The Waxwork

A modern old dark house (or museum) thriller, receiving Hitch's full endorsement. 101 percent. In fact, it's historical, written by Casey Robinson, a Hollywood icon, who wrote legendary material; DARK VICTORY, NOW, VOYAGER, CAPTAIN BLOOD, and even did work on CASABLANCA. Both a win and an honor for Hitch to get Robinson on the show. He wrote one additional episode.

Barry Nelson plays Raymond Huston, a young writer who owes a gambling debt. To pay it off, and rather cleverly, gain some notoriety off the deal, he agrees to spend a night ALONE in a creepy wax museum, filled with figures of notorious murderers. Need we say more? At this point, even if you've never seen this episode, you know he's going to have "company" for the evening... The million dollar question; will he survive to write his story?

Positively dark, thanks to director Robert Stevens, who headed similar episodes for SUSPENSE. By the way, RETRO TV is now running that classic 50s show. Veteran actor Everett Sloane plays Marriner, the curator of the wax museum, though most of the attention is on Nelson.

Special guest star is Shaike Ophir (born in Israel), playing Bourdette, and diving right into this weird role. Ophir was a famous mime, often compared to Marcel Marceau. His career was cut short due to cancer.

Fun to watch with the lights out, but beware of noises? SEASON 4 EPISODE 27 remastered Universal dvd box set. 16 hrs running time. 5 dvds. All seven seasons (half hour episodes) are on dvd in a single box. The best gift ever.

The premise is a promising one—a writer spends the night locked in a wax museum with a murderer's row. Given all the creepy potential, the result is, nonetheless, a shade disappointing. The first half is the set-up where the writer (Nelson) gets over-night permission from the museum owner (Sloane). It's a good chance to see real wax figures up close, but it's also padded, probably to build up co-star Sloane's part.

The second half is Nelson inside and does have its creepy moments. The murderer's row looks like a medieval dungeon, however it's also not very spooky and fails to generate the menacing mood that's needed. Also, I'm a bit puzzled by the climax that seems unduly murky. Nelson's fine as the writer, looking a bit like JFK, while Sloane gets to show off his quirky side. But, all in all, the premise promises more than it delivers.

(In passing—IMDb lists Jackie Cooper as the writer, an evident mistake.)

This one is truly a sub-par entry in the usually excellent Hitchcock half-hour series. There aren't too many this bad,--and there are much worse--but it truly lacks originality, pacing, good dialogue and a good story.

On the surface it's a promising idea: an American journalist in London, who also has some gambling debts, wants to spend a night in a wax museum for, among other reasons, a good true life magazine story.

So far, so good; and a promising cast, too, including two capable veteran players, Barry Nelson, as the journalist; and Everett Sloane as the museum owner. Yet the set-up at least is if nothing else promising.

Once the journalist is alone the museum for the night, as one might expect, strange things start happening. Or are they figments of the man's imagination? He appears normal enough, yet he seems easily spooked by the eerie atmosphere, as he's surrounded by wax figures of well known murderers.

Alas, the story unfolds as one might expect, as wax museum tales, like ventriloquist dummy ones, tend to feature similar themes and resolutions. This one is disappointingly conventional, especially as it's a Hitchcock entry.

Yet it's by no means all bad, just not very good. The actors help, as does the art direction, which nicely suggests sinister things lurking right around the corner. The episode does have a few modest virtues.

Robert Stevens was a capable director, yet he failed to bring much to the table with this one, which might have benefited from being handled by a more seasoned movie man with some experience handling macabre yarns such as this one.

I think of Robert Florey and John Brahm, who were active in American television around the time this one was made; and I suspect that either would have made a better job of it, with inventive camera placement, stronger pacing, shadows in all the right places.

Stunning story and #1 first class script and acting. Sir, if you'll pardon my mentioning it, but you have a very thin neck. I like thick necks. This is a French razor... Small but still very effective; now if you will just raise your chin up, just a bit higher. You can cut the tension with a knife, (sorry for the pun) in this episode and it's what makes this (and the waxwork killers), so effective). I am 100% pro-capital punishment. It acts as a major deterrent to murder. It's not perfect, but in the end it saves lives. Killers think twice if they know they will pay the ultimate penalty. Nobody asks why the murder rate was so low in 1954, as if murder were just a logical progression for society today.

Barry Nelson arrives at a wax museum and asks to spend the night, locked up in a display of the world's worst murderers. He needs to write a story in order to earn enough to pay off a gambling debt from some pretty bad guys. He eventually talks the curator into allowing him to stay, but there are some problems. He must be locked for the night (to protect the property from thieves). It is also made clear to us that he is extremely claustrophobic. As he does his thing, he senses that the wax figures are moving. One in particular, a mesmerist who hypnotized and killed people with a straight razor, seems to slip between the other figures, moving to him with his murderous eyes. I won't ruin the fun, but it is an example of how the mind outdo the body. It's ultimately about fear.