Movie Title: Murders in the Rue Morgue
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery, Romance
Writer: Tom Reed and Dale Van Every (additional dialogue by John Huston)
Starring: Sidney Fox, Bela Lugosi, Leon Ames, Bert Roach, Betty Ross Clarke, Brandon Hurst, D'Arcy Corrigan, Noble Johnson, Arlene Francis
Review: Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, Murders in the Rue Morgue tells the story of a mad scientist, Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi), as he manically searches for a mate for his pet gorilla. Mirakle has begun to kidnap young Parisian women and inject them with gorilla blood polluting nature and science. And when he finds the perfect "specimen" (Sidney Fox) for his beastly companion her fiancé (Leon Ames) is in a race to set her free.
This is one dark, creepy and disturbing movie. Even though Universal cut nearly 20 minutes of violent content from the feature it still has plenty of morbid and macabre moments to frighten even the most hardened of horror fans.
The star of this picture is the atmospheric cinematography, set and lighting; all with an obvious German expressionist influence. The true star performer is indeed Bela Lugosi. He was hot off of Dracula was beginning his run as a horror movie staple that would ultimately typecast the actor for the rest of his career. As Dr. Mirakle Lugosi is truly menacing and oddly intriguing.
Murders in the Rue Morgue is not a classic horror film like Frankenstein, The Wolf Man or the aforementioned Dracula, but it certainly has a uniqueness that makes it worth seeking out. A creepy thriller that sure to scare fans of the fright flicks from that era.
Fun Fact: Universal replaced Robert Florey from directing Frankenstein (for which Bela Lugosi did a screen test) with James Whale. Boris Karloff replaced Lugosi in the film and played the monster. As compensation Universal Pictures assigned the director and Lugosi to Murders in the Rue Morgue.