Stubs - Murders in the Rue Morgue

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) starring Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Waycoff (Ames). Directed by Robert Florey. Screenplay by Tom Reed, Dale Van Every. Based on the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe in Graham's Magazine (Apr 1841). Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. Run time: 62 minutes. USA. Black and White. Pre-Code, Horror.

How does one follow up on a landmark performance? This is what faced Universal Pictures and Bela Lugosi after he made Dracula (1931). The original thought was to star him in Frankenstein, which is what director Robert Florey intended, with Carl Laemmle, Jr. wanting Lugosi to play the monster. According to TCM, “Accounts vary, but Lugosi was to say that he turned down the monster role because it was not a speaking part; others claim that at the time he threw himself into the preparations. What is known is that Florey, working with Garrett Fort, completed a draft of a screenplay for Frankenstein, and shot a make-up test with Lugosi (as the monster), Edward Van Sloan, and Dwight Frye. This footage, shot over two days, June 16 and 17, 1931, is long-gone and much-discussed among horror fans.”

Apparently, Laemmle Jr., liked the footage and greenlit the film. However, that was not to be. Director James Whale completed Waterloo Bridge (1931), much to the satisfaction of the studio brass, and was given carte blanche by the studio and had opted for Frankenstein. He also wanted Boris Karloff for the monster. Lowery was dropped from Frankenstein and given Murder in the Rue Morgue, bumping another director, George Melford, from the picture.

Lugosi was once again attached to Florey’s adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story. Originally, Florey’s adaptation hued pretty close to Poe’s story and would have been considered a mystery. However. Universal wanted a horror film, so the screenplay was changed, with Karl Fruend handling the cinematography. The film went into production on October 19 and completed on November 13, 1931, with some reshoots and additional scenes shot from December 10 to 19, 1931. The film was released on February 21, 1932.

 Medical student Pierre Dupin (Leon Waycoff) at the carnival with his date Camille L'Espanaye (Sidney Fox).

Murder in the Rue Morgue opens in Paris in 1845. A carnival is in full swing. Medical student Pierre Dupin (Leon Ames) and his roommate Paul (Bert Roach) are attending, accompanied by their respective girlfriends, Camille L'Espanaye (Sidney Fox) and Mignette (Edna Marion).

Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) lectures to the sideshow crowd.

There are many sideshows that they consider as they promenade through the grounds. One features Egyptian girls dancing, but the girls have no interest. A barker (Michael Visaroff) grabs their attention about a sideshow featuring Erik, an ape, gets their attention and they enter the tent of Doctor Mirakle (Bela Lugosi). Mirakle claims he is a scientist and exhibits Erik (Charles Gemora) to illustrate a lecture on evolution--proof of which can be found, he claims, by mixing the blood of a man and an ape. Most of the crowd leaves, but Pierre, Camile, Bob and Mignette stay behind.

They go down to the cage and Erik pulls Camille’s bonnet off her head. When Pierre tries to retrieve it from Erik, he nearly gets strangled by the ape. Mirakle gets him free and offers to replace the bonnet, asking Camile her name and address, however, Pierre is insistent that that isn’t necessary and they leave.

Believing Erik is attracted to Camille, Mirakle orders his servant Janos - The Black One (Noble Johnson) to follow her home and obtain her address.

Meanwhile, Pierre tries his best to woo Camile, professing his love for her.

Later that night, after witnessing a violent quarrel between two men that ends in their deaths, Mirakle approaches the Woman of the Streets (Arlene Francis) the men were fighting over. She is somewhat still in shock and lets herself to be led back to his carriage.

Woman of the Streets (Arlene Francis) becomes a test subject for Dr. Mirakle.

The Woman ends up tied up in his laboratory. She is obviously in great pain, but Mirakle doesn’t seem to care. Mirakle extracts a specimen of the woman's blood, only to discover it is tainted, and the woman dies screaming on the rack. Mirakle has Janos cut her down and dispose of her body, which falls through a trapdoor into the river.

She turns out to be the third such victim that has washed up on the banks of the river in a week. Pierre, who is a regular at the morgue, bribes the Morgue Keeper (D'Arcy Corrigan) for a sample of the woman's blood, which is delivered the next day to his room. By examining the sample, Pierre discovers that all three women died because of a foreign substance being injected into their blood.

Camille reads the note that came with the new bonnet.

Later, Camille receives a new bonnet from Mirakle with a note attached asking her to return to the carnival tent. Pierre convinces her that Mirakle could be dangerous and goes in her place. Pierre finds Mirakle uncommunicative about his experiments and secretly follows him to the lab.

Camille faints when she is being kidnapped by Erik.

Later that evening, Mirakle observes Pierre leave Camille, and when he is unable to persuade her to accompany him, Mirakle orders Erik to abduct her. Meanwhile, Pierre deduces that the victims died from injections of ape blood and runs to Camille when he hears her screams.

The body of Mme. L'Espanaye (Betty Ross Clarke) is found.

Arriving too late, Pierre is detained by the police when neither Camile or her mother, Mme. L'Espanaye (Betty Ross Clarke), can be found. A police prefect interviews three witnesses: Italian Alberto Montani (Agostino Borgato), German Franz Odenheimer (Herman Bing) and a Danish man (Torben Meyer), all of whom state they heard Camille screaming and someone else talking in a foreign language. Pierre manages to find the mother's body strangled and stuffed up the chimney by the ape.

Dr. Mirakle about to be strangled by Erik (Charles Gemora) in Murders in the Rue Morgue.

The gendarmes follow Pierre to Mirakle's lab, where Erik's blood is about to be mixed into Camille's veins. The gendarmes then shoot Janos while Erik kills Mirakle.

Pierre about to kill Erik.

Erik grabs Camille and climbs onto the rooftops, carrying Camille with him. Pierre takes a gun from one of the gendarmes and takes chase after Erik as he leaps from roof to roof. When he comes to a roof with no escape, Pierre shoots Erik, which puts Camille in danger but Pierre rescues her as well.

Meanwhile, Mirakle ends up as one more body in the morgue.

As A.D.S. points out in his contemporary New York Times review, the science in the film is somewhat suspect. “What it is that Bela Lugosi, who fills the role of Dr. Mirakle, is trying to prove with his blood tests remains to the end a matter of conjecture.” Further, he faults the film for its overacting, “The entire production suffers from an overzealous effort at terrorization, and the cast, inspired by the general hysteria, succumbs to the temptation to overact.”

Other reviews were not much better. The Motion Picture Herald wrote, "there is not as much fast action and thrills as might have been expected." But unlike A.D.S., they seemed to appreciate Lugosi’s over-the-top performance. Photoplay, as an example, wrote "although folks who like the repressed school of acting will get a little annoyed with his tactics, is, nevertheless, the perfect type for this sort of film."

Censors complained about the dancing girls in the carnival.

Even though this was made prior to the Production Code, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t censorship. New York censors and other censor boards abbreviated the death scenes of the Woman of the Streets, eliminating the shots of her stabbing and of her tied to the cross beams in Mirakle's laboratory. In a letter dated January 8, 1932, Colonel Jason S. Joy, Director of the Studio Relations Office of the AMPPA, asked Carl Laemmle, Jr. for a reduction of the screaming on the soundtrack when the woman of the street is murdered, stating, "...Because the victim is a woman in this instance, which has not heretofore been the case in other so-called "horror" pictures recently produced, censor boards are very likely to think that this scene is overdone in gruesomeness. We therefore suggest that you ought to consider...reducing the constant loud shrieking to lower moans and an occasional modified shriek." Some censor boards objected to the scenes which included the Egyptian dancing girls and to the theme of man's descent from apes; the theory wasn’t universally accepted until 1950.

Bela Lugosi missed out on being the face of the Universal monster-verse, with that honor going to Boris Karloff, who would also appear in The Mummy and the Frankenstein sequel, Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Lugosi would find himself typecast as a horror film villain in films like White Zombie (1932), The Black Cat (1934) and The Raven (1935). He’s good here. What might have been considered overacting seems to fit with Dr. Mirakle. Lugosi’s performance is one of the highlights of the film and would set the tone for the depiction of mad scientists in films going forward.

Publicity shot of Sidney Fox.

The leading actress was Sidney Fox, who had made her debut in films with Bad Sisters (1931), opposite Conrad Nagel, Humphrey Bogart, Zasu Pitts, and Bette Davis, who was making her movie debut as well. Fox most likely got top-billing after Lugosi because she was Carl Laemmle Jr.’s mistress, not because of her acting chops. While Lugosi would continue acting into the 1950s, Fox’s film career would end in 1934, after she had married Charles Beahan. In Murders, she’s cute, but her romantic scenes with Waycoff were considered by reviewers to be "hokum.”

While the name Leon Waycoff might not be familiar, the last name Ames might be. Leon changed his name to Ames in 1935 because Waycoff was often misspelled and mispronounced. Ames is probably best known for his role as Los Angeles D.A. Kyle Sackett in the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Based on the roles I’ve seen him in since this film, it almost seems like he’s miscast in the role, but that’s hindsight.

There are some memorable performances from the supporting cast, chief amongst them being D'Arcy Corrigan’s performance as the Morgue Keeper. A small part, but one that Corrigan really makes the most of. Also, in the role of Woman of the Streets, Arlene Francis makes her film debut. Francis would be best known as a panelist on TV’s game show What’s My Line?, her role here is memorable, only because of how she’s held and how her dead body is dealt with by Dr. Mirakle.

The film does have some really good camerawork, thanks to cinematographer Karl Freund. The pioneer of the unchained camera, Freund’s work on this film would help lead him to directing films like The Mummy and Mad Love (1935), both horror films.

More atmospheric than scary, I don’t think Murders in the Rue Morgue will be on my horror film rotation. Some fine camera work and Lugosi’s performance is not enough to carry the film.