House of Wax (1953)

In the 1953 film "House of Wax", Vincent Price gets the chance to turn in a devilish performance as a deranged wax sculptor bent on revenge on those who profited from his supposed "death". Having a large portion of screen time, Vincent first appears as a sympathetic character who loses everything he ever cared about (his wax creations) and returns as the sly and devious killer who masks his deformities with a wax mask of his own. I was surprised at the level of violence that was in a film from this time period and the number of murders that Vincent's character made. The film is presented seriously and only one character comes across as cartoonish. The version I saw was in color and the production looked sharp and clean.