House of wax 1953 3d2/2/2024 But such excitement was short-lived, for the sound system was deemed economically impractical throughout the industry. When it played in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the city manager even dubbed the event “Stereophonic 3D Day” in honor of the film’s aesthetic achievements. Following its initial premiere, the film and its sound system toured throughout much of the United States. And such screenings were not just limited to New York. The release of House of Wax became a thrilling sensory experience for many filmgoers who were lucky enough to attend WarnerPhonic screenings. In other words, Warners treated the film’s surround-sound effects to work in concert with its three-dimensional visuals: the terrifying images startled the audiences from the front, and the surround sounds continued to assault them from behind. The crack of the victim’s spine as it snaps in two not only plays from the front channels, but from the rear loudspeakers. Perhaps the most famous of these scenes is during the film’s second reel, when the man in the black cape throws one of his victims down an elevator shaft. In a sense, the surround-sound mix for House of Wax constructed the extra channels to accentuate the emotional drama during scenes when onscreen characters endure life-threatening peril. These effects included the screams of distressed damsels and the crackling of a burning wax figurines. Instead of using the extra stereo channels for just music, Warners used them to play thrill-inducing sound effects. Nonetheless, Warners’ sound department-led by veteran rerecording mixer George Groves-had another idea in mind. More, it forced filmmakers to answer the following questions: Which sounds should play from the left, right, and surround channels, and how should these sounds function within the film’s story? Most editors and mixers working in Hollywood at the time felt that extra audio channels were best suited for musical effects, specifically those effects that enhanced the reproduction of orchestral scores. WarnerPhonic stereo offered an inventive conception of motion picture sound reproduction in an era when terms like “high fidelity” and “acoustical realism” were still being defined. This back-up track was present just in case the complicated stereo technology broke down during screenings. The system also included a monophonic down-mix of the entire four-channel sound design. This stereo configuration consisted of three loudspeakers behind the screen (in a left, center, and right orientation) and a “rear-effects” channel for the many loudspeakers situated on the rear and side walls of the auditorium. When the film premiered at New York’s Paramount Theatre on April 10th, 1953, it boasted a new four-channel (and five-track) sound system co-developed by Warners and RCA and branded WarnerPhonic Sound. And House of Wax is one of the more fascinating of these stereophonic experiments. Despite contemporary histories-which generally suggest that surround-sound designs are relatively new cinematic phenomena-Hollywood had been implementing and codifying various forms of multi-channel audio since the transition to recorded sound in the late 1920s. Less well known, however, is the film’s contribution to stereophonic sound. Even more notable, director André De Toth wore an eye-patch when making House of Wax, and was therefore unable to experience the very three-dimensional sensations that have come to define the film’s place in motion picture history. At other times the effects are almost laughable, such as the brawl during the film’s climax wherein characters thrust their fists toward the camera and not toward their opponents. At times the effects recall the primitive aesthetics of earlier forays into stereoscopic technology, such as the carnival barker who slaps his paddle ball into the audience. Warners’ 1953 horror classic House of Wax arguably features some of the most memorable and enjoyable stereoscopic effects produced during Hollywood’s “golden age” of 3-D. A restored 3-D and stereo DCP of House of Wax will screen as part of our C inematheque in 3-D! series on Saturday, January 28 at 5:30 p.m., preceded by the Three Stooges in Spooks. His research has been published in Film History and Music and the Moving Image. His dissertation traces the development of surround sound technologies from 1930 to 1959. This essay on the sound design in House of Wax (1953) was written by Eric Dienstfrey, doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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