Movie Time: Phantom of the Rue Morgue

It's Movie Time!

Back in October, I wrote a post about Murders In the Rue Morgue, a 1932 adaption of the classic Edgar Alan Poe story about a mad scientist and his pet gorilla.

Today's post takes us up a couple of decades for another cinematic take on this classic horror tale.

From 1954, it's Phantom of the Rue Morgue.

OK, let's check off the boxes that connect Murders in the Rue Morgue with Phantom of the Rue Morgue.

• It's Paris in the 1800's.
• Women are turning up dead.
• There's a scientist (Dr. Marais).
• With a gorilla.
• An young injenue (Jeanette Rovere) the scientist has taken a liking to.
• And a young man (Paul Dupin) who is the woman's fiance who is trying to figure out who's behind all the murders.
• And a thick headed police detective (Inspector Bonnard) who is fixated on the idea that the young man is the murderer.

Now here is how Phantom of the Rue Morgue differs from Murders in the Rue Morgue.

In Phantom, the women are not being murdered through torture by the mad scientist but are being shredded, clawed, savagely beaten by someone with immense inhuman strength and an animalistic rage, escaping from crime scenes bounding across the Parisian rooftops.  

I will remind you this movie has a gorilla in it.

Bonnard suspects Dupin.  

Instead of the intense Bela Lugosi as Dr. Mirakle in Murders, our mad scientist this time, Dr. Marais, is portrayed by the normally affable, gregarious Karl Malden.  

Marais at first seems like almost normal, able to conduct conversations with people without making their skin crawl. Poor guy does tend to lapse into sad reveries of his late lamented wife. 

Until Jeanette susses out that kindly old Dr. Marais kept his wife as a prisoner and she's "late and lamented" because she chose to kill herself rather than stay with him. 

So Dr. Marais has been casting about for a replacement and when the women who resemble his dear departed wife reject him, well, he sends out his murder weapon: a gorilla who is part of the wicked doctor's experiments.  

Jeanette is the latest woman to reject Dr. Marais and gets targetted by the gorilla. But the gorilla likes this one and instead of killing Jeanette, he captures her and attempts to escape with her to....

OK, he's a gorilla and he hasn't thought that far ahead.

Bonnard and the police decide now that Dupin (OK, now you believe him?) is not the murderer and go after the gorilla. 

After lowering Jeanette to safety, the gorilla confronts the police who shoot him and he falls on Dr. Marais, crushing him to death.

And we've reached the end. 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

The role of university student Georges Brevert was played by a radio announcer who just became an actor, Merv Griffin.  Yep, the same Merv Griffin who will go on to create Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

Warner Bros. meant for Phantom of the Rue Morgue to be a follow up to 1953's 3-D horror hit, House of Wax.  Which explains a lot of strange and distinctive shot choices in Phantom with people and objects coming right at the screen. 

By the time Phantom was released, the expensive 3-D process and poor box office returns burned out the studios' fascination with the concept.  Warner Bros. released one more film in 3-D, Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954).  Not many theaters actually booked the 3-D print but it is considered th best use of 3-D in the 1950's.   

Here's another connection between Murders in the Rue Morgue and Phantom of the Rue Morgue: the gorilla.  

Both films featured performances by  Charles Gemora, the famous "Gorilla Man".  

Gemora had designed suits and played gorillas in films dating back to 1928 and was the gorilla in Murders in the Rue Morgue. Gemora made many refinements to his gorilla suit over the years and the gorilla in Phantom featured his most detailed and innovative design, a gorilla with expressive features and realistic movements.   

Critics at the time were not kind to Phantom of the Rue Morgue and my personal assessment is they were not wrong. No one's performance in this film rises above mere competence.  Poor Karl Malden must have been told halfway through "oh, by the way, your character is CRAZY!" Karl Marden does what he can when it's time to turn on the cray-cray when his true self is revealed. Alas, he's no Bela Lugosi.

Phantom of the Rue Morgue is far from being any kind of masterpiece and pales in comparison to the 1932 original.  But it is a perfectly serviceable attempt at 1950's horror. But just don't expect to be particularly moved or frightened by the experience.