Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1971.
Directed by Gordon Hessler.
Starring Jason Robards, Herbert Lom, Christine Kaufmann, Adolfo Celi, Lilli Palmer, Maria Perschy, and Brooke Adams.
SYNOPSIS:
Paris… at the turn of the century. Inspector Vidocq investigates a series of unexplained murders at a Grand Guignol-type theatre…where the players have suddenly become real-life victims.
Edgar Allan Poe’s classic 1841 short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue had already been adapted for the screen by Universal in 1932 and which starred Bela Lugosi in a version that altered the story a bit, keeping the horror elements about a killer ape but adding a mad scientist into the mix. By 1971, audiences were savvy to the original story story and how it played out so, aware of this, director Gordon Hessler and writer Christopher Wicking decided to spice things up a bit and make the story into a murder mystery centering around a play-within-a-play, ejecting the horror angle involving a real ape and having the central characters acting out Poe’s story in Grand Guignol style on a Paris stage in the early 20th century.
However, the actor in the ape costume is not the intended actor because he has been murdered by having acid poured onto him. The acid-murderer in the costume now is Rene Marot (Herbert Lom), whose former lover was the mother of Madeleine (Christine Kaufmann), the actress unknowingly playing opposite him onstage. Marot was thought to be long dead after an incident onstage where fake acid was replaced with the real thing, but he has returned and is out for revenge against Madeleine and her theatre director husband Cesar Charron (Jason Robards) by murdering the entire acting troupe. However, dogged policeman Inspector Vidocq (Adolfo Celi) is on the case, and his suspicions for the murders begin with Cesar.
Closer in plot and style to Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera than it is to anything by Poe, Murders in the Rue Morgue is a confused mess of a movie that brings in too many outside influences to really coalesce into a satisfying murder mystery. Granted, by the time the final reveal comes around you might go “Oh, so it was that them that did it” but it is something of a slog to get to that point, and were it not for the interference of the wonderful Adolfo Celi as the Columbo-like Inspector Vidocq – who was based on Eugène-François Vidocq, a real-life 18th century former-criminal-turned-criminologist and whose life story inspired the likes of Edgar Allan Poe and Victor Hugo – then the movie would be as dry and joyless as the current extreme hot weather the UK is experiencing.
The lack of humour is hammered home all the more when you consider that Vincent Price was Gordon Hessler’s first choice to play Cesar Charron. Instead, due to Price’s alleged contractual disputes with AIP, the role went to Jason Robards, who was a fine actor but he wasn’t known for horror movies and doesn’t bring the same sense of maniacal glee that Price was known for adding to his roles. Herbert Lom does brooding and intense like only he could, although he does feel underused, but aside from Adolfo Celi’s jovial but cunning demeanour, there is very little about Murders in the Rue Morgue that makes a lot of sense, narratively and tonally. There is at least one too many dream sequences/flashbacks/premonitions, which gets very confusing as characters you thought were dead suddenly appear and start talking like they’re still a part of the story, and the whole movie has the feel of something that has been disassembled and put back together in a different order.
Nevertheless, Murders in the Rue Morgue is still a good-looking movie, with some gorgeous set designs and costumes, and the 4K UHD picture, whilst not the greatest you’ve ever seen for a movie of that age, still contains a lot of detail and colours pop when they need to. The disc comes backed with an archive Gordon Hessler interview and the ever-knowledgeable Kim Newman giving his thoughts on the film, plus you get both Hessler’s Director’s Cut and the AIP Theatrical Cut, both of which have their pros and cons over the other but neither make much difference as an viewing experience, which is that of a fairly dull and workmanlike movie that, were it not for the Hammer Presents… label, would probably not be receiving such a high-quality makeover.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
