WHAT: House of Wax (1953, DCP, 2D version) with Victoria Price!
WHEN: October 26, 2022 1 PM & 7:30 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
WHAT ELSE: Musician David Drazin performs pre-show music at 7 PM.
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee
Advance Tickets: Click Here!
NOTE: The feature film will be starting around 7:50 PM.
The Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series is honored to welcome Victoria Price, daughter of horror legend Vincent Price, to Park Ridge on October 26, 2022. Victoria, a writer and public speaker, frequently tours the country and is a fan favorite at horror film conventions. She’s no stranger to the Chicago area, but this is her first appearance at our classic film series. She will be our special guest when we screen 1953’s House of Wax. Victoria will be in the theatre lobby from 6:30 PM until 7:30 PM signing copies of her books. Afterward, she will be interviewed onstage by program host Matthew Hoffman. The feature presentation is expected to begin between 7:50-8 PM. (The film is 88 minutes.)
The books available for purchase will include:
Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography $20
Cooking Price-Wise $20
A Treasury of Great Recipes $60 (but very collectible)
House of Wax, which is being presented in its “2D” form, is the film that set Vincent Price on the horror film track. It remains one of his best-known movies. In the film, Vincent plays a sculptor driven to madness when his life’s work goes up in flames. Years later, he works in the shadows as a disfigured fiend; he seeks to rebuild his museum collection by re-populating the exhibits with real corpses. Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, and Charles Buchinsky (Bronson) also star in this marvelous tale of the macabre.
House of Wax is a remake of the 1932 chiller, Mystery of the Wax Museum, which featured Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray and was directed by Michael Curtiz. The ’53 version was helmed by Andre de Toth. Ironically, de Toth was blind in one eye and was not able to see the “3 Dimensional” effects that made the film such a success at the time of its release. However, it’s been said that this handicap on the part of the director may have benefited the film; de Toth was more concerned with telling a suspenseful story rather than focusing attention on gimmicky effects (although the paddle ball sequence is quite fun).
House of Wax was the first color horror film in 3-D with a stereophonic soundtrack. For a wonderful reminisce about the glory of this film’s visual– as well as aural— effects, we’d like to re-direct you to our favorite movie blog, The Greenbriar Picture Shows. Click Here!
Victoria will also be available in our lobby after the movie lets out. She is a wonderful storyteller, so we sincerely hope local audiences will come out to hear her speak about her famous father.
~MCH