Description: The Depression-era vogue for horror and the supernatural produced some of Hollywoood's most memorable chillers, among them Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Paramount), Frankenstein, (Universal), and King Kong (RKO). At Warner Brothers, the main entry was Mystery of the Wax Museum, directed by Michael Curtiz, a grand thriller of 1933 in which Fay Wray (Who would appear opposite Kong later that same year) was threatened with waxy immortality by the maniacal Lionel Atwill.
Brief description:
Tino Balio is professor emeritus of film in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. He is author of United Artists, Volume 1, 1919-1950 and Volume 2, 1951-1978 as well as Grand Design: Hollywood as Modern Business Enterprise, 1930-1939. He is editor of The American Film Industry and Hollywood in the Age of Television.