Word: waxworks
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House of Wax may have three dimensions; the plot has one, at best. It used to be known as The Murder in the Waxwork Museum or something close to that, when it was a flattie. If you've seen The Phantom of the Opera or the Hunchback of Notre Dame you have the general outline already. The only thing the latter pictures have that House of Wax doesn't is scenes of people jumping, falling, or being pushed from high places. Hollywood has missed a trick...
...Somewhere and, microphone in hand, carried his thrilled listeners through a wall of barrels on a motorcycle going 40 m.p.h. or swung in an aerial ballet 90 feet above the ground. He thrilled his audience even more by letting himself be locked overnight in Madame Tussaud's waxwork Chamber of Horrors and describing his surroundings with an authentic quaver in his voice. Said a fan: "The wonderful attraction of Johnston is that one knows he is really frightened. One feels just what he must be feeling...
...believe what they hear or read. They think that the stories of Russian victories and the destruction of German cities from the air are propaganda. Since visitors are prohibited by the Geneva Convention from speaking to war prisoners, all the newsmen could do was stare in silence at the waxwork faces of the young Nazis, who silently stared back at them. Around a big concrete sun dial which they built they have inscribed: "For us the sun never goes down...
...Revolution. The original Mme. Tussaud, born Marie Grosholtz of Swiss parents, was an accomplished modeler in wax. She was friend, companion and teacher to Louis XVI's sister and lived at court at Versailles, where she knew the great personages of the period. After the Revolution her realistic waxwork was in great demand. She modeled many of the Terrorists from life, sometimes willingly, sometimes under protest. Once she was forced to reproduce the freshly guillotined head of a Royalist. A Royalist at heart, she watched for a chance to leave France...
Many of the throng went especially to hear Claude Alphand sing. She is a beautiful, blonde, rather waxwork-like Frenchwoman who accompanies her balladry on the guitar. Rated by many as the best French chanteuse since Yvette Guilbert and Lucienne Boyer, she sings with a feline throatiness and great stylistic elegance. Her favorite song...