Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) · 11:37am Jan 22nd, 2019
So, there's a poll up on the Equestria Daily website that poses the question: Should season 9 wrap up Friendship is Magic. They allow folks to choose from three different answers. To sum it up one answer is stop the show, another is keep it going and the final is an undefined other category. Personally I lean toward other or wrapping up the show.
The reason I think the show should end or at the very least change isn't because they haven't made some solid to good episodes in the previous few years. It isn't because I have some great yearning for the first few seasons. It's simply that the main characters have long since finished their character arcs. Honestly, they've all basically achieved whatever it was they were going to achieve.
Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt, Fluttershy has her animal sanctuary thing, Applejack isn't going to leave the farm and is happy with that, Rarity is a big time fashionista with her own boutiques, Pinkie Pie is still planning parties and doing whatever she does and Twilight long ago became a princess and more or less has grown into the role for better or worse. That's it. They're done. Unless you kill them off or one of them turns evil there really isn't much left to do with them as main characters in this format. Well that is unless we're going to enter the later years where they all have husbands, kids and bitch about stretch marks, the odd ache and periodically yell at one of the children to, "Knock it off or so help me!"
Some folks will argue that it doesn't have to be that way and point to shows like The Simpsons or Gunsmoke or some other long running show. The thing that they forget is that long before those shows were either cancelled or should have been cancelled they'd pretty much lost whatever it was that made the show special. Heck even long running soap operas changed out the cast (seriously I don't think it would have been possible to keep someone from 1952 until 2009 on as a lead and not had it be really weird).
So that means as far as cartoons go spin-offs. You could always go back in time and follow a group of ponies around as they deal with a variety of things. The Pillars of Equestria could be a show, Something that focuses on Shining Armor going through his time as a guard and the friends he has/had could be a thing (it could partly be also why Celestia realizes she needs a princess of friendship ultimately), Agents of SMILE, Crusaders, etc. could all be done further expanding the universe that FiM started.
Every so often, when it made sense you could drop in one or two of the main characters from the original show. It would sort of be how Star Trek would have Spock show up or Scotty. They do a thing, help solve a problem, push the story along and then move on.
It's sort of how you keep a franchise going. Just make sure that you keep the heart of the show true and not get lost in the weeds of the socio-politics of the now, continually retcon and over explain things that don't need it, and forget just WHO is actually interested in what you're doing not the odd outliers that sometimes get too vocal for their own good. Those are good ways to kill a franchise.
Long before Paris Hilton decided to attempt to destroy film with a remake of the 1953 House of Wax there was a movie based off of an unpublished short story by Charles S. Belden. The short story was called The Wax Works. From this short story Mystery of the Wax Museum was born.
The movie follows reporter Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell) who, under threat of being fired heads to a local police station to see if she can get a lead on anything newsworthy. When the police leak the possible suicide of a famous model Florence is on the case. It doesn't take long for things not to add up and when the model's body goes missing the plot kicks into gear and enters some familiar territory.
If you've seen the 1953 House of Wax you know the story. A wax sculptor, in this case Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) has his museum burned down by his business partner and is maimed in the process. A number of years later he reopens his museum and those that show up are amazed at how lifelike the figures are. There is of course a dark secret behind just what is going on at the museum that allows the maimed sculptor to continue to work.
Mystery of the Wax Museum is the first and probably my favorite version this story (well for the most part). It's a pre Hays code film so that means the dialog is a little bit more raunchy, and there is some well sculpted nudity as well. In fact the banter that goes on in this film between Florence and her editor or Florence and the police is sort of reminiscent of movies like His Girl Friday even though it's seven years older than the classic Grant/Russell comedy.
The film also boasts a solid cast that includes actors like Atwill, Farrell, Fay Wray (King Kong) and Frank McHugh (All Through the Night). It also has one of the biggest directors of the time behind the camera in Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Robin Hood). So with good writing good acting and good direction what could possibly go wrong? There is one thing that doesn't work for me and that's the ending.
It's not that what they came up with is overall terrible. If this movie were a romantic comedy or if there was more backstory to the relationship between the two characters in question what happens would have made sense. However, as it stands it literally just comes out of nowhere and raises more questions than anything.
That being said though overall this is one of those movies that is just good fun. It's a fun little mystery story that hits most of its notes squarely. If you're in the mood for something older and you can get hold of it (typically it's an extra on the DVD or blu ray of the 1953 House of Wax) give it a watch.
The Stats:
4 dead bodies (that I bothered to count)
4 sculpted breasts
decapitation
club whacking
boiling in wax
fire fu
banter fu
police fu
Slap fu
Shout Outs:
Glenda Farrell as the Florence Dempsey for giving as good as she gets and saying things like, "Hey sweetheart, how's your sex life," to police officers.
Lionel Atwill as Ivan Igor a name that just screams he's the villain.
Fay Wray as Charlotte Duncan she may be a brunette in this one but she still screams like some ape's got her.
Frank McHugh as Jim Florence's editor who giving as good as he gets and occasionally dismissively laughing at Florence which sets her off too.
Michael Curtiz the director for doing a great job with this movie and many others and being incredibly quotable. He was a native Hungarian and his grasp of English was suspect at times and is quoted as saying things like, "The next time I want some dumb son of a bitch to do something, I'll do it myself," and "You think you know fuck everything and I know fuck nothing. Well, let me tell you, I know fuck all!"
I found clips but no REAL trailer so
I don’t remember this one, but I do remember Wax Works. With Zach Galligan, David Werner, John Rys Davis, Dana Ashbrook, Patrick MacNee, Deborah Foreman... I mean, it was an awful lot of talent packed into a horrible script with pretty bad special effects. The result was a melting pot (see what I did there) of hilarity.
5000750
Well, the way I remember Wax Works and its sequel was that the effects were ... kind of all over the place. Some of them were pretty good. Some of them were pretty bad. However, I do remember having a good time with them too. I probably should revisit them sometime.