Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Murders in the Rue Morgue Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 27, 2021

It's rare that a studio releases two films the same year with a transcendent character that becomes iconic but Universal Pictures did it in 1931 with Dracula and Frankenstein. Long overlooked is the other horror picture that was also in production and released the following year: The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Director Robert Florey had concurrently been working on Rue Morgue and Frankenstein for Universal. He was slated to direct the latter as he had already completed a continuity script and directed a screen test of Bela Lugosi, who was originally chosen to play the Monster. But Universal executives considered James Whale's stage experience better suited for what they wanted the filming of Frankenstein to look like so Whales replaced Florey.

According to the archival Universal production notes I found, producer Carl Laemmle Jr. still wanted Florey to direct Rue Morgue "because of the work he had so successfully accomplished on Frankenstein." The movie was loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue." In his 1926 biography of Poe, Israfel (1926), Hervey Allen postulates that Poe derived the premise from an 1830s Pennsylvania newspaper article about a killer ape. For the screen version, Florey was the first adaptor of the script. The screenplay evolved over six months with Tom Reed and Dale Van Every receiving joint credit for the final version. Walter Huston's son, John, made "additional dialogue" which the future director says retained Pose's prose. In a April 1987 article in the American Cinematographer about both Florey's unrealized Frankenstein project and The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Brian Taves writes that the latter only retains two scenes from the Poe story. The shrewdest addition Florey made to the film was writing in mad scientist Dr. Mirakle. Bela Lugosi demonstrates with aplomb the brilliant and diabolical mind of Mirakle. He also gives him a most creepy and frightening presence. Mirakle is a showman at a circus carnival with Erik, the Gorilla on display for the spectators. But beneath this façade is an intrigant who kidnaps young women and experiments on them by injecting the ape's blood into their veins. Mirakle has his eyes on Camille L'Espanaye (Sidney Fox), whose initially fascinated by the gorilla in the cage and hasn't an inkling to Mirakle's plans. Camille's fiancé, Leon Waycoff (Pierre Dupin), is a medical student trying to figure out the disappearance and deaths of three women. As he tries to piece their cases together, Camille goes missing. Will she receive a blood transfusion from Mirakle's ape and become his bride?

The Murders in the Rue Morgue was generally well-received in 1932 by US critics, although nowhere near as popular or profitable as Dracula or Frankenstein. However, at least one critic at the time was more impressed with Florey's film: "[H]is screen play consti­tutes a contribution to the screen which is nothing sort of remark­able. Its power to work on the emotions of an audience is simply terrific, and it will be many a day before its like is seen again. It liter­ally “out-Draculas Dracula...” A month before its wide release in February of that year, a preview audience got to see it at the Fox Broadway in California. The January 6, 1932 edition of the Santa Ana (CA) Register chronicled a full house of patrons, "many of whom left the theater with icy hands and that let down feeling which comes after nerves have been strained and minds closely drawn for a considerable length of time."

Murders in the Rue Morgue Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unlike Eureka in the UK, Shout! Factory has given The Murders in the Rue Morgue an individual release on a single BD-50 using the MPEG-4 AVC encode. Eureka put out the Three Edgar Allan Poe Adaptations Starring Bela Lugosi box set last summer with Rue Morgue included on Disc One. My colleague Jeff Kauffman reviewed this package last month. The Shout! seems to come from the same 2K restoration. When fog doesn't appear in the frame, the grayscale and deep blacks stand out. Look at the inky blacks in the shadows and on Mirakle's coat in Screenshot #13. Speckling, dirt, and some scratches appear mostly in the first reel. Shout! has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 36000 kbps. My video score is 3.75/5.00.

Shout! gives the one-hour movie a dozen chapter markers.

Murders in the Rue Morgue Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! supplies an English DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1662 kbps, 24-bit). The track is expectantly flat with some background hiss. Dialogue is audible enough if you have your receiver turned up high enough. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake plays over the opening credits. At first, I could only hear it faintly but the piece later rises in pitch.

Shout! delivers optional English SDH. These display in a bright yellow font.

Murders in the Rue Morgue Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• EXCLUSIVE Audio Commentary by Author/Film Historian Gary D. Rhodes - Rhodes is the author of a biography of Bela Lugosi as well as books on early American horror. He delves into the origins of the production, the movie careers of the cast and crew, Darwinian evolution, and other topics pertinent to Murders in the Rue Morgue. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary by Author/Film Historian Gregory William Mank - this is the same commentary track heard on the first disc of the Poe/Lugosi set. Mank is a bit dry and delivers his remarks at a relatively brisk pace. He covers aspects of the film's production and its critical reception. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:35, upconverted to 1080i) - this is a re-release trailer of Murders in the Rue Morgue put out by the distribution firm, Film Classics. While it hasn't been fully restored or cleaned up, it looks acceptable for its age.

• Still Gallery (4:06, 1080p) - a slide show comprising forty-three distinct images from the film shoot and marketing campaign for Murders in the Rue Morgue. The first thirty-two stills are culled from presumably Universal's vault. The black-and-white photographs show cast and crew during filming and the actors posing for a publicity shoot. The last eleven images consist of posters and lobby cards (all in color). Each frame image dissolves into a different one.

Murders in the Rue Morgue Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Murders in the Rue Morgue was one of Universal sleepers in 1932 and also a fine example of how the combined talents of director Robert Florey, star Bela Lugosi, and cinematographer Karl Freund produced an American Expressionist horror film. Indeed, author Brian Taves has argued that its story, central antagonist, canted angles, light and shadows construct an Americanized version of the German-produced The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). While I'm inclined to agree that it shares stylistic similarities with Caligari, it's by no means a US remake. It's also an original work in the sense that it digresses from Poe's story ways in significant ways through Florey's invention of Dr. Mirakle. Shout! Factory's transfer and lossless monaural track mimic the first disc in Eureka Entertainment's Poe/Lugosi box set. While Shout! didn't carry over the reconstructed version, it recorded a new commentary with film historian Gary D. Rhodes that is full of historical facts and anecdotes on the film and subjects relevant to it narrative. A VERY SOLID RECOMMENDATION.