Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue

Jason Robards ("Once Upon a Time in the West"), in a classic case of "What the Hell is HE doing here?", plays Cesar Charron, leader of a theatrical troupe in turn-of-the-century Paris whose troupe is currently doing a gory stage production of the Poe story. Then, people who used to perform with this company turn up dead, all with acid thrown in their faces. The inspector on the case (Adolfo Celi, "Thunderball") is always a couple of steps behind the psychotic, vengeance-seeking killer, naturally.

A truly international production, with cast & crew coming from all over the world, this adaptation of Poes' work tells a decent enough story, but a foregone conclusion REALLY takes the edge off the "mystery". Robards is badly miscast (although even he felt so), and gives one of the lesser performances of his career. Not that much of the cast really do their best work here, anyhow. Still, Celi is fun, and the lovely Christine Kaufmann ("Town without Pity") is appealing as the ingenue of the tale. Michael Dunn ('The Wild Wild West') is amusing, as always, and Herbert Lom ("The Dead Zone") is fairly menacing, but even the antagonist that he plays isn't one of his more memorable. The abrupt ending isn't particularly satisfying.

It's really the "bells & whistles" of this production that make it as watchable as it is: the production design and cinematography are effective, and the film gets a really nice music score from Waldo de los Rios.

Although set in Paris, this was actually filmed in Spain. And that's a very young Brooke Adams ("Days of Heaven"), in her uncredited film debut, playing the nurse.

Six out of 10.

In Paris, in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Cesar Charron (Jason Robards) owns a theater at the Rue Morgue where he performs the play "Murders in the Rue Morgue" with his wife Madeleine Charron (Christine Kaufmann), who has dreadful nightmares.

When there are several murders by acid of people connected to Cesar, the prime suspect of Inspector Vidocq (Adolfo Celi) would be Cesar's former partner Rene Marot (Herbert Lom). But Marot murdered Madeleine's mother (Lilli Palmer) many years ago and committed suicide immediately after.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a boring and dull movie with terrible screenplay and wooden performances. There are many clichés; rip-off of scenes and concepts from "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Sherlock Holmes" and Christine Kaufmann is awful in the lead role. There is one terrible dreamlike scene where Madeleine looks to her dress before jumping into the carriage. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

A little different kind of a horror movie based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe and interestingly so. Much have been altered from the original short story, though. To be exact, not only is it based on Poe, but there is also a great deal of Gaston Leroux's 'Phantom of the Opera' mixed in as well. And to emphasize that matter Herbert Lom, who brilliantly did the phantom role in 1962 British Hammer version, handles a part here with a mask hiding his injured face. Jason Robards is also nice to see in this kind of film for a change after having enjoyed his work before in westerns and dramas.

The plot is set in nineteenth century Paris around a theater troop resembling the historic Grand Guignol theater and is similarly specialized on cruel natured horror plays. The certain theatricality follows everywhere the story takes us and stays in the actors even when they are not on stage. The streets are crowded with a carnival and merry-go-rounds. There is a puppet theater, tricks and hypnotism. Even the real murders are executed in most showy ways. The atmosphere has a dreamy, almost surrealistic quality. And the actual dream sequences (What's a Poe film without them?) are beautifully shot and tinted in red tones. Very beautiful and creepy all at the same.

For an American horror production the film has a surprisingly bright European art film look and feel. Instead of using wholly dramatic studio sets we are treated with daylight locations, streets and parks, which allows the movie breath a bit between the expected horrors. This production was a pleasant surprise from Gordon Hessler and American International and a refreshing addition to their line of earlier Poe films directed by Roger Corman.

This is a peculiar version taking the basic premise of a Grand Guignol theatre in París at the turn of the Century , which is running an adaptation of Poe's story and whose leading actress : Christine Kauffmann is afficted by bizarre nightmares involving some characters of the play . After many people associated with the theater scenario become murder victms , things go awry . As newspapers publicize : Acid murders in Rue Morgue Theater . Little by little our heroine becomes completely isolated from reality .

A pedestrian, very free and complex adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe that has been remade vary times , though it really nothing to do with the classic novel, Murders in the Rue Morgue . In fact , this film seems to be more Phantom of Opera by Gaston Leroux than Murders in the Rue Morgue by Poe . The action slips forth and back bewilderingly from the play that the protagonists perform to the real events , including some gory scenes. There are style and fascination enough in the weird dream sequences alone to hold the attention for the surprising spectator. Interpretations are uniformly midddling . Jason Robards plays the main actor associated with the production and married to the upsettling Christina Kauffman who becomes involved with a man who killed her mother . While Herbert Lom gives the best acting but repeating his role of Phantom of Opera . With good supporting help including Adolfo Celi as the famous Inspector Vidoq , Lili Palmer , Maria Perschy , Michael Dunn, Peter Arne . Being an US/Spanish coproduction here appears ordinary Spanish secondaries as Victor Israel, Imma de Santis , Maria Martin , Rafael Hernández, and Jose Calvo. There are other better versions about Edgar Allan Poe novel : 1932 by Robert Florey with Bela Lugosi , Sidney Fox and 1986 by Jeannot Szwarc rendition with George C Scott , Rebecca de Mornay .

It packs a colorful and evocative cinematography by Manuel Berenguer , an expert cameraman who had an important career photographing international coproductions . As well as suspenseful and frightening musical score by Waldo de Los Ríos. The motion picture was regularly directed by Gordon Hessler (Scream and scream again, The Oblong box , Cry of Banshee , Golden Voyage of Sinbad).

Gordon Hessler's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE is not, as the title would suggest, really an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story. In fact, it has next to nothing to do with Poe's tale, basically using it as little more than a starting off point. This is odd, as MURDERS is one of Poe's few stories that actually lends itself to being expanded into a feature film. It's a Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery, the bulk of which is about the method of solving the murders as opposed to the murders themselves.

Hessler's MURDERS plays much more like a remake of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA than anything Poe ever wrote. And, although many of Poe's themes are present (e.g. murder, paranoia, vengeance), the movie lacks the sense of irony and macabre which drove Roger Corman's Poe adaptations, or even Hessler's own CRY OF THE BANSHEE.

Jason Robards is oddly cast as the director and lead actor of a theatre troupe whose specialty is a production of Poe's story. His actors and people with whom he has relationships are being murdered by a mysterious masked man (Herbert Lom). The police are at a loss, and Robards does what he can to help them out...or so it would seem. Somehow mixed in with this is a vindictive dwarf (the wonderful Michael Dunn), who seems to have his own beef with Robards.

As with Hessler's other movies, it's somewhat convoluted and hard to follow, but it does come to an interesting conclusion. His writers (on previous Poe films as well) seem to be attempting to emulate Richard Matheson's technique of taking Poe's work and expanding it, rearranging it, or even changing it, but keeping it's flavor rich and alive throughout. They don't quite manage that here, but the movie still works on it's own terms.

MURDERS is a decent thriller, with good performances, moody photography and a lush music score. It has the same grindhouse quality as Hessler's previous Poe "adaptations", but the director boasts a much more noticeable sense of style this time around. While it's never as creepy as CRY OF THE BANSHEE or bizarre as SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, it manages a fair degree of suspense and intensity, and is at the very least fun and fast paced.