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Murders in the Rue Morgue
UK 1971
produced by Louis M. Heyward, Samuel Z. Arkoff (executive), James H. Nicholson (executive) for AIP
directed by Gordon Hessler
starring Jason Robards, Herbert Lom, Christine Kaufmann, Adolfo Celi, Maria Perschy, Michael Dunn, Lilli Palmer, Peter Arne, Rosalind Elliot, Marshall Jones, María Martín, Ruth Plattes, Xan das Bolas, Rafael Hernández, Pamela McInnes, Sally Longley, Luis Rivera, Dean Selmier, Virginia Stach, Werner Umberg, Víctor Israel, Brooke Adams, José Calvo
screenplay by Christopher Wicking, Henry Slesar, based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe, music by Waldo de los Ríos
AIP's Poe-cycle, Murders in the Rue Morgue
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Murders happen in the grand guignol theatre in the Rue Morgue, starting
with the two monkey-suit actors, both of whom had acid thrown into their
faces, then it's Genevre (Maria Perschy), a prostitute acquaintance of
theatre owner Charron (Jason Robards), as well as escape artist Orsini
(Marshall Jones), both of which also suffered from faces eaten up by acid.
Thing is, both Genevre and Orsini were once members of Charron's ensemble,
back when his then leading lady (Lilli Palmer) poured acid into her lover
Marot's (Herbert Lom) face. Charron was in love with her, too, but even
after that accident she preferred Charron, and ultimately ... she was
killed by acid poured into her face - Marot's revenge it seemed, but he
died as well ... and yet, these murders look like Marot's doing. Charron
in the meantime is married to the dead actress's daughter Madeleine
(Christine Kaufmann), who's also his leading lady ... and who has
nightmares that seem to have to do something with the death of her mother.
Naturally, it worries Madeleine more than a bit that her husband is now in
the center of inspector Vidocq's (Adolfo Celi) murder investigations, so
she decides to find out some things on her own and goes to the theatre her
mother has acted in all those years back ... where she meets Marot very
much alive (but wearing a mask to hide the disfigured parts of his face.
Charron saves her though, and the two kill Marot ... but he again doesn't
stay dead (he has learned a trick or two from escape artist Orsini is the
explanation) and he kidnaps the two again, puts Madeleine under a hypnotic
spell, and lets Charron that it was in fact he who killed Madeleine's
mother, and the others who were killed had helped him put the blame on
Marot. Once that's achieved, Marot decapitates Charron, then escapes just
as the police comes to rescue Madeleine. Marot now though seems to have
fallen in love with Madeleine, so he wants to kidnap her during a live
performance - but this attempt fails and this time he's really killed for
good ... Now one can't denie it, this movie has next to nothing
to do with Edgar Allan Poe's story of the same name, but quite a bit more
with Gaston Leroux's Phantom
of the Opera - which in itself wouldn't be a bad thing. The
problem with this film though is that it tells its simple story in an
over-convoluted way, stretches believability beyond breaking point a few
times too often, and just drags on and on and on. And that the directorial
effort by Gordon Hessler is not exactly inspired, and Christine Kaufmann
as the central damsel-in-distress is incredibly pale and flat as a
character doesn't help much, either. Sure, lovers of vintage horror will
find quite a few things about this one to like, like the performances by
Jason Robards, Herbert Lom and Adolfo Celi, as well as some nice sets and
macabre details, but all of this is not enough to carry a film,
unfortunately. Oh, and in regards to Phantom
of the Opera - Herbert Lom did actually play the Phantom in
Terence Fisher's 1962 adaptation of the novel [click
here].
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