# Mystery of the Wax Museum
*Mystery of the Wax Museum* is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery-horror film directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros. Pictures, starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and [Glenda Farrell](https://www.edgepedia.org/glenda-farrell), and notable as the last feature film made with the two-color [Technicolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/technicolor) process.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) It was a follow-up to Warner Bros.' two-color hit of 1932, *Doctor X*, reuniting Atwill and Wray with Curtiz and cinematographer Ray Rennahan.[2](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6245) The film was long thought lost until nitrate prints were rediscovered, and a 4K restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive premiered in 2020.[3](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2020/2020.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 18 February 1933; New York opening the week of 16 February 1933[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) |
| Studio and cost | Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.; production cost under $300,000[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) • [4](https://www.hometheaterforum.com/the-mystery-of-the-wax-museum-blu-ray-review/) |
| Color process | Two-color Technicolor, exposing only red and green color records; the last film made with the process[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) • [5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/house_wax.pdf) |
| Principal cast | Lionel Atwill (Ivan Igor), Fay Wray (Charlotte Duncan), Glenda Farrell (Florence Dempsey), Arthur Edmund Carewe (Sparrow)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) |
| Key crew | Screenplay Don Mullaly and Carl Erickson from a story by Charles S. Belden; cinematography Ray Rennahan; art direction Anton Grot; editing George Amy[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) |
| Remake | Re-titled and remade by Warner Bros. as *House of Wax* (1953), directed by André De Toth and starring Vincent Price[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) |
| Restoration | 4K restoration completed in 2020 from a 1933 nitrate dye transfer print found in Jack Warner's vault around 1969, plus a French nitrate workprint[3](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2020/2020.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In London in 1921, the sculptor Ivan Igor's critically successful wax museum is burned down by his partner Joe Worth for the insurance money, and Igor is trapped in the flames with all his work destroyed.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) Twelve years later in New York, Igor runs a new museum while the body of Joan Gale is taken to the morgue; her boyfriend George Winton is arrested for her murder, but when an autopsy is ordered the body has been stolen.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM)
The wisecracking reporter Florence Dempsey sets out to prove Winton's innocence and, visiting Igor's museum with her roommate Charlotte Duncan, notices that a wax statue of [Joan of Arc](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-of-arc) resembles the dead Joan Gale.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) Igor, whose hands were ruined in the fire, tells Charlotte that he has been killing people who resemble his burned statues and displaying them dipped in wax, and plans to immortalize her as [Marie Antoinette](https://www.edgepedia.org/marie-antoinette). Her screams bring her fiancé Ralph Burton, who struggles with Igor; the sculptor falls into a vat of wax and dies.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM)
## Production and the two-color Technicolor process
Production began the week of 8 October 1932, and Warner Bros. copyrighted the film on 3 February 1933 (LP3623).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) The two-color Technicolor system, developed in 1920, recorded two adjacent frames simultaneously on a single strip of black-and-white film, one filtered for the green record and one for the red.[6](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/mystery-of-the-wax-museum-1933/) Although the process was generally used for musicals, its limited palette of essentially red and green proved effective for horror, and the lighting by Rennahan and the abstract set designs by Anton Grot created an atmosphere compared to German expressionism.[2](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6245) • [6](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/mystery-of-the-wax-museum-1933/)
The process had a practical cost on set: according to modern sources, the enormous heat generated by the lights needed for two-color photography made the wax figures melt, so in most scenes the figures were played by actors.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) The film's vivid red blood and orange fire were often lost in later years when poorly equipped theaters projected it in black-and-white.[7](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/the-mystery-of-the-wax-museum/)
## Pre-Code content and reception
As a pre-Code film, made before the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code from 1934, the film shows bootlegging, heroin addiction, corpse robbery, and bizarre murders.[7](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/the-mystery-of-the-wax-museum/) • [8](https://www.thefilmagazine.com/mystery-wax-museum-vs-house-of-wax/) The British Board of Film Classification, which passed the film with cuts on 10 March 1933, notes references to a male drug addict as a "junkie" and police leaving him in a cell overnight to make him desperate for a fix.[9](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/mystery-of-the-wax-museum-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynjkwmtk) On its original release a New York Times critic described the film as "too ghastly for comfort."[3](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2020/2020.pdf)
Glenda Farrell's fast-talking reporter Florence Dempsey was an important addition to the horror formula; Farrell would revisit the character type in Warner Bros.' Torchy Blane series of the late 1930s.[6](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/mystery-of-the-wax-museum-1933/) Although Fay Wray received second billing, Farrell has the larger share of screen time as the film's investigator.[4](https://www.hometheaterforum.com/the-mystery-of-the-wax-museum-blu-ray-review/)
## Remakes and afterlife
Warner Bros. recycled the plot of a mad sculptor turning his victims into wax figures for its first 3-D movie, *[House of Wax](https://www.edgepedia.org/house-of-wax-1953-film)*, directed by André De Toth and starring [Vincent Price](https://www.edgepedia.org/vincent-price); the AFI Catalog and the Library of Congress date the remake to 1953, while MoMA's listing gives 1952.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM) • [2](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6245) • [5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/house_wax.pdf) The remake moved the setting from contemporary New York to the early 1900s and renamed Igor as Jarrod.[8](https://www.thefilmagazine.com/mystery-wax-museum-vs-house-of-wax/) Roger Corman used the basic story in *A Bucket of Blood* in 1959, and a planned television series based on the idea instead reached theaters as the feature *Chamber of Horrors* in 1966.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM)
The film was once considered lost. A 1933 nitrate dye transfer print was discovered in Jack Warner's personal vault at Warner Bros. around 1969, along with an additional French nitrate workprint.[3](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2020/2020.pdf) In 2020 the UCLA Film & Television Archive and [The Film Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-film-foundation), with funding from the George Lucas Family Foundation, completed a 4K digital restoration, scanned by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging with digital restoration and color grading by Roundabout Entertainment and audio restoration by Audio Mechanics; it premiered at the MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation.[3](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2020/2020.pdf) • [2](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6245)
## References
1. [Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/3917-MYSTERY-OF-THE-WAX-MUSEUM)
2. [Mystery of the Wax Museum. 1933. Directed by Michael Curtiz, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6245)
3. [The Film Foundation 2020 Report: Mystery of the Wax Museum restoration](https://www.film-foundation.org/contents/reports/2020/2020.pdf)
4. [The Mystery of the Wax Museum Blu-ray Review, Home Theater Forum](https://www.hometheaterforum.com/the-mystery-of-the-wax-museum-blu-ray-review/)
5. [House of Wax, National Film Preservation Board, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/house_wax.pdf)
6. [Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), Toronto Film Society film notes](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/mystery-of-the-wax-museum-1933/)
7. [The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) review, Deep Focus Review](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/the-mystery-of-the-wax-museum/)
8. [Original vs Remakes: Mystery of the Wax Museum vs House of Wax, The Film Magazine](https://www.thefilmagazine.com/mystery-wax-museum-vs-house-of-wax/)
9. [Mystery Of The Wax Museum, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/mystery-of-the-wax-museum-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynjkwmtk)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Horror thriller films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license