Plot holes (wax figure process, danger of recognition)

1. How were the wax figures made? Reporter Florence Dempsey initially suspected that the stolen bodies were used as moulds from which the wax figures were formed. This would be the most logical plan, of course, but Igor was mad, and it's simply more interesting for the audience if the cadavers became the figures. In the climax, Charlotte Duncan (Fay Wray) was to be encased by poured wax while restrained on a table, yet this is hardly satisfying. Obviously, the wax would create a layer on top of the body, making it less than realistic and undermining Igor's plan to preserve the subject's beauty. (Though Igor's hideously scarred face was concealed by a wax mask, he was able to talk and otherwise have facial expressions; this is perhaps forgiveable because the dramatic revelation of his true face is compelling, and we can even speculate that he had concocted a flexible wax and that the Paris fire resulted in a loss of flesh that could be "filled in" and thus appear realistic.) Even though it contradicted the "reality" that the figures were wax-encased cadavers, the idea that victims were used to make moulds better fits the climax. It seems the filmmakers wanted it both ways.

2. Jim (the newspaper editor) dismisses Dempsey's suspicion that the resemblance between the wax figure of Joan of Arc and suicide Joan Gale, whose cadaver was recently stolen from the morgue, is more than coincidental on the basis that people would recognize it (also: the resemblance between Voltaire and the dead judge). But Dempsey is right: surely people would notice the resemblance and connect the dots. Can we chalk this up to Igor's madness?