Man in the Dark, released by Columbia Pictures, was the first major-studio black-and-white 3D feature and premiered two days before House of Wax.

[3][4] In New York City during the early 1900s, talented sculptor Professor Henry Jarrod runs a wax museum that features historical figures who have met grisly ends.

His business partner, Matthew Burke, wants to end their partnership due to Jarrod's refusal to make sensational exhibits, such as those that draw crowds to their competitors.

Jarrod asks Wallace to invest in his new wax museum, featuring statues made by his assistants, deaf mute Igor and alcoholic Leon Averill.

He hires Scott as an assistant and asks Sue to model for a Marie Antoinette wax figure, as she resembles his earlier one.

Sue tells police Detective Lieutenant Tom Brennan that the Joan of Arc figure shares a distinctive ear piercing with Cathy, which she does not believe would be discernible from a newspaper photo.

The police draw the truth out of Averill by withholding alcohol – Jarrod was driven mad by his previous museum's destruction and his new wax figures are the wax-coated corpses of his victims.

[citation needed] Seeing promise in the future of 3D films, Warner Bros. contracted Julian and Milton Gunzburg's Natural Vision 3D system, the same one used for Bwana Devil, and decided to film a remake of their 1933 two-color Technicolor thriller Mystery of the Wax Museum, which was based on Charles S. Belden's three-act play The Wax Works.

"[5] Some modern critics feel de Toth's inability to see depth is what makes the film superior since he was more concerned with telling a thrilling story and getting believable performances from the actors than simply tossing things at the camera.

It played at midnight with a number of celebrities in the audience, Broderick Crawford, Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Rock Hudson, Judy Garland, Shelley Winters, and Ginger Rogers among them.

Lugosi was interviewed by reporter Shirley Thomas, who thoroughly confused the aging star when she asked the prearranged questions out of order, and, embarrassed, he left without attending the screening.

[citation needed] The initial 3D screenings of the 88-minute film included an intermission, which was necessary to change the reels because each of the theater's two projectors was dedicated to one of the stereoscopic images.

"[12] Harrison's Reports called the film "a first-class thriller of its kind", and "the best 3-D picture yet made", though the reviewer felt that "the added value of depth is not significant enough to warrant the annoyance of viewing the proceedings through the polaroid glasses, and that the picture would have been as much of a chiller if shown in the standard 2-D form, and probably even a greater thriller if shown on a wide screen.

Then it is we go back to the gaga script devised by Crane Wilbur from a story which served one of the early talking films and one is inclined to shudderingly ask: Are we to go through all that again?

"[18] House of Wax revitalized the film career of Vincent Price, who had been playing secondary character parts and occasional sympathetic leads since the late 1930s.

After this high-profile role, he was in high demand for the rest of his career to play fiendish villains, mad scientists, and other deranged characters in genre films.

The following year, Columbia Pictures hired House of Wax writer Crane Wilbur to pen the script for their attempt to capture the 3D craze alongside Price as star with The Mad Magician (1954).