Mystery Of The Wax Museum (1933)

Starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Allen Vincent
Directed by Michael Curtiz
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A wisecracking reporter, trying to save her job, takes an interest in the opening of a wax museum when she notices one of its figures resembles a recent suicide victim.

A companion piece to the previous year's Doctor X, which also starred Atwill and Wray, was directed by Curtiz, and was filmed in early Technicolor, just like this film.  I would call it an improvement on its predecessor, with a meatier part for Atwill, who's quite good as the enigmatic sculptor who walks a thin line between sanity and madness.  The sets are also impressively designed and Glenda Farrell's snappy dialogue as the reporter comes off much better than that of the previous film's Lee Tracy.  Although it's less known for its own merits than for being the film that Vincent Price's House Of Wax was a remake of, it's still an entertaining horror-mystery worthy of admiration.