Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

Director:

Robert Florey

Writers:

Edgar Allan Poe (story)
Robert Florey (adaptation)

Release Date:

21 February 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

Innocent Beauty - this was her wedding eve. On the wall a shadow . . the beast was at large grinning horribly-cruelly. What was Her Fate ?

Plot:

In 19th Century Paris, the maniacal Dr. Mirakle abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship...

Plot Keywords:

Ape | Medical Student | Police | Kidnapping | Morgue

Cast

Sidney Fox	...	Mlle. Camille L'Espanaye
Bela Lugosi	...	Dr. Mirakle
Leon Ames	...	Pierre Dupin (as Leon Waycoff)
Bert Roach	...	Paul
Betty Ross Clarke	...	Mme. L'Espanaye
Brandon Hurst	...	Prefect of Police
D'Arcy Corrigan	...	Morgue Keeper
Noble Johnson	...	Janos The Black One
Arlene Francis	...	Woman of the Streets

Runtime:

61 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Danish | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Many censors cut parts of the death scenes of the woman of the streets, eliminating her stabbing and her being tied to the cross beams.

Goofs:

Continuity: In many scenes, the close-up of a chimpanzee is used for the gorilla.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Creature Features: Werewolf of London/Murders in the Rue Morgue (#1.8)" (1970)

Soundtrack:

Romeo and Juliet Overture

A U.S. look at French horror through a German lens

Much creepier than any mad scientist and his monkey movie has a right to be. Much of the credit must go to cinematographer Karl Freund (The Last Laugh, Metropolis) who gives the movie the feel of a German horror film. Charles D. Hall's distorted sets also help make this often resemble a sound remake of "The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari." The script has a very European flavor as well with lines that sometimes sound as if they were translated from another language. The ape is more convincing than all those later films because of quick cutting between an actual ape's snarling face and a man in a suit, the latter shown not enough to destroy the illusion. At one point stop motion is used to show the ape carrying a woman across the top of buildings a year before "King Kong!" There are three failings, however. Near the end is a long attempt at humor concerning French bureaucracy that hurts the build-up of tension. The other two failings come from the lab. They lay over one sequence a fog effect with the fog blowing at hurricane strength despite no apparent wind anywhere else in the shot. And at the end is a very obvious matte shot with lots of squiggly lines around the characters.