Following on from the success if "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", Universal began a veritable production-line of horror vehicles for their new screen stars, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
Lugosi it is who stars in "The Murders In The Rue Morgue" and is probably the main reason people will still take the trouble to watch this film nowadays. He's playing to type here with a portrayal of a mid-19th Century scientist with some particularly hair-brained ideas who is prepared to kill to continue his experiments. Lugosi's performances throughout his career are generally consistent: when the material allows, he shines. Unfortunately for him, many of his films were inferior ones and whilst it does have some moments this film falls into the inferior class.
For the time it probably seemed much better, with some shocking new ideas, but seen now "Murders In The Rue Morgue" seems to play out at a snail's pace. The sets and lighting, always strong points in Universal horrors of this period, add some atmosphere but a total lack of music and some rather theatrical performances from the cast only contribute to a feeling of tedium, despite the film having quite a short running time.
The plot is all over the place, veering between high drama and high comedy more through clumsiness than by design and leaving perhaps too much open to the viewer's interpretation (my kind way of saying too many loose ends are not tied up). Whilst Lugosi will always be interesting to watch, the other characters in this film are rather mundane and one-dimensional.
A historical French setting, competently achieved, does add some flavour to the film though and thankfully its ape character (apparently a gorilla, although it seems to change species from scene to scene) is portrayed by a real primate in close-up, thereby avoiding the ridiculous look of the standard man-in-a-gorilla-costume that haunted many action films and serials of the 30s, 40s and 50s.
A film that's certainly worth a look to fans of Poe, Universal Horrors or Bela Lugosi, but hardly one that will demand repeated viewing.
Lugosi it is who stars in "The Murders In The Rue Morgue" and is probably the main reason people will still take the trouble to watch this film nowadays. He's playing to type here with a portrayal of a mid-19th Century scientist with some particularly hair-brained ideas who is prepared to kill to continue his experiments. Lugosi's performances throughout his career are generally consistent: when the material allows, he shines. Unfortunately for him, many of his films were inferior ones and whilst it does have some moments this film falls into the inferior class.
For the time it probably seemed much better, with some shocking new ideas, but seen now "Murders In The Rue Morgue" seems to play out at a snail's pace. The sets and lighting, always strong points in Universal horrors of this period, add some atmosphere but a total lack of music and some rather theatrical performances from the cast only contribute to a feeling of tedium, despite the film having quite a short running time.
The plot is all over the place, veering between high drama and high comedy more through clumsiness than by design and leaving perhaps too much open to the viewer's interpretation (my kind way of saying too many loose ends are not tied up). Whilst Lugosi will always be interesting to watch, the other characters in this film are rather mundane and one-dimensional.
A historical French setting, competently achieved, does add some flavour to the film though and thankfully its ape character (apparently a gorilla, although it seems to change species from scene to scene) is portrayed by a real primate in close-up, thereby avoiding the ridiculous look of the standard man-in-a-gorilla-costume that haunted many action films and serials of the 30s, 40s and 50s.
A film that's certainly worth a look to fans of Poe, Universal Horrors or Bela Lugosi, but hardly one that will demand repeated viewing.