Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) User Reviews

Clichés and wasted opportunities...

[secondtake · 4/10 · 24 June 2012]

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)

There are so many complex scenes, so many amazing sets and costumes, and lots of moving camera that implies intelligent filmmaking it's a miracle this film came out so wooden. And frankly boring.

Part of the problem is Jason Robards in the lead--another actor might have pulled off the drama and intrigue anyway. And the leading victim-female is almost terrible--Christine Kaufmann. But the director, Gordon Hessler, I think gets the worst of everyone, and all this apparent money and talent is squashed under bright even light and uninspired performances.

There are lots of horror film clichés that might be satisfying to some, including just the use of the theater as a set (somewhat like Phantom of the Opera). But some of the clichés are cheezy 1971 versions, like dreamy sequences with double exposures or slow motion, and strange sound effects of choral voices.

There were enough people who really liked this movie for the director to mades an official director's cut with eleven extra minutes. Well, why not? It's all voluntary, and I'd vote against it unless you are really into the themes here, the actors, or just have a lot of time free and here it is. It's no awful, it's just slow and clunky. And why did they film it with such shadlowless flat bright light? It's a horror film, for goodness sake.

Boring and Dull Movie with Terrible Screenplay and Wooden Performances

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 30 August 2014]

In Paris, in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Cesar Charron (Jason Robards) owns a theater at the Rue Morgue where he performs the play "Murders in the Rue Morgue" with his wife Madeleine Charron (Christine Kaufmann), who has dreadful nightmares.

When there are several murders by acid of people connected to Cesar, the prime suspect of Inspector Vidocq (Adolfo Celi) would be Cesar's former partner Rene Marot (Herbert Lom). But Marot murdered Madeleine's mother (Lilli Palmer) many years ago and committed suicide immediately after.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a boring and dull movie with terrible screenplay and wooden performances. There are many clichés; rip-off of scenes and concepts from "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Sherlock Holmes" and Christine Kaufmann is awful in the lead role. There is one terrible dreamlike scene where Madeleine looks to her dress before jumping into the carriage. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Very loosely based on a tale by Poe , this version was filmed entirely shot on location in Spain

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 18 February 2021]

This is a peculiar version taking the basic premise of a Grand Guignol theatre in París at the turn of the Century , which is running an adaptation of Poe's story and whose leading actress : Christine Kauffmann is afficted by bizarre nightmares involving some characters of the play . After many people associated with the theater scenario become murder victms , things go awry . As newspapers publicize : Acid murders in Rue Morgue Theater . Little by little our heroine becomes completely isolated from reality .

A pedestrian, very free and complex adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe that has been remade vary times , though it really nothing to do with the classic novel, Murders in the Rue Morgue . In fact , this film seems to be more Phantom of Opera by Gaston Leroux than Murders in the Rue Morgue by Poe . The action slips forth and back bewilderingly from the play that the protagonists perform to the real events , including some gory scenes. There are style and fascination enough in the weird dream sequences alone to hold the attention for the surprising spectator. Interpretations are uniformly midddling . Jason Robards plays the main actor associated with the production and married to the upsettling Christina Kauffman who becomes involved with a man who killed her mother . While Herbert Lom gives the best acting but repeating his role of Phantom of Opera . With good supporting help including Adolfo Celi as the famous Inspector Vidoq , Lili Palmer , Maria Perschy , Michael Dunn, Peter Arne . Being an US/Spanish coproduction here appears ordinary Spanish secondaries as Victor Israel, Imma de Santis , Maria Martin , Rafael Hernández, and Jose Calvo. There are other better versions about Edgar Allan Poe novel : 1932 by Robert Florey with Bela Lugosi , Sidney Fox and 1986 by Jeannot Szwarc rendition with George C Scott , Rebecca de Mornay .

It packs a colorful and evocative cinematography by Manuel Berenguer , an expert cameraman who had an important career photographing international coproductions . As well as suspenseful and frightening musical score by Waldo de Los Ríos. The motion picture was regularly directed by Gordon Hessler (Scream and scream again, The Oblong box , Cry of Banshee , Golden Voyage of Sinbad).

A bit of a bad dream.

[david-697 · 2 September 2004]

Not a straight remake of the classic Poe tale, more an odd mixture of `The Phantom Of The Opera' (Herbert Lom is effectively reprising his Hammer Phantom), `Theatre of Death' and Poe's familiar themes of premature burial, `Murders In The Rue Morgue' is an experiment which does not quite work.

Partly this is down to Chris Wicking's script, not best known for his narrative clarity, here he reaches it a new low, with a script obscure in the extreme (at several points it seems to contradict itself). He is not helped by Hessler's direction, the strengths showed in the earlier `Scream And Scream Again' seem to have disappeared, and replaced by sheer shoddiness (some of the murders are very badly staged). A more imaginative director was needed to compensate for the script, especially in the case of the repetitive dream sequences which pepper the film.

By this time Vincent Price had jumped ship and was replaced by Jason Robards Jnr. An odd choice, as aside from being too contemporary for this period setting, he is also, dare I say it, too good an actor for this material. It really needed an actor, who like Price, had a strong sense of irony. As a result Robards just looks flat. Lom comes across much better, but again ham-fisted direction by Hessler sometimes makes him look absurd (the worst offender is when Lom follows Robards; it's staged so badly that a blind man would have noticed Lom).

It's a mess, but despite its many faults it is entertaining enough, the frustrating thing about it is that you get the feeling that given a better script and a more imaginative director (and Vincent Price instead of Robards) this movie could have been very good indeed.

Poe-less

[JasparLamarCrabb · 3/10 · 29 June 2008]

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.

Colorful but dull

[preppy-3 · 3/10 · 11 February 2002]

Players at a Paris theatre (run by Jason Robards) become victims of a masked murderer (Herbert Lom). I saw a brand new print of this so the colors were rich and strong...that's about it for compliments. The movie was very obviously filmed in Spain and has erratic performances (even by pros Robards and Lom). Leading lady Christine Kaufmann is a really terrible actress and keeps having the same stupid dream again and again and again and again etc etc. The film is slow-moving, repititious, has lousy make-up (Lom seems to be wearing the exact same face he had in "Phantom of the Opera" in 1964) and the most boring murders ever put on screen...no gore and very little blood. Stick with the 1932 Lugosi version.

Poe stories shouldn't be done like this nevermore.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 5 October 2020]

A lush and good looking tale of gothic intrigue, this has a great setup being set in late 1800's Paris in a theater that primarily focuses on tales of grand guignole. However, what results is a confusing and emotionally empty film that deals with one of the troop members Herbert Lom who is presumed dead after committing a horrific murder, coming back to seek revenge. Jason Robards plays the troop leader who uncovers the fact that Lom is still living, and the beautiful but lifeless Christine Kaufman plays the leading lady who has a series of horrific nightmares that are basically just the same scene replayed over and over. Michael Dunn is the sniveling dwarf who simply rants and raves to provide more creepiness.

There's little motivation don't you see what you've provided for any of the goings-on here, and the result is a completely disappointing Gothic horror that no more resembles the Bela Lugosi 1932 classic than any of the other American International films celebrating the works of Poe did their original source. But those at least were enjoyable and decently made, and while this has the style, what it doesn't have is the story.

American International at the time was focusing on shocks through gruesome visuals mixed yes with psychedelic nonsense that instantly dates the film's. While some of them (particularly the Dr. Phibes series) come off better, others (like this and "de Sade") are complete misfires. Lom seems to be basically repeating his "Phantom of the Opera" role, yet that at least had the Hammer touch. The Poe touch here has all the bad luck of a black cat attached, so this is one that is easy to scratch off your list.

Overlong but still entertaining variation of the story

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 23 January 2013]

When a string of vicious murders on former employees brings the attention of a traveling circus owner, he realizes they're being done in the style of a thought-deceased associate's suspected death and that he may be out for more than revenge with his rampage.

An overlong, needlessly epic retelling of the story that tends to meander on for a good twenty minutes more than necessary simply because there's far too much useless stuff at the very beginning with it's exaggerated pace that really keeps things from building up too quickly or really reveling in it's more grotesque moments. As it stands, though, there's still some good parts here as the masked phantom creates an imposing presence during his sequences, there's plenty of rather fun Grand Guiginol-style theater scenes of the troupe putting on violent, splatter-drenched performances that really gives the film a sense of fun and excitement early on, and several of the murders get particularly nasty, especially when they're combined with fantastic set-ups and execution to create a memorably nasty scene. Again, there's problems but it's not so bad.

Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence

Replacing Erik

[richardchatten · 1/10 · 3 November 2020]

This owes more far more to Gaston Leroux than Edgar Allan Poe (although to further confuse matters Lili Palmer's stage costume resembles that of the Red Queen in 'Alice in Wonderland').

Executive producers Nicholson & Arkoff of American-International had a dead horse to flog, however. So although we have an acid-burned Herbert Lom skulking about in a mask and cloak as he had nine years earlier in Hammer's version of 'The Phantom of the Opera' (for good measure called 'Erik', as he originally was in the novel and the classic silent version), it's poor Poe who carries the can for this fussily-directed shambles shot in Spain.

It actually plunders 'The Premature Burial' at one point; while constant recourse to dream sequences throughout takes the place of coherent story-telling. Even some of the English-speaking actors (including the late Rosalind Elliot) are obviously post-synced.

Greed, jealousy, revenge ... and Vitriol!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 4 April 2012]

Scriptwriter Christopher Wicking and director Gordon Hessler collaborate a number of times in a span of only a few years time and, even though none of their joint ventures can truly be considered as a pure genre classic, they nevertheless always delivered very entertaining and versatile horror efforts, like the atmospheric "The Oblong Box", the rather perverted "Cry of the Banshee" and the (slightly over-)ambitious "Scream and Scream Again". The title of this film makes believe it's their interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's legendary tale, but the set-up is in fact a bit more creative than that. "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is set at a theater in Paris, where the respectable top artist Cesar Charron and his ensemble depict Poe's oeuvre on stage, but the actual plot of the movie simultaneously borrows elements from that other great and legendary story by Gaston Leroux; "The Phantom of the Opera". Charron's young and beautiful wife Madeleine suffers from recurring nightmares featuring an axe murderer, a falling rope and an old dark house. Meanwhile a masked maniac is brutally killing off Charron's friends and old co-actors with acid. What's the mysterious link between this vengeful killing spree and Madeleine's nightmare? Only Cesar Charron knows… This version of "Murders in the Rue Morge", the second one I watch after the 30's version starring Bela Lugosi, contains a number of horror elements that I absolutely worship, so don't expect an overly critical analysis from my side! First and foremost, the era as well as the setting is sublime. Presumably taking place in the early 1900's, (though the original story was published in 1841) the recreation of Paris around that time is magical. The theater, although exclusively performing harrowing and extremely violent plays, is always sold out entirely and outside on the streets there are non-stop carnivals going on, full of weird people and prostitutes. What a blast of a period and place to live! Furthermore the film benefices from marvelous period decors, costumes and scenery, and there are a number of righteously cast eccentric supportive characters, like a truly eerie dwarf, a bombastic carnival artist specializing in the "art" of faking his own death and an archetypal French police inspector. The murders and the make-up effects are fantastically "Grand Guignol" to boot! Acid - more specifically Vitriol – has a horrible effect on human skin and director Hessler doesn't leave any opportunity unused to show burning faces and mutilated corpses. The plot is engaging and fairly suspenseful, albeit predictable and rather obvious as soon as you gradually get to know the main characters and their personalities. The undeniable highlight of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" are Madeleine's vividly illustrated dreams, as they're hauntingly surreal, colorful and guided by ominous music. It's during these sequences especially that I thought a couple of times that Gordon Hessler and Christopher Wicking are quite underrated names in a horror era primarily dominated by the British Hammer, Tigon and Amicus studios. Jason Robards appears a bit uncomfortable in the horror surrounding, but he nonetheless remains a brilliant actor of course, while Herbert Lom shines in another – for him – familiar role of masked anti-heroic avenger.

Nothing to do with the original story.

[JTMokko · 1/10 · 9 November 2018]

The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) is one of the worst adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's short story by the same name.

First of all. It's not the story from the book. Many horror films from that time period typically bought the rights to use a name of a famous book and just made a film which sometimes was close to actual book and sometimes not. This film is an example of the latter. There is only one similarity - an ape.

Scenes are repetitive. Most of the movie depicts Herpert Lom running around in a ridiculous black cloak and a mask on his face. Sometimes he sneaks in a lady's bedroom or throws some acid from a cute little bottle on someones face. He has a dwarf minion who really has no function in story. Story line is allover the place and the film viewers are either puzzled of what is happening on the screen or bored out of their minds.

Acting is both lame and overly dramatic. Naturally women are helpless and dumb as a doorbell. Bad acting can't be explained to be a style typical for the time of the films production. For example Willard and The Nightcomers from the same year are totally on the different quality level.

Don't waste your time on this turkey - read Poe's original story instead.

Red dreams, axes and acid

[bygard · 8/10 · 2 May 2007]

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.

"I've Had my Revenge...But It Is Not Enough...I Need Love...Love"

[BaronBl00d · 6/10 · 17 October 2010]

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.

Shambling, Incoherent Mess

[profh-1 · 3/10 · 23 July 2023]

The final AIP "Poe" film is a shambling, near-incoherent mess that bears little resemblence to anything Poe did. The plot involves a French theatre troupe being picked off one by one by a supposedly-dead man as revenge for what was done to him many years earlier. The troupe are putting on a bastardized version of Poe's story that owes more to the 1932 film with Bela Lugosi, and borrows heavily from the 1943 film "PHANTOM OF THE OPERA", which itself was a totally-bastardized adaptation of that classic story.

Director Gordon Hessler, in an interview, says he felt audiences were so familiar with Poe's simple murder mystery that "one cannot adapt it as a film" and had to "do something different". I call B***S*** on this. To me, this film should have had a different title.

Apparently, before its release, AIP drastically re-edited the thing, removed 11 minutes, moved several scenes around, and tinted several "dream" sequences so as to remove the intended vagueness & confusion they might cause. On top of that, my local TV channel cut another 2 minutes out, and I'm at a loss to be sure exactly what was cut by AIP and what by the TV station. Either way, the film I've barely been able to put up with for decades is almost completely-incoherent.

Shout Factory's 2016 Blu-Ray (where it's coupled with "THE DUNWICH HORROR") contains the original unreleased director's cut, taken from apparently the only known intact print of it, from before AIP's mutilation. It's a beautiful-looking film-- bright, gorgeous location filming in Spain, looking like no other "Poe" film in existence. But it also drags on at an insanely-leisurely pace as it bounces between long, long stretches of dull tedium and SHOCKING, completely UNCALLED-FOR brutal murders, with people either having acid thrown in their faces or having their throats slashed.

I would rank this as one of the WORST films I've ever watched more than once, and I'm not sure seeing it in a stunning uncut widescreen print helps at all.

Jason Robards plays "Cesar Charron", the head of the stock company, and according to Hessler, realized 2 weeks into shooting he should have asked to play the other main character.

Herbert Lom is "Rene Marot", effectively reprising his role of The Phantom from the 1963 Hammer film, alternating from intelligent, almost-sympathetic leading man to utterly-insane kill-crazy lunatic.

Michael Dunn is "Pierre Triboulet", Marot's polite sidekick, who has perhaps the most amusing line in the film, when he tells someone he descended from royalty: "An ancestor of mine was a court jester!" Clearly, a reference to Poe's story "Hop Frog".

Adolfo Celi is "Inspector Vidocq", who ceaselessly works to track down the perpetrator of the growing number of horrific crimes.

It was only after trying to re-watch my local TV print that I did a bit of research, and ran across something amazing. Reviewer Eric McMillan ("EditorEric_com"), posted, "Poe's creation of his sleuth Dupin is thought to have been based in part on French criminologist Eugène-François Vidocq, credited as the first real-life private detective."

This led me to a LONG biographical article about Vidocq on Wikipedia, where I learned he had a long career as a criminal before switching sides and working for the French police, then organizing the Surete (the undercover security force featured in the 1925 "PHANTOM OF THE OPERA" film!), later still forming the world's first known detective agency, and was the model for at least 3 different authors' detective characters.

Vidocq having resigned from the police TWICE due to incessant harrassment by new, much-younger superiors, would also seem to be the basis for the MUCH-classier, far-more-entertaining 1986 CBS-TV film "MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE" with George C. Scott in the role of "Dupin"!

It also turns out a man named "César Herbaux" was a fellow convict who, along with Vidocq, was convicted of document forgery. I have to assume the writers of the 1971 film named their main character "Cesar" after him!

I still have Steve Haberman's audio commentary to sit through, and I shudder at the thought of watching this thing once again so soon.

Price-Less...

[azathothpwiggins · 3 May 2022]

Director Gordon Hessler's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE is a vast expansion on the original short story by Edgar Allan Poe. This film is less like its source material, and more like THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Here, a vengeful, disfigured killer (Herbert Lom) haunts a theater in search of prey. This isn't a spoiler, since we're shown the madman's identity in the opening minutes.

The main problem with this movie lies in casting Jason Robards in the role of Cesar Charron. He's not a horror actor and is completely out of his element (drama). The obvious choice for such a role would have been Vincent Price, who would have torn into it with gusto. Robards, a fine actor otherwise, comes off as languid and disinterested.

On the upside, the manner of the homicides is novel, and though the story is quite padded out, it does lead up to a decent twist at the end...

sort of

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 9 December 2020]

It's turn of the century Paris. Cesar Charron (Jason Robards) is directing the stage play of Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue". Rene Marot (Herbert Lom) killed an actor and steals his part as the murderous ape. Cesar's wife Madeline Charron (Christine Kaufmann) is the star of the show. She is haunted by nightmares since her mother (Lilli Palmer) was killed by an ax. Marot is the killer and is supposed to be dead. He is seeking revenge upon some of the participants.

This is sort of a Poe play. This is sort of a horror. It's sort of thrilling. At the end of the day, it's not really any of these things. There are some good actors. The movie probably should be following Madeline more closely. She should be the sole protagonist. Her dreams need to be better. They're somewhat cheesy and what an old movie thinks a dream should be. In the end, there is not enough tension and only intermittently interesting.

You'll rue the day...

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 25 April 2021]

Remove all of the boring slow-motion dream sequences from Murders in the Rue Morgue and you would only have a half a film, and that half would be pretty dull as well. Directed by Gordon Hessler, this Poe-inspired horror is tired clichéd nonsense that lacks the sensationalism required to mark it as worthwhile or memorable: the 'murders' of the title are mostly bloodless acid attacks (the victim's face smoking slightly after being splashed with a liquid), with a blink and you'll miss it axe-beheading in the final act.

Jason Robards plays theatre owner Cesar Charron, who produces 'Grand Guignol' adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe's plays. When members of his troupe, past and present, are murdered, Inspector Vidocq (Adolfo Celi) investigates, and suspects that presumed dead thesp Rene Marot (Herbert Lom) is responsible. But how can Marot be alive and what is his motive? Meanwhile, Cesar's young wife Madeleine (Christine Kaufmann) suffers from recurring nightmares, possibly brought on by the fact that her husband was previously married to her deceased mother (that kind of thing is bound to disturb!).

The film is colourful, with better-than-expected production design (the costumes deserve special mention), but the pace is slow, the plot uninspired, and there are some terrible performances: Robards is miscast, and Kaufmann's wooden-ness is only matched by Rosalind Elliot as her maid Gabrielle (when the pair are in a scene together, the viewer is in danger of getting splinters). Lom is acceptable as the acid-scarred Marot, but American International regular Vincent Price would have been a far better choice, giving the character some real pizazz; the film would have also benefitted from far more creative and bloodier death scenes.

And while I am all for the presence of a creepy dwarf in a horror movie, Marot's diminutive sidekick Pierre Triboulet (Michael Dunn) isn't anywhere near as threatening as intended: one swift kick and he'd be in orbit.

3/10.

Lacks Atmosphere

[Rainey-Dawn · 3/10 · 18 March 2021]

This one is in serious need of atmosphere - something it's lacking. Too much time spent on the circus and not enough time spent on the actual horror of the tale. It's okay but not a grand version of the film. If you want real atmosphere and artful cinematography then watch the 1932 starring Bela Lugosi.

3/10

The Title Is Misdirection, The Film Is Something More

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 31 October 2012]

While the title suggests that the film is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story (something that had not been done since the 1930s), it is actually far more similar to "Phantom of the Opera", which has been done many, many times.

The film is noteworthy for being one of the two American International Pictures Poe films without Vincent Price -- the other being "Premature Burial". But should this film really count as Poe anyway?

Howard Thompson of the New York Times wrote that "the entire film is a gorgeous eyeful in excellent color, with lavish period decor and costumes and some perfectly beautiful dream montages." While I can hardly disagree, he goes above and beyond the praise I would have offered. I mean, I liked the story and the acting, but I never really noticed the color. And I am not sure what the "period decor" is, since there is no indication this is supposed to be anything but modern (after all, how can you present Poe's story unless it is well after he wrote it).

Thompson does offer one negative piece of criticism, and that involves pointing out that "a tacked-on, drawn-out postscript almost flattens the fun." I completely agree with this. While I enjoyed the film, I felt like it had two or three endings, and just kept going anyway. There is no better way to make a film seem long (wearing out its welcome) than to make it start after the audience has stopped!

Poe mixed with Phantom of the Opera

[Wuchakk · 5/10 · 9 September 2020]

At a Grand Guignol-like theater in turn-of-the-century Paris a troupe is beset by a shadowy acid killer. Jason Robards plays the director/actor, Christine Kaufmann his young wife, Lilli Palmer her mother, Herbert Lom a mysterious stalker, Michael Dunn a dubious dwarf and Adolfo Celi the inspector.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1971) is not a film version of Edgar Allan Poe's story, which the viewer is keyed-off to immediately with the revelation that the play featured at the theater IS Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgan." The director & writer decided to do something different because Poe's story was so well known. This movie has more to do with "Phantom of the Opera."

Once you accept that, you can enjoy this AIP flick as a colorful Hammer-like Victorian horror similar to their Dracula or Frankenstein movies, albeit with a different "monster." The ending features a twist that I found unconvincing, but at least it's unexpected and shakes things up. Robards is relatively dull as the protagonist, which explains why he wanted Lom's role. The part called for someone of Vincent Price's magnetism.

The original version of the film runs 1 hour, 38 minutes, which is the version I viewed. Eleven minutes were unfortunately cut for the US debut, which included the removal of sequences from the end of the film, e.g. A lot of Lilli Palmer's scenes. Director Gordon Hessler objected to these edits, as well as the tinting of the flashback scenes on the grounds that the idea was NOT to tint them so that viewers wouldn't know when they're seeing a dream sequence or perhaps a flashback or a flash-forward, which hadn't been done before.

The movie was shot in Toledo and Madrid, Spain.

GRADE: C/C+

The will...lives on...after death.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 16 November 2023]

Jason Robards ("Once Upon a Time in the West"), in a classic case of "What the Hell is HE doing here?", plays Cesar Charron, leader of a theatrical troupe in turn-of-the-century Paris whose troupe is currently doing a gory stage production of the Poe story. Then, people who used to perform with this company turn up dead, all with acid thrown in their faces. The inspector on the case (Adolfo Celi, "Thunderball") is always a couple of steps behind the psychotic, vengeance-seeking killer, naturally.

A truly international production, with cast & crew coming from all over the world, this adaptation of Poes' work tells a decent enough story, but a foregone conclusion REALLY takes the edge off the "mystery". Robards is badly miscast (although even he felt so), and gives one of the lesser performances of his career. Not that much of the cast really do their best work here, anyhow. Still, Celi is fun, and the lovely Christine Kaufmann ("Town without Pity") is appealing as the ingenue of the tale. Michael Dunn ('The Wild Wild West') is amusing, as always, and Herbert Lom ("The Dead Zone") is fairly menacing, but even the antagonist that he plays isn't one of his more memorable. The abrupt ending isn't particularly satisfying.

It's really the "bells & whistles" of this production that make it as watchable as it is: the production design and cinematography are effective, and the film gets a really nice music score from Waldo de los Rios.

Although set in Paris, this was actually filmed in Spain. And that's a very young Brooke Adams ("Days of Heaven"), in her uncredited film debut, playing the nurse.

Six out of 10.

Nightmare and dream prophecy. Badly scarred Marot murdering victims with acid.

[Kimmer-3 · 8/10 · 17 September 1998]

This is one of my favourite movies. I loved Herbert Lom and Michael Dunn. From my research on this movie, it was supposed to have a twist in the ending, but it was "badly edited" and good elements of the story were lost. (I am familiar with Henry Slesar's writings and his stories are excellent and unpredictable.) I have been looking for the "unedited" screenplay for over 10 years now, so if anyone knows where to find it or what the missing elements of the story are... I would love to see this movie unedited!

Even edited, this movie is worth watching. Herbert Lom does an excellent job in this role. No "Phantom" has been able to match him.

Story summary: Madeline (Christine Kauffman) , a horror actress, is haunted by nightmares of an axeman. (Her mother was brutally murdered with an axe 12 years earlier.) A badly scarred actor, Rene Marot (Herbert Lom), who was in love with her mother comes back from the "dead" and murders former members of the acting troup with acid. What do these nightmares have to do with these murders? Who is this scarred actor and why is he committing these murders? Who killed Madeline's mother? Watch the movie and find out!

A quality gothic horror

[Red-Barracuda · 7/10 · 22 October 2021]

This loose adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story is actually a surprisingly good effort. It has shades of Phantom of the Opera combined into the mix, with Herbert Lom playing a masked madman going around murdering various members of the cast. There are some effective creepy dream sequences, a sinister dwarf and a Grand Guignol theatre setting. A quality gothic horror.

Too Lifeless to Really Work

[Michael_Elliott · 26 January 2014]

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)

** (out of 4)

British version puts a twist on the story (and previous versions) of Edgar Allan Poe. In this version, a stage troupe is putting on a version of Murders in the Rue Morgue when real murders start to happen. The lead actor (Jason Robards) and Inspector Vidocq (Herbert Lom) try and track down who is responsible. This version of the Poe story has been ripped to pieces over the years but having skipped it for thirty-plus years I was well aware that several liberties were taken. I can't say I blame director Gordon Hessler for wanting to change things around considering there had been several versions of the story already done. The biggest problem is that with the changes nothing too exciting is done and nothing here is as entertaining as what Poe wrote. I think the biggest thing going against the picture is the fact that it's rather dull and only comes to life during the opening sequence and the final one. Everything in between is rather lifeless and really drags to the point where you just simply don't care who's doing the killing. The version I viewed was the 97-minute director's cut, which restores some eleven-minutes that AIP had originally cut out. I don't know the whole history of the film so I can't say which version is better but I have to think that a lot of the material here was just filler. You'd think that having actors like Robards and Lom would have been a positive but it's really not. Yes, it's fun seeing them in a film like this but at the same time both are clearly just here to cash a paycheck. Robards seems extremely uninterested in anything going on and the same can be said about Lom who seems to be rushing through every scene just to get it over with. There are a few good things about the film including its colorful look as well as the atmosphere but this here just isn't enough to recommend it to others.

Odd but entertaining Poe tale...sort of

[squeezebox · 13 October 2003]

Gordon Hessler's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE is not, as the title would suggest, really an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story. In fact, it has next to nothing to do with Poe's tale, basically using it as little more than a starting off point. This is odd, as MURDERS is one of Poe's few stories that actually lends itself to being expanded into a feature film. It's a Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery, the bulk of which is about the method of solving the murders as opposed to the murders themselves.

Hessler's MURDERS plays much more like a remake of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA than anything Poe ever wrote. And, although many of Poe's themes are present (e.g. murder, paranoia, vengeance), the movie lacks the sense of irony and macabre which drove Roger Corman's Poe adaptations, or even Hessler's own CRY OF THE BANSHEE.

Jason Robards is oddly cast as the director and lead actor of a theatre troupe whose specialty is a production of Poe's story. His actors and people with whom he has relationships are being murdered by a mysterious masked man (Herbert Lom). The police are at a loss, and Robards does what he can to help them out...or so it would seem. Somehow mixed in with this is a vindictive dwarf (the wonderful Michael Dunn), who seems to have his own beef with Robards.

As with Hessler's other movies, it's somewhat convoluted and hard to follow, but it does come to an interesting conclusion. His writers (on previous Poe films as well) seem to be attempting to emulate Richard Matheson's technique of taking Poe's work and expanding it, rearranging it, or even changing it, but keeping it's flavor rich and alive throughout. They don't quite manage that here, but the movie still works on it's own terms.

MURDERS is a decent thriller, with good performances, moody photography and a lush music score. It has the same grindhouse quality as Hessler's previous Poe "adaptations", but the director boasts a much more noticeable sense of style this time around. While it's never as creepy as CRY OF THE BANSHEE or bizarre as SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, it manages a fair degree of suspense and intensity, and is at the very least fun and fast paced.