Victorian horror revolving around a wax museum in Baltimore
This was originally intended to be a pilot for a proposed TV series with the proprietors of the museum (Cesare Danova and Wilfrid Hyde-White) acting as amateur sleuths who assist the police with horrific cases. It was decided to release it theatrically because it was ostensibly too intense for television at the time. The gimmick of a “Fear Flasher” and corresponding “Horror Horn” were added to increase the runtime, along with a cameo by Tony Curtis.
It comes in the tradition of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which started the genre in 1841 and influenced Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, amongst others. The best film version of "Rue Morgue" is arguably the 1986 one with George C. Scott, Val Kilmer and Rebecca De Mornay. I bring that up because this is cut from the same cloth. Other comparisons include "House of Wax" (1953), Hammer's "The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll" (1960), "Terror in the Wax Museum" (1973) and Klaus Kinski's "Jack the Ripper" (1976), as well as "Edge of Sanity" (1989) and "From Hell" (2001).
It's basically "old-fashioned" horror that's timelessly entertaining since these types of films keep being made decade after decade. "The Limehouse Golem" is a well-done example from more modern times. If you’re in the mood for colorful Victorian costumes & sets, horse-drawn carriages, foggy cobblestone streets, grisly murders (without much gore) and lovely women of the 1890s/turn-of-the-century, you can’t go wrong.
Speaking of that last one, blonde Laura Devon is striking as Marie Champlain, a lady of ill repute from New Orleans whom the murderer (Patrick O'Neal) enlists to unknowingly assist in his diabolical deeds.
Interestingly, there are glaring similarities to the B&W “Dark Intruder,” released the prior year.
It runs 1 hour, 39 minutes, and was shot in Warner Brothers Burbank Studios in the area of northwest Los Angeles.
GRADE: B
