Between 1960 and 1971 American International Pictures (AIP) made 12 movies based on works by Edgar Allan Poe. They were HOUSE OF USHER (1960), THE PIT & THE PENDULUM (1961), TALES OF TERROR (1962), THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962), THE RAVEN (1963), THE HAUNTED PALACE (1964), THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964), TOMB OF LIGEIA (1966), THE CONQUEROR WORM (1968) THE OBLONG BOX (1969), CRY OF THE BANSHEE (1970), and MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1971). 4 of the last 5 were made in England and had nothing to do with Poe except for the titles. MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE was made in Spain and is one of only 2 films in the series that did not star Vincent Price. The other was THE PREMATURE BURIAL.
Roger Corman directed the first 8 and Gordon Hessler the last 3. THE CONQUEROR WORM, known everywhere outside the U.S. as WITCHFINDER GENERAL, was directed by Michael Reeves who died at the age of only 25. Reeves never intended it to be part of the Poe series. MURDERS starred Jason Robards instead of Price and while Robards is a fine actor, he failed to bring the necessary panache needed for a Gothic horror film. Christine Kaufmann, Tony Curtis’ ex-wife, makes a fine beleaguered heroine while old pros Herbert Lom and Michael Dunn know how to treat the material. Lom is essentially reprising his PHANTOM OF THE OPERA role that he did for Hammer in 1962. German actress Lilli Palmer plays the pivotal role of the girl’s mother.
Director Hessler and screenwriter Christopher Wicking essentially took Poe’s Parisian animal character Erik to justify the title and added him to what is basically an alternate version of PHANTOM. The setting is a successful Grand Guignol theater whose former members are being murdered and disfigured with acid. Robards heads up the company along with his wife whose mother was murdered years before by another member of the troupe whom she accidentally disfigured with acid. But, as is usually the case in stories of this type, all is not what it seems resulting in a not so surprising ending with vengeance fulfilled. But there is a twist which John Carpenter would borrow for his HALLOWEEN 7 years later.
I first saw the film when it was released in 1971 and I didn’t like it at all. It appeared to be poorly edited with a wooden Jason Robards performance and its several dream sequences were tinted red to make sure the audience “got it”. When MURDERS first appeared on home video, I watched it again, still didn’t like it, and gave it a negative review. The movie made it to DVD in 2003 as part of a double feature and I purchased it for the other movie CRY OF THE BANSHEE. I didn’t get around to watching MURDERS again until after reading that the film had been radically altered by AIP for its American release. This time around I was impressed. Gone were the red tints, the movie was several minutes longer and even Robards wasn’t as bad as I remembered.
The principal theme is that of dreams becoming reality. The movie achieves its dream-like feel with lots of slow motion (a new thing back then) and plenty of fluid camerawork which isn’t hard to follow. The entire film was shot in Spain which accounts for the marvelous old buildings used and the lavish settings. There’s even a nod to the 1932 Bela Lugosi MURDERS in that a few scenes have a carnival setting. A lot of imdb reviews are negative because most younger horror film fans aren’t used to a movie that takes its time and doesn’t feature jump cuts and sudden outbursts of sound. If you enjoy old school horror movies in the Hammer or Roger Corman Poe mode then MURDERS is for you. It isn’t great but then it wasn’t meant to be anything other than pure entertainment.
The Capsule Critic 