House Of Wax (The Original)

House of Wax (1953)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Andre De Toth

Starring: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Paul Picerni

From: Warner Bros

While this does not have Paris Hilton being brutally murdered, at least you don't have to look at Paris Hilton at all:

For any Vincent Price fan, it is a must to see this; it's not the best thing he's ever done in terms of performance or the overall movie. Rather, this is the demarcation line in his career where he became more than just a character actor and became a star of horror flicks for the rest of his life. This is a macabre delight, filmed in 3D (although I only saw it in 2D; what irony then that director Andre De Toth had only one working eye) and this was the first color major studio movie in that format.

In this story set in early 20th century New York City, Price's Henry Jarrod is a tragic character; he was a great sculptor who created great wax figures but his business partner wishes for sensationalism instead of stoic and reserved looks at moments in history. The partner suddenly becomes mad so he doesn't wait to try and insurance scam and instead burns the place down with Jarrod still inside. Henry shows up a few years later, his hands ruined; he comes up with another way of creating wax figures... assistants are used, including a young Charles Bronson-under his birth surname of Buchinsky-and seeing two movies in a row with a deaf-mute character is just happenstance.

The movie looks lush with its color cinematography, has an appropriate musical score, has some great sequences (such as a young lady being chased through lonely city streets during a foggy night, and the place burning down in an inferno), features Carolyn Jones a decade before she became famous as Morticia Addams, and has a ghoulish ending. The supporting characters are also fun as a few try to solve a mystery of several murders/missing corpses and another has the misfortune of looking exactly like Jarrod's old Marie Antoinette figure, of course putting her life in danger. While this does not have any scene of Paris Hilton being brutally murdered, that does not mean you shouldn't check this out if it sounds of interest.