Amazon search window.I wrote a review on Amazon (+ a checklist of Pre-Code Horror Films) dated May 25, 2020.

Vincent Price dans le rôle du vilain méchant.Film que je regardais avec ma mère. Nostalgie.

For me, House of Wax from 1958 is one of Vincent Prices' best films. The pacing is steady and never seems too slow. The picture quality is very good indeed and I love how the colour looks.As of yet I haven't watched the 1933 Mystery at the Wax Museum.I have however watched the 2005 remake of House of Wax. It bares no resemblance whatsoever to the 1958 version bar its titleIt wasn't for me. But if you like the story of a group of teenagers getting lost, and disappearing one by one then this version is for you.

Des années 50 il ne nous reste que le film de Hitchcock (le crime était presque parfait) et celui-ci ! La restauration est excellente, meilleure que pour Hitchcock) et si on pardonne l'aspect grand guignol la 3D est époustouflante (parfois trop...). Pour tous ceux qui regrettent que l'on ne puisse convaincre les gens de porter des lunettes 3D (passives bien sûr, les vendeurs sont coupables d'avoir voulu forcer les lunettes actives !).

まったく日本製と同じですこのパッケージのほうが、チープ感と味があります。内容はまあまあ面白いです。安く買えて良かったです。

This is one f the best 3D restorations - it is a 10/10!