Murder on Rue Morgue (1932)

Movie
German title	Murder on the Rue Morgue
Original title	Murders in the Rue Morgue
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1932
length	61 minutes
Rod
Director	Robert Florey
script	Tom Reed Dale Van Every John Huston
production	Carl Laemmle, Jr.
camera	Karl friend
cut	Milton Carruth
occupation
Sidney Fox : Camille l'Espanaye Bela Lugosi : Dr. Miracle Leon Ames : Pierre Dupin Bert Roach : Paul Betty Ross Clarke : Madame L'Espanaye D'Arcy Corrigan : Mortuary Overseer Brandon Hurst : Prefect of Police Noble Johnson : Janos Arlene Francis : Prostitute Herman Bing : Franz Odenheimer Iron Eyes Cody : Indians in Show Harry Holman : Victor Albert Adolph Jules Hugo Louis Dupont, the landlord Tempe Pigott : old aunt Michael Visaroff : Magician

Murder on Rue Morgue is a 1932 horror film starring Bela Lugosi and produced by Carl Laemmle . The plot is based on the story The Double Murder in Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe ; the story is so altered that apart from the fact that the murders were committed by a monkey, not much remains in common.

action

Pierre Dupin, whose name is based on that of the detective Auguste C. Dupin from the short story Poe, visits a tent at a fair with his fiancée Camille where Dr. Miracle flaunting a gorilla . The gorilla, who apparently falls in love with Camille, steals her hat, whereupon Dr. Miracle promises to send her a new one. At night, Mirakle is out on the streets of Paris to kidnap a prostitute. In his laboratory, he injects her with the gorilla's blood, whereupon she dies.

One learns that Mirakle is looking for the " missing link ", the missing link between apes and humans and tries to create this artificially, which has now failed again. The next day, the prostitute's body is fished out of the Seine and taken to the morgue. There now Pierre Dupin appears again, who is a medical student and tries to solve the murders of several prostitutes by means of his medical knowledge.

Mirakle has not yet given up his hope of finding a suitable bride for his gorilla and sends him to Camille. The monkey kills Camille's mother, kidnaps the young woman and takes her to the laboratory, where Miracle finds that her blood matches that of the gorilla. In the meantime, Pierre has also made a breakthrough. He was able to determine that the women died of monkey blood and draws the right conclusions. He storms to Mirakle's house and learns of Camille's disappearance on the way. He can clarify the case with the police and together they make their way to Mirakle. In the meantime, however, he is attacked and killed by his monkey, but the animal runs away with the unconscious Camille on his shoulder.

It delivers Pierre a breathtaking chase over the roofs of Paris, which, with its view of the sea of ​​houses, was probably a masterpiece of trick technology for the time. Finally, Pierre manages to kill the monkey and it falls headlong into the Seine, while Pierre, cheered by the crowd, climbs from the roof with Camille.

Reviews

"The cinematic attraction of the early horror film lies entirely in the camera work by Karl Freund and in the décor, both of which are strongly based on the expressionist German silent film."

- Lexicon of international film

Others

• Murder on Rue Morgue shows some parallels to the expressionist silent film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari up.
• The film was one of Ed Wood's favorite films that starred Bela Lugosi. Woods' Revenge of the Strangler , in which Lugosi also participated, pays homage to murder on Rue Morgue .
• A real female monkey was used for murder on Rue Morgue .

Web links

• Murders in the Rue Morgue in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Murder on Rue Morgue in the online film database
• Retro-Park - A detailed chapter on the film in the “Document of Horror”, from page 749

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Murder on Rue Morgue. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .