Two Hearts in Wax Time (1935)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Technicolor short from MGM is a rather interesting viewing experience but for reasons you might not think of. The story centers around a drunk department store worker (Gus Shy) who has one too many and begins to think that the mannequin's are coming to life and doing music numbers. There are a few pluses here including the interesting set design and of course the beautiful color. The color really jumps off the screen and like many of these early Technicolor shorts you can tell someone went to great trouble to make sure the film was as colorful as possible. The music numbers are decent at best and to be honest I thought the best song as the drunken Shy doing "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows." Now, what makes this short so interesting is a brief appearance of Frankenstein's monster. Why is that interesting? Well, this short was apparently released before BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN yet the monster here is clearly "trying" to look like Karloff did in that film. However, there's actually a lot more because the monster is talking here and even samples some dialogue that would appear in the James Whale film. So, if the release date of this coming out first is true, then this here is the first film to feature the monster not only talking but also in color. It really makes you wonder if someone saw an early preview of the Whale film, if this was just luck or perhaps something else was going on.