Le Mystère de Marie Roget

"Mystery of Marie Roget" is a sub-par B-movie from Universal. While the story purports to be from the Edgar Allan Poe story, it's really very different.

When the film begins, Marie has been reported missing and the police have so far found nothing. They do eventually find a corpse that MIGHT be her...but her face is missing. When they tell her family that they've found her, she then walks in the house...so the corpse obviously was NOT her. However, eventually Marie really is murdered and it's up to Poe's Dupin character (Patric Knowles) to solve the murder. As for Dupin, he's a know-it-all who acts a lot like the movie version of Sherlock Holmes and has a partner (Lloyd Corrigan) who is even stupider and more useless than the movie version of Watson. In fact, he's such a bumbling moron that it totally ruins the movie...as does Dupin's bizarre manner in which he investigates. Overall, just a silly and inconsequential B murder mystery--complete with all the usual clichés and plot problems. A time-passer at best...but you could easily do better.

This cast of B actors carries off a well-written murder mystery by Edgar Allan Poe. The sister of a woman about to inherit a large fortune plots her murder. But then she herself disappears. Who killed her? Her boyfriend (who was also courting the sister), her grandmother, her estate manager. Or her sister, to protect herself?

The events unfold with a number of false leads and dead ends, and with a few red herrings. However, due to the brilliant detective work of Dr. Dupin, who plays a Sherlock Holmes-type character to the local police chief's Watson-type character. The formula works to a degree, and we have an entertaining mystery.

This was among the very few remaining vintage Universal Horror titles, a genuine 'B' movie but a surprisingly effective one nonetheless – if only tenuously related to the genre (being based on an Edgar Allan Poe tale, the presence of an ostensibly dangerous animal i.e. a leopard, thus anticipating the Val Lewton chiller THE LEOPARD MAN {1943}, and its utilizing a steel-claw for a murder weapon that literally obliterates the victims' faces…which, apart from the latter film itself, would subsequently see service in at least 2 more of the studio's efforts, namely the Sherlock Holmes adventure THE SCARLET CLAW {1944} and the maligned SHE-WOLF OF London {1946}!).

Incidentally, this can be considered an unofficial sequel to one of the earliest Universal horror classics, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932), since it is not only set in much the same surroundings as that more popular Poe story but it actually features one of the protagonists, forensic expert Pierre Dupin (here played by stiff-upper-lipped but likable Patric Knowles, who around this same time would co-star in two higher-profile genre efforts for the studio in THE WOLF MAN {1941} and its direct successor in the Larry Talbot franchise FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN {1943}!). For the record, MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET managed to rope in another cast member of those very pictures, Maria Ouspenskaya…who is at her most outspoken here, constantly belittling Prefect of Police and Knowles' long-suffering sidekick Lloyd Corrigan (who indeed has no easier time with the doctor, in view of the fact that the latter never bothers to fully explain his schemes in entrapping criminals to his understandably flustered superior!).

Which brings us to nominal lead Maria Montez though, given the brevity of her appearance in an already tight 61-minute film, this cannot be deemed a star vehicle for her (as it happens, I currently have 7 of those in my "To Watch" pile!). Anyway, while heavily-accented, she does get to warble a song in French (to the evident delight of Corrigan) and, in any case, her character is established as being wicked…which Knowles goes to extreme lengths to prove (by stealthily extracting the brain from her corpse in the morgue – the scene evoking FRANKENSTEIN {1931} in conception and MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM {1933} in execution – and, under advise from some eminent authority on the workings of the criminal mind, carrying out experiments on it off-screen!).

Despite watching this via a worn-out VHS print, where the detail is so far gone one can hardly discern the actors' facial features(!), the unmistakable atmosphere of a good old Universal horror movie is well in evidence, thus making this a blast (if clearly a minor entry in the field). For what it is worth, we are also treated to a horse-and-carriage chase along the cobbled streets of a studio-built Paris and, while I was sure I had figured out the culprit's true identity, the script (which is surprisingly complex and eminently engaging) went on to prove me wrong by making him out to be the guilty party the Police had fingered all along!

Enjoyable Universal mystery about the murder of a not-so-nice but beautiful young woman with her fair share of male suitors. Based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, which itself was based on the real-life case of the Cigar Girl Murder that was big news in Poe's time. Starring a fine cast including many Universal contract players. The lineup includes Patric Knowles, Maria Montez, Maria Ouspenskaya, John Litel, Nell O'Day, Edward Norris, and Lloyd Corrigan. Montez plays the title character and brings her usual sex appeal. She also gets to lip sync a French tune. Knowles, one of Hollywood's great also-rans, is good as Dupin, the forensic detective. Corrigan is fun as the comic relief sidekick. It's a good B movie with a decent murder mystery. Not among the best of Universal's horror/mystery films of the 1940s but a good time-passer nonetheless.

This one hour film is almost a paradigm for the average B movie from the 30s and 40s. It has some suspense, (it uses the great forest sets left over from The Wolf Man), and a fast pace and if you are into this type of mystery go see it, but don't go out of your way to find it. The performances, direction, etc. are all adequate and it progresses in the typical 'the dumb cop can't figure it out, so the smart young independent detective knows everything' approach. Generallly atmospheric and fun, though.