Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)

Really Surprised!

One of the best films i have seen

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

To be honest I have never been a great fan of director Gordon Hessler. I didn't like Scream, and Scream Again, hated Cry of the Banshee, and thought The Oblong Box was okay. I did like his Sinbad film and really liked his Kolchak episode(The Spanish Moss Murders)to be fair. I always thought he was one of those directors that tended to have a lot to work with but never fully utilized his wealth. Directors like Herscell Gordon Lewis, Larry Buchanan, and Ed Wood never had a third or fourth of what Hessler was working with but sometimes blindsided him with their efforts. So...to spin a long story short...I went into Murders in the Rue Morgue with some trepidation and had limited expectations. It surprised me. It didn't suck. Nor is it great, but Hessler did a lot of things right here though the film has some obvious flaws. Hessler does create a very European-feeling film despite having Jason Robards in the lead(it helps that most of the rest of the cast is European like Herbert Lom, Adolfo Celi(see him in a lot of films from this time period it seems), Christine Kaufmann, Lili Palmer, Peter Arne, and virtually everyone else except Michael Dunn). Hessler also creates some good visuals with some repeated dream sequences of a man falling from the theater rafters and an ax being wielded by a man in evening dress. Hessler also gets some scenes with acid and the plays being performed on stage very nicely done. His script is a huge problem as Poe is more of a backdrop for another retelling of The Phantom of the Opera. the story itself about a man seeking revenge is okay - I really like what happened to Robards at the end. Nonetheless, much of the story makes no sense, a staple in a Hessler film it seems to me. While there are some shortcomings, I am offering up a mild vote of confidence for Murders in the Rue Morgue as it is watchable, does have some merit, and is one of Hessler's better films - for what that is worth.

Not terrible, but pretty close. It's difficult to not be disappointed in a movie that features Jason Robards, Herbert Lom AND Michael Dunn and still manages to be dull. Robards leads an theatre troupe whose members are being killed after being splashed with acid. Detective Adolfo Celi suspects Lom (who "died" years earlier). Aside from the presence of various men in gorilla costumes, the movie bears little resembles to Poe's story. Nevertheless it's well directed by Gordon Hessler with a lot of period detail (and Spain makes a nice substitute for France). Robards is just OK, Lom is fairly creepy and Dunn is exploited as a sinister dwarf. Christine Kaufmann (a actress of little talent and even less presence) plays Robards nubile young wife, plagued by nightmares and premonitions of things to come. Lili Palmer appears briefly as Kaufmann's mother.

A little different kind of a horror movie based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe and interestingly so. Much have been altered from the original short story, though. To be exact, not only is it based on Poe, but there is also a great deal of Gaston Leroux's 'Phantom of the Opera' mixed in as well. And to emphasize that matter Herbert Lom, who brilliantly did the phantom role in 1962 British Hammer version, handles a part here with a mask hiding his injured face. Jason Robards is also nice to see in this kind of film for a change after having enjoyed his work before in westerns and dramas.The plot is set in nineteenth century Paris around a theater troop resembling the historic Grand Guignol theater and is similarly specialized on cruel natured horror plays. The certain theatricality follows everywhere the story takes us and stays in the actors even when they are not on stage. The streets are crowded with a carnival and merry-go-rounds. There is a puppet theater, tricks and hypnotism. Even the real murders are executed in most showy ways. The atmosphere has a dreamy, almost surrealistic quality. And the actual dream sequences (What's a Poe film without them?) are beautifully shot and tinted in red tones. Very beautiful and creepy all at the same.For an American horror production the film has a surprisingly bright European art film look and feel. Instead of using wholly dramatic studio sets we are treated with daylight locations, streets and parks, which allows the movie breath a bit between the expected horrors. This production was a pleasant surprise from Gordon Hessler and American International and a refreshing addition to their line of earlier Poe films directed by Roger Corman.

AIP cut this and added color tints to the flash forwards and flashbacks and changed the ending. This has run on the Encore Mystery network since Feb. 2002 in a restored 98 min version...11 minutes longer than the AIP hack job. A dvd should follow sometime in 2003.