Behind the Scenes :: The Midnight Premiere of Warner Bros. House of Wax (April 16, 1953)

Aside from the flip-side inclusion of The Mystery of the Wax Museum, the old two-strip technicolor thriller on which it was based, Warners' House of Wax DVD is a little sparse in the Special Features department.

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* And if you'll allow a brief aside I will loudly trumpet the
need to give this flick The Red Shoes restoration treatment.
The print included is rather appalling in spots but in the all too

brief moments when it pops those colors pop most beautifully.

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But, aside from that and the trailer, we are given one fascinating little nugget from the studio's Pathe Newsreel department, Camera on the World -- specifically the Midnight showing of the Round the Clock Premiere of House of Wax at the Paramount Theater in downtown Los Angeles.






The true highlight among all those famous faces, though, is when we spy one Bela Lugosi, his Raybans, and his pet gorilla (George Barrows, perhaps?) entering the theater. As for who was leading who, here, well, I'll leave that for you all to decide (and is that Richard Denning and Evelyn Ankers lurking in the background?):









Alas, the soundtrack to the short appears to have been lost, so specifics are a bit shaky, but, after a little digging, turns out this was a stunt cooked up by Alex Gordon for his dear friend, Bela. Apparently, the yuks continued inside with Lugosi stationed at the Red-Cross booth, where he playfully sucked on some 2% and put the bite on some unsuspecting nurse, causing most of the milk to wind up on the floor.


Sadly, the evening ended on sour note when a pre-scripted interview went awry, where Lugosi wound up giving the right answers to the wrong question, causing the oft-consternated actor to withdraw before the film even began; the only sore spot in what was otherwise a very successful premiere.



* And if you'll allow a brief aside I will loudly trumpet the
need to give this flick The Red Shoes restoration treatment.
The print included is rather appalling in spots but in the all too
brief moments when it pops those colors pop most beautifully.