Murders in the Rue Morgue

Hello Universal Monsters fans, horror lovers, history buffs, and film fanatics. Today we are diving into the dark, eerie, and enigmatic world of Murders in the Rue Morgue, a 1932 classic horror film that’s often overlooked in the Universal horror lineup, but it is a hidden gem you don’t want to miss.

Murders in the Rue Morgue featuring Bela Legosi.

Murders in the Rue Morgue is the third Universal horror film of the 1930s, following Dracula and Frankenstein. Robert Florey, the director of Murders in the Rue Morgue, almost directed Frankenstein, with Bela Lugosi as the lead. Bela Lugosi wasn’t too thrilled about playing a giant, murderous monster whose face was covered in make up and who had no lines. Then James Whale came in and stirred things up, so Robert Florey and Bela Lugosi were out of Frankenstein, and they got reassigned to Murders in the Rue Morgue instead.

Set in 19th century Paris, where Robert Florey himself is from, Murders in the Rue Morgue is a pre-code film that revolves around a mad scientist who murders women to mix their blood with a gorilla for his wild experiments and let’s just say things don’t end well. The story is loosely based on the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name, but is also bears some resemblance to the 1920 German Expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It is part horror, part mystery.

Don’t expect anything too close to the Edgar Allan Poe story, though, I really meant it when I said it was “loosely” based. First, in the original story, there’s no love story. There is simply a mysterious murder, that our amateur detective offers to solve. In the movie, our lead is a young medical student, who is in a relationship with our first victim Camille. I think that this change is actually good because it gives us a victim that we care about and a reason for our “detective” to get involved. Also, in the story the gorilla is a mystery all the way until the end, having been brought over by a sailor from Borneo. In the movie, we know of the gorilla instantly, and instead of being brought over by a sailor, he’s part of the carnival show of Dr. Mirakle.

Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Mirakle, our mad scientist, and I think that this is a great next step for him after Dracula.

Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Mirakle, our mad scientist, and I think that this is a great next step for him after Dracula. His look is different than we saw in Dracula. He’s got messy curly hair, a unibrow, almost kind of rugged at times. It’s a departure from Dracula, but he still brings with him that magnetism that we’ve come to know from Bela Lugosi. Sidney Fox plays our Mademoiselle Camille. Honestly, more than anything I know Sidney Fox because she had a relationship with my great Uncle Junior Laemmle. He had been impressed after seeing her in a play called “Lost Sheep” and he signed her to a multi-year deal at Universal.

I also want to call out Charles Gemora who played Erik the ape. I know this sounds so weird, but he actually became a pretty well-known ape in the industry! His career started on 1923’s Hunchback of Notre Dame starring Lon Chaney, and that role led to him being hired in the art department with the Westmore Family. He designed realistic gorilla suits that he wore in 1925’s The Lost World, as well as movies with the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and - as we’re talking about here - Murders in the Rue Morgue. Shots of Charles Gemora are used along with shots of a real monkey from the Selig Zoo. I feel like the shots of the real monkey were a weird choice. Even putting on the lens of an audience member in 1932, I don’t think audiences bought it.‌

In the movie, we know of the gorilla instantly, and he’s part of the carnival show of Dr. Mirakle.

Murders in the Rue Morgue was something of a consolation prize for Robert Florey after he was let go from Frankenstein. He had big ideas for Frankenstein before James Whale came along. And he would soon find out, Universal didn’t really have big expectations for Murders in the Rue Morgue. Uncle Carl still wasn’t quite as sold as Junior about the potential in these horror films … so there wasn’t a ton of budget being thrown their way. Even during filming, they faced rewrites, revisions, and reshoots to the script, which I’m sure were frustrating. Though, it is worth mentioning that some of those rewrites were done by John Huston!

When Murders in the Rue Morgue was released, ads warned that it was a “super shocker,” that it was “wild and weird in the extreme,” and that “nervous sleepers” should attend the matinee performance. Despite the marketing, Murders in the Rue Morgue was not very popular, and it received some harsh reviews. Some thought the storyline was over-the-top and the actors were overacting. I even read of some audiences who were giggling at times the movie intended to be scary.

Bela Lugosi is the one actor to escape the negative reviews, with most believing he gave a solid performance with the right kind of thrills. I even saw one review that said he “Out Draculas Dracula” though honestly, I think that’s too strong a claim. Today, I think Bela Lugosi’s reputation helps Murders in the Rue Morgue stay on classics lists for those in the know, but I would guess your average person has probably never seen or even heard of this movie.

When Murders in the Rue Morgue was released, ads warned that it was a “super shocker,” that it was “wild and weird in the extreme,” and that “nervous sleepers” should attend the matinee performance.

Murders in the Rue Morgue is worth watching for Bela Lugosi’s magnetic performance, for Robert Florey’s atmosphere and direction, for being an early example of a carnival setting a scary scene, and for being a pretty good blend of horror and romance. So next time you’re in the mood to watch some vintage horror, remember the cobble stoned streets of Paris, a mad doctor, a gorilla on the loose, and watch Murders in the Rue Morgue. Tell me, have you heard of this vintage horror film, and do you think it’s a mess or a masterpiece?