5/10
Better Than You Would Expect
1 June 2011
The career of Cameron Mitchell is fairly typical of a good, but second line actor after the collapse of the studio system. Left adrift they took work where they found it and Mitchell appeared in some awful films after the Fifties. Nightmare In Wax could be considered one of them, but the screenplay makes this film a camp delight with Mitchell leading an entire cast in an object lesson in overacting.

Cameron Mitchell is our protagonist in this film, he plays a former studio makeup artist who was burned and lost an eye as a result of an accident. He starts a Hollywood Wax Museum, but this man through a combination of drugs and hypnosis is using live subjects as his exhibits. He's planning revenge on those he felt wronged him. Scott Brady is a cop who suspects, but can't prove his involvement in the disappearance of some Hollywood notables.

Anne Helm is the girl Mitchell once loved, Berry Kroeger does a great caricature of a studio head, casting couch and all. Kroeger's latest squeeze is blond bimbo Victoria Carroll. Carroll in her own way gives the best performance in the film.

Nightmare In Wax is a fun black comedy, not to be taken seriously. It's hardly a great film, but far more enjoyable than I thought.
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