Murders in the Rue Morgue *** (1971, Jason Robards Jnr, Herbert Lom, Lilli Palmer, Adolfo Celi, Michael Dunn, Christine Kaufmann, Maria Perschy) – Classic Movie Review 2682

American International Pictures assembles a grand, first-class international cast headed by Jason Robards Jnr, Herbert Lom, Lilli Palmer, Adolfo Celi, Michael Dunn, Christine Kaufmann and Maria Perschy for director Gordon Hessler’s bloody, well-made 1971 horror movie. It’s a lusty revision of the Edgar Allan Poe story about a group of players at a penny dreadful thriller-play theatre becoming targets of a real murderer.

The reworked tale by screen-writers Charles Wicking and Henry Slesar is mixed with elements of The Phantom of the Opera. But it is still set in Paris, despite being made on Spanish locations.

Celi plays Inspector Vidocq, who investigates a series of unexplained murders at the Grand Guignol-style theatre, where the players have become real-life victims. Robards plays Cesar Charron, the owner of the theatre in the Rue Morgue where he performs the play Murders in the Rue Morgue with his wife Madeleine Charron (Kaufmann), who is suffering from nightmares. Vidocq’s prime suspect would be Cesar’s former partner René Marot, but he murdered Madeleine’s mother and committed suicide…

Also in the cast are Peter Arne, José Calvo, Luis Rivera, Marshall Jones, Maria Martin, Ruth Plattes and Rosalind Elliot.

It is the fourth film of the yarn after a silent version, the 1932 Bela Lugosi version and its 1954 remake Phantom of the Rue Morgue. And it was remade again for TV in 1986.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2682

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