Two Hearts in Wax Time

This has to be the most surreal and downright bizarre and downright strange and, these words all mean the same thing but the problem is there's no way to explain just how insane this insane short film is...

Shown on TCM between HERE COMES MR JORDAN and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, two movies that are strange enough, this short film was obviously an influence of Night at the Museum... that is, if anyone was able to see this strange short that seems like it would be playing in a portal in hell...

The drunk guy hullucinating all the famous wax figures coming to life, from Charlie Chan to Frankenstein, looks like the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz, and then there are dancers singing the kind of musical numbers that are a thing of flu dreams...

TCM should never play this again.

Two Hearts in Wax Time (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Technicolor short from MGM is a rather interesting viewing experience but for reasons you might not think of. The story centers around a drunk department store worker (Gus Shy) who has one too many and begins to think that the mannequin's are coming to life and doing music numbers. There are a few pluses here including the interesting set design and of course the beautiful color. The color really jumps off the screen and like many of these early Technicolor shorts you can tell someone went to great trouble to make sure the film was as colorful as possible. The music numbers are decent at best and to be honest I thought the best song as the drunken Shy doing "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows." Now, what makes this short so interesting is a brief appearance of Frankenstein's monster. Why is that interesting? Well, this short was apparently released before BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN yet the monster here is clearly "trying" to look like Karloff did in that film. However, there's actually a lot more because the monster is talking here and even samples some dialogue that would appear in the James Whale film. So, if the release date of this coming out first is true, then this here is the first film to feature the monster not only talking but also in color. It really makes you wonder if someone saw an early preview of the Whale film, if this was just luck or perhaps something else was going on.

When a department store custodian gets drunk, the short follows a night of hallucinating that the mannequins are alive.

The musical ditty itself isn't very distinguishable from others of the era, although the "Greatest Menace Of Them All" bit is almost surreal it's content. Think of a preemptive to Herman Munster & The Penguin and you've got an idea of the 'menaces'.

At 17 minutes, it's hard to take offense to the short, even if you don't like musicals. But the bookends about the alcoholic department custodian is at least a different approach to the musical genre set-up.

6/10

I guess the only thing you can call Two Hearts In Wax Time as a genre is a Musicalette. I'm sure the paying customers of the movie-going public enjoyed it back in the day.

The film seems mainly to be a vehicle for the talents of Gus Shy who was a vaudevillian of some note and this was his next to last film appearance. Shy rivaled Ed Norton and Vince Barnett for playing inebriates on film. He's a custodian in a department store and while on a toot he sees the mannequins in the window come alive and do a few songs and dances.

Such folks as Shirley Ross, Syd Saylor, and Sam McDaniel who had some substantial film credits are in this as well. It's an easy to take musical short or Musicalette if you prefer.

This is a short film from MGM that is in very vivid Three-Color Technicolor--the first truly full color film used in movies beginning about 1934. Up until then, color films were two-color varieties-- such as Two-Color Technicolor and Cinecolor...and the pictures looked rather orangey green. So, it's obvious when you watch the film that it is very pretty.

Joe (Gus Shy) works at a department store and apparently spends all his time getting drunk. After getting amazingly drunk, he begins hallucinating...seeing the mannequins all coming to life and then singing and dancing. These are mostly very dull numbers--even the really odd one with evil villains through history (and fiction) coming to life. It's supposed to be funny...but they thought wrong...and it's only passable entertainment.