Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)

★ 5.1 1h 27m IMDb

In Paris, in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Cesar Charron owns a theater at the Rue Morgue where he performs the play "Murders in the Rue Morgue" with his wife Madeleine Charron, who has dreadful nightmares. When there are several murders by acid of people connected to Cesar, the prime suspect of Inspector Vidocq would be Cesar's former partner Rene Marot. But Marot murdered Madeleine's mother many years ago and committed suicide immediately after.

Murders in the Rue Morgue

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Cast

Jason Robards
Jason Robards as Cesar Charron Died 2000 · Chicago, Illinois, USA Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill, Robards received two Academy Awards, a Tony Award...
Herbert Lom
Herbert Lom as Rene Marot Died 2012 · Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary Herbert Lom (born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru; 11 September 1917 – 27 September 2012) was a Czech-born British film and television actor who moved to the United Kingdom in 193...
Christine Kaufmann
Christine Kaufmann as Madeleine Charron Died 2017 · Lengdorf, Styria, Austria Christine Maria Kaufmann (born January 11, 1945) is a German actress. In 1961 she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress, the only German to be so honoured. Born to a German fa...
Adolfo Celi
Adolfo Celi as Inspector Vidocq Died 1986 · Messina, Sicily, Italy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adolfo Celi (27 July 1922 –19 February 1986) was an Italian film actor and director..
Maria Perschy
Maria Perschy as Genevre Died 2004 · Eisenstadt, Burgenland, Austria From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Maria Perschy (September 23, 1938 – December 3, 2004) was an Austrian actress. Perschy was born in Eisenstadt, Burgenland, Austria and moved to Vienna at the a...
Michael Dunn
Michael Dunn as Pierre Triboulet Died 1973 · Shattuck, Oklahoma, USA Michael Dunn (born Gary Neil Miller, October 20, 1934 – August 30, 1973) was an American actor and singer. He inspired a number of actors significantly smaller and shorter (those with dwarfism) than m...

Audience Reviews

talisencrw 7/10 Jun 25, 2016
In the extra on my Blu-ray of the film, director Hessler states he was upset with Jason Robards' performance in the title role and laments he didn't get to inherit Vincent Price as the film's star when he was asked to direct it. In watching, I quite agree that as fine an actor as Robards was, his heart wasn't in horror and thus his tone is off here. Still, Herbert Lom is great as the antagonist and there are many enjoyable wonders to behold.

I strongly feel that had Price acted in Robards' place, this film would have joined the fine string of minor masterpieces Price starred in during that purple patch of his career.
Wuchak 5/10 Sep 09, 2020
_**Poe mixed with Phantom of the Opera**_

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 right away 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+

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