Amazon.com: There isn't much of Edgar Allan Poe left in this stylish but gruesome thriller. Bela Lugosi followed Dracula with a scenery-chewing performance as Dr. Mirakle, a mad scientist and sideshow hypnotist who uses his sideshow, which also features his trained gorilla (a stunt man in a phony, flea-bitten costume), as a cover for his sadistic experiments. His ape kidnaps street women whom Mirakle lashes to a crucifix-like pillory, strips to their underwear, and injects with simian blood. They inevitably die horribly, and he discards the bodies via a trap door over the river. When the ape falls in love with a lovely young Parisian miss (Sidney Fox), Mirakle sends him to abduct her from her attic room (one of the few elements left intact from Poe's story). Director Robert Florey, who inherited the project after losing Frankenstein to James Whale, shows his debt to the German expressionists with a gloomy, shadowy world of foggy alleys, misty riverbanks, and near-perpetual night (beautifully captured by cinematographer Karl Freund, later the director of The Mummy). Unfortunately ill-conceived comic relief too often breaks the carefully controlled mood of menace and the unsettling undercurrent of perversity, but Florey's striking images and inventive direction are enough to pull the film through the dead spots. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - It Could've Been Great!
This l932 Universal shocker could've been one of the great ones--but an atrocious script and a no-talent cast sabatoge it so that it remains today a fascinating curio from the golden days of Hollywood horror. Make no mistake: this is still a must see movie if just for the stunning photography and lighting of master cameraman Karl Freund.
Bela Lugosi is wonderfully evil and sinister and the sets are outstanding--all of them shrouded in perpetual fog or rain. But that terrible script. For instance, after the monster ape has murdered one woman and carried off another, the excitement ... Read More
Rating: - Darwin and Dr. Mirakle are equally unfair to luscious babes and a passionate ape
"I'm not a side-show charlatan...I'm not exhibiting a freak, a monstrosity of nature, but a milestone in the development of life," says the intense Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) to the gape-mouthed ticket buyers seated in the small tent. "The shadow of Erik the ape hangs over us all...I tell you I will prove your kinship with the ape. Erik's blood shall be mixed with the blood of man!" Or, more precisely, with the blood of luscious young Parisian éclairs. It's Paris, 1848. A mad scientist has been abducting young women and injecting them with blood from his ape. They die soon after and are dumped ... Read More
Rating: - WHAT WAS AMERICA'S FASCINATION WITH APES IN THE MOVIES ANYWAY ??? !!!
This is an OK Universal early horror film starring Bela Lugosi. Lugosi is good and is probably the film's saving grace. It is a short film so, it's not hard to sit through. One of the problems besides the less than stellar acting by the supporting cast is the ape close ups used in this film are of a chimpanzee and it is quite comical to watch the camera shift from ferocious gorilla to this goofy chimp! Maybe that is why they designed a fake ape head for King Kong which would come out in the following year. This film is available on DVD in a 5 film set called Bela Lugosi the franchise collection ... Read More
Rating: - A Universal Horror Curio
"Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1932) was a consolation prize for Bela Lugosi and director Robert Florey, who lost out on "Frankenstein." This very loose Edgar Allan Poe adaptation leans toward Caligari-styled expressionism, but gets bogged down in needless romantic and comic relief. Except for Lugosi's bravura performance as Dr. Mirakle, the acting is terribly weak for a Universal chiller. However, there is a brief appearance by Arlene Francis as one of Bela's victims. The film would have been stronger without the post-production tampering and cries for a major re-edit.
Rating: - ATMOSPHERIC BUT FLAWED UNIVERSAL HORROR
As the story goes, Director Robert Florey was all set to direct Frankenstein. But James Whale who had directed the critically acclaimed films Journey's End and Waterloo was allowed to choose any film he wanted for his next project and he chose Frankenstein, leaving Florey the door prize of Murders in the Rue Morgue. It wasn't all a booby prize however. Florey got a solid cast with Lugosi playing the bushy-haired, uni-browed Dr. Mirakle and Leon Ames playing medical student Pierre Dupin. Ames was a credible actor who made over 100 films and worked in TV including a three year stint on "Mr. Ed." ... Read More
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