This is a short film from MGM that is in very vivid Three-Color Technicolor--the first truly full color film used in movies beginning about 1934. Up until then, color films were two-color varieties-- such as Two-Color Technicolor and Cinecolor...and the pictures looked rather orangey green. So, it's obvious when you watch the film that it is very pretty.Joe (Gus Shy) works at a department store and apparently spends all his time getting drunk. After getting amazingly drunk, he begins hallucinating...seeing the mannequins all coming to life and then singing and dancing. These are mostly very dull numbers--even the really odd one with evil villains through history (and fiction) coming to life. It's supposed to be funny...but they thought wrong...and it's only passable entertainment.

Although the musical interludes are on shaky ground, they're a lot better than what usually was done by the '30s Warner "Brevities" at another studio. In fact, a lot of imagination and creativity went into the making of this MGM short about an inebriated custodian of wax window models who sees them all come to life.GUS SHY is a vaudevillian who does his drunken act well, but the accent here is on what he sees once the window displays come alive. Especially interesting are "The Greatest Villains" featuring a very striking use of the Frankenstein creature, bearing a strong resemblance to Boris Karloff in the old Universal film.The songs are a weak lot but the imagination goes into the various antics of the live wax mannequins who go from window to window experiencing different settings and interacting with the various characters.Summing up: Inventive use of early Technicolor makes watching it worthwhile.

I guess the only thing you can call Two Hearts In Wax Time as a genre is a Musicalette. I'm sure the paying customers of the movie-going public enjoyed it back in the day.The film seems mainly to be a vehicle for the talents of Gus Shy who was a vaudevillian of some note and this was his next to last film appearance. Shy rivaled Ed Norton and Vince Barnett for playing inebriates on film. He's a custodian in a department store and while on a toot he sees the mannequins in the window come alive and do a few songs and dances.Such folks as Shirley Ross, Syd Saylor, and Sam McDaniel who had some substantial film credits are in this as well. It's an easy to take musical short or Musicalette if you prefer.

When a department store custodian gets drunk, the short follows a night of hallucinating that the mannequins are alive.The musical ditty itself isn't very distinguishable from others of the era, although the "Greatest Menace Of Them All" bit is almost surreal it's content. Think of a preemptive to Herman Munster & The Penguin and you've got an idea of the 'menaces'.At 17 minutes, it's hard to take offense to the short, even if you don't like musicals. But the bookends about the alcoholic department custodian is at least a different approach to the musical genre set-up.6/10