Gothic horror has a major place in world cinema that goes back to the silent era and continues to this day. The idea of dark streets of mostly European cities (usually foggy London) stirs the imagination to come up with all sorts of grizzly acts of every type of nefarious nature. In this case, it is the setting of a horror museum which features all sorts of wax figures reflecting notable historical figures and other notorious members of society who were more known for their murderous ways rather than being world leaders or contributors to the art world. It is the second batch of wax figures that this film deals mainly with, particularly the recently missing Jack the Ripper, still notorious to the Scotland Yard inspectors who were unable to figure out who he was, and for museum proprietor John Carradine, the presence of Jack's wax figure is enough to stir up tons of nightmares. After one such particular nightmare, he meets his fate at the hands of Jack's apparent walking wax corpse, and this brings in his niece Nicole Shelby and her companion (an over the top Elsa Lanchester) as the apparent heirs to his beloved business, managed by the rather cranky Ray Milland.
A cast of veterans supports the top-billed Milland and Lanchester, with brash Broderick Crawford, 1940's heartthrob Louis Hayward, Shakespearean master Maurice Evans and former handsome leading man Patric Knowles in fine form, and "Oliver's" Shani Wallis singing repeatedly the same music hall song as if she was an early 1900's version of Nancy Sikes from Dicken's classic. This is a top notch mix of horror and comedy, perfectly entertaining but probably easy to figure out for most and thus quickly forgettable. Steven Marlo emulates the Hunchback of Notre Dame as the pathetic Karkov, a mute but sweet half wit who holds undying love for the kindly Shelby, one of the few people to treat him with tenderness. His presence in Carradine's basement and frequent appearance under a sewer grate is often horrifying for its amazing cruelty, and thus he ends up being the heart and soul of this film. A great gothic atmosphere also helps bring this above average, but unfortunately, that's not enough to change its predictability. The horror isn't in its garishness, but in the not knowing of what's going to come next, and that makes the frequent usage of comedy within the film somewhat distracting.
A cast of veterans supports the top-billed Milland and Lanchester, with brash Broderick Crawford, 1940's heartthrob Louis Hayward, Shakespearean master Maurice Evans and former handsome leading man Patric Knowles in fine form, and "Oliver's" Shani Wallis singing repeatedly the same music hall song as if she was an early 1900's version of Nancy Sikes from Dicken's classic. This is a top notch mix of horror and comedy, perfectly entertaining but probably easy to figure out for most and thus quickly forgettable. Steven Marlo emulates the Hunchback of Notre Dame as the pathetic Karkov, a mute but sweet half wit who holds undying love for the kindly Shelby, one of the few people to treat him with tenderness. His presence in Carradine's basement and frequent appearance under a sewer grate is often horrifying for its amazing cruelty, and thus he ends up being the heart and soul of this film. A great gothic atmosphere also helps bring this above average, but unfortunately, that's not enough to change its predictability. The horror isn't in its garishness, but in the not knowing of what's going to come next, and that makes the frequent usage of comedy within the film somewhat distracting.