Mystery Of The Wax Museum is pretty much the originator of the wax museum morgue trope and has been remade twice. It's a nifty little thriller with a tight plot, an interesting villain, some snappy dialogue and -thanks to a contractual obligation - wonderful Technicolor photography. There's atmosphere to spare here and one of the elements that kept catching my eye is the ominous close-up. Lots of creepy faces lurk through out the picture such as that fellow up there, who sets the whole thing in motion....
... or more accurately, on fire. There's none as gruesome as a melting wax figure, and given the foibles of Technicolor photography, I bet this fire came as a refreshing breeze.
An otherwise ordinary scene cuts to this rather creepy shot of two henchmen. Put a light under your subject and it's instant spookiness!
Our mysterious villain who the plucky reporter protagonist describes as making Frankenstein look like a lily.
The police are searching the building and out of nowhere comes this old fella. We never see him again, and his peek has no consequence, he's just... there.
Yet another goon, setting his eyes on the victim. Incidentally, Fay Wray (the victim) is billed as the star, but she appears about 30 minutes into the movie and has little dialogue. She gets plenty of screams, though.
Inside the museum we have... this unexplained living figure. We see his eyes move and nothing else (click on the pic to see them!)
BOO! Glad you came, I've been sitting here with my head posed between these figures waiting to scare someone!
Wax museums are just about the perfect place to spend the night, aren't they?
This one really comes out of nowhere... a random face behind a broken mask opens its eyes as the victim approaches. We never see it again.
And finally, not quite a close up but... gee whiz, look at that face! He says he wants a wax figure but he's visibly aiming for bloody rape.
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