Murders in the Rue Morgue

"The super shocker !"

1932 1h 1m EN

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 151

HorrorMysteryCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In 19th century Paris, a maniac abducts young women and injects them with ape blood in an attempt to prove ape-human kinship but constantly meets failure as the abducted women die.

“The super shocker !”

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Cast

Sidney Fox
Mlle. Camille L'Espanaye
Bela Lugosi
Dr. Mirakle
Leon Ames
Pierre Dupin
Bert Roach
Paul
Betty Ross Clarke
Mme. L'Espanaye
Brandon Hurst
Prefect of Police
D'Arcy Corrigan
Morgue Keeper
Noble Johnson
Janos The Black One

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Florey
Writers: Tom Reed, Dale Van Every, Ethel M. Kelly
Languages: Danish, English, German, Italian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 61-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

94 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Danish, English, German, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Robert Florey, shot by Karl Freund. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Milton Carruth shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Sidney Fox and Bela Lugosi and Leon Ames carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The super shocker !".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0023249 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Florey directs. Karl Freund behind the camera. Milton Carruth cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Danish, English, German, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 61-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
294 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Danish, English, German, Italian.
4Directed by Robert Florey, shot by Karl Freund. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Milton Carruth shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Sidney Fox and Bela Lugosi and Leon Ames carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "The super shocker !".
8IMDB entry: tt0023249 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 10 themes, including "paris, france", "circus", "black and white", "ape".

The technical file

Cinematography: Karl Freund
Editing: Milton Carruth
Makeup / hair: Jack Pierce
Runtime: 61 min · 1h 1m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)

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Robert Florey

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What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-12-28
★ 7/10
Bela Lugosi is at his most rigid best in this eerily spooky adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's story. It's 1800s Paris and amidst the fog and the cobblestones streets, young women are being kidnapped and disappearing without trace. What's this to do with "Mirakle" (Lugosi)? Well we quite quickly discover that he is working on a Darwin-esque plan to prove the relationship between human beings and apes. To prove his theories, he is using the blood from his more hirsute helpers to contaminate his guinea pigs, but as yet to no avail. When he alights on the young "Camille" (Sidney Fox) her boyfriend, medical student "Dupin" (Leon Ames) starts to piece things together but how on earth is he going to convince the gendarmerie? I really quite enjoyed this hour of megalomanic science, peppered with some acceptable co-starring and a reasonably tight script as the tension of the adventure is managed quite effectively by Robert Florey towards a denouement that has a soupçon more jeopardy than you might expect. Of course, the role given to Fox is little better than that of one tied to a rail track, but she still manages to exude just enough of a sense of panic to keep things interesting and it's a decent example of an early, at times even scary, talkie.

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