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Murders in the Rue Morgue

Murders in the Rue Morgue

  • Status: Released
  • 27-01-1932
  • Runtime: 61 min
  • Score: 6.1
  • Vote count: 132

In 19th century Paris, a maniac abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship but constantly meets failure as the abducted women die.

Sidney Fox

Mlle. Camille L'Espanaye

Bela Lugosi

Dr. Mirakle

Leon Ames

Pierre Dupin

Bert Roach

Paul

Betty Ross Clarke

Mme. L'Espanaye

Brandon Hurst

Prefect of Police

D'Arcy Corrigan

Morgue Keeper

Noble Johnson

Janos The Black One

Arlene Francis

Woman of the Streets

Ted Billings

Sideshow Spectator (uncredited)

Herman Bing

Franz Odenheimer (uncredited)

Joe Bonomo

Gorilla (uncredited)

Agostino Borgato

Alberto Montani (uncredited)

Iron Eyes Cody

Indian at Sideshow (uncredited)

Christian J. Frank

Gendarme Using Snuff (uncredited)

Charles Gemora

Erik, the Gorilla (uncredited)

Harrison Greene

Sideshow Barker (uncredited)

Charlotte Henry

Blonde Girl in Sideshow Audience (uncredited)

Harry Holman

Victor Albert Adolph Jules Hugo Louis Dupont (uncredited)

Edna Marion

Mignette (uncredited)

Torben Meyer

The Dane (uncredited)

Charles Millsfield

Bearded Man at Sideshow (uncredited)

Monte Montague

Workman / Gendarme (uncredited)

John T. Murray

Gendarme (uncredited)

Tempe Pigott

Crone (uncredited)

Dorothy Vernon

Tenant (uncredited)

Michael Visaroff

Mirakle's Sideshow Barker (uncredited)

Polly Ann Young

Girl (uncredited)

CinemaSerf

Bela Lugosi is at his most rigid best in this eerily spooky adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's story. It's 1800s Paris and amidst the fog and the cobblestones streets, young women are being kidnapped and disappearing without trace. What's this to do with "Mirakle" (Lugosi)? Well we quite quickly discover that he is working on a Darwin-esque plan to prove the relationship between human beings and apes. To prove his theories, he is using the blood from his more hirsute helpers to contaminate his guinea pigs, but as yet to no avail. When he alights on the young "Camille" (Sidney Fox) her boyfriend, medical student "Dupin" (Leon Ames) starts to piece things together but how on earth is he going to convince the gendarmerie? I really quite enjoyed this hour of megalomanic science, peppered with some acceptable co-starring and a reasonably tight script as the tension of the adventure is managed quite effectively by Robert Florey towards a denouement that has a soupçon more jeopardy than you might expect. Of course, the role given to Fox is little better than that of one tied to a rail track, but she still manages to exude just enough of a sense of panic to keep things interesting and it's a decent example of an early, at times even scary, talkie.