Trivia / House of Wax (1953)

• Enforced Method Acting:
  • The guillotine was real and very functional, causing Paul Picerni to briefly quit the film rather than perform the scene where he's rescued from it just in time. In the end, after much discussion, he agreed to one take and no more. The fear on his face is very real.
  • An accidental one for the fire scene: the intention was to light three small 'spot' fires to create the illusion that the whole place was ablaze. But as they started filming, these quickly got out of control and ignited the whole sound-stage. Since the very complicated (and swiftly melting) wax figures would have been too expensive to recreate, they simply had to keep shooting while the set burned, inspiring a very real expression of alarm and panic on Vincent Price's face.
• Prop Recycling: If one pays attention, they can see that a number of the wax figures that are set on fire in the opening sequence look identical to those seen when the new museum opens. This is because the scenes were shot out of sequence, with the opening fire being shot after the scenes with the new museum were filmed.