In London in 1921, Mr. Igor's critically successful wax museum is burned down by his partner for the insurance money. Igor is trapped in the flames and all his work is destroyed. Twelve years later in New York, Igor watches from his window while the body of Joan Gale is taken to the morgue. Her rich young boyfriend, George Winton, is arrested for her murder, but when an autopsy is ordered, the police find the body has been stolen. Wisecracking reporter Florence Dempsey decides she will prove Winton's innocence. She accompanies her roommate Charlotte Duncan to Igor's new wax museum to visit Charlotte's fiancé Ralph Burton, Igor's assistant. There, Florence is struck by the resemblance between a wax statue of Joan of Arc and the dead Joan Gale. When Winton is released from prison on bail, he and Florence follow Igor's drug addict assistant, Sparrow, hoping to find out the truth about the museum. Meanwhile, Igor has trapped Charlotte in the museum. He tells her that because his hands were damaged in the fire, preventing him from sculpting, he has been killing people who resemble his burned statues, and once they are dipped in wax, he displays them. He plans to immortalize Charlotte as Marie Antoinette. She screams in response, and hearing her cries, Ralph breaks into the museum. He struggles with Igor, who falls into a vat of wax and dies. Florence gets her story and a surprise proposal from Jim, her editor.

Director:
Michael Curtiz	Director
Frank Shaw	Assistant Director
Lee Katz	Assistant Director
Cast:
Lionel Atwill	as Mr. Igor
Fay Wray	as Charlotte Duncan
Glenda Farrell	as Florence Dempsey
Frank McHugh	as Editor
Allen Vincent	as Ralph Burton
Gavin Gordon	as George Winton
Edwin Maxwell	as Joe Worth
Holmes Herbert	as Dr. Rasmussen
Arthur Edmund Carewe	as Sparrow
Thomas [E.] Jackson	as Detective
DeWitt Jennings	as Captain of police
Matthew Betz	as Hugo
Monica Bannister	as Joan Gale
Pat O'Malley	as Plain clothes man
Bull Anderson	as The Janitor
Cinematography:
Ray Rennahan	Director of Photography
Roy Musgrave	2nd Camera
Sam Brooks	Assistant Camera
Floyd Lee	Assistant Camera
Charles Scott Welbourne	Still photog
Writer:
Don Mullaly	Screenwriter
Carl Erickson	Screenwriter
Charles S. Belden	Story
Editing:
George Amy	Editing
Art Director:
Anton Grot	Art Director
Costume-Wardrobe:
Orry-Kelly	Gowns
Sound:
E. A. Brown	Sound
Film Production - Main:
Claude Hutchimson	Chief elec
Chuck Davis	Chief grip
Limey Plews	Props

This film was also known as Wax Museum. It was the last film to be made with the two-color Technicolor process. Some contemporary sources refer to Charles S. Belden's story as a play. Andre de Toth directed a 3-D version of the story called House of Wax in 1953 starring Vincent Price, which was also released by Warner Bros. Although a TV series based on the idea was to have been made, it did not make it to television and the pilot was released as the theatrical feature Chamber of Horrors in 1966 (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1961-70; F6.0733). Roger Corman also used the basic story in Bucket of Blood in 1959. Modern sources state that a large photographic blow-up of a scene featuring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray was used as a theatrical backdrop in The Florentine Dagger directed by Robert Florey in 1935. According to modern sources, the enormous heat generated by the lights needed for the two-color process made the wax figures melt, so in most scenes, the figures were played by actors.

Released in United States 1933

Released in United States November 1971

Remade as "House of Wax" (1953) directed by Andre DeToth.

Released in United States 1933

Released in United States November 1971 (Shown at FILMEX: Los Angeles International Film Exposition (A Tribute to the American Cinema) November 4-14, 1971.)