What happened to MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE is a textbook case of studio interference ruining a potential masterpiece. After preparing the original FRANKENSTEIN project only to have it handed to James Whale (who retained the idea of the stolen criminal brain), original director Robert Florey and star Bela Lugosi (who rejected the part of the Monster because it had no dialogue) were given this film as a consolation prize. Florey wanted to create an American CABINET OF DR CALIGARI. He had the great cameraman Karl Freund and together they created a bizarre shadowy Paris that is almost overbearingly atmospheric. Lugosi threw himself into the role of Dr Mirakle with remarkable intensity and what should have emerged from all this was an American expressionist classic. It wasn’t and the book UNIVERSAL HORRORS explains why.
The finished film was shown to Universal exec Junior Laemmle and he didn’t like it. Too humorless and not enough screen time for his “protege” Sidney Fox (she gets top billing over Lugosi) so he had comic relief scenes added, close-ups of a chimpanzee inserted (the story is about a gorilla) and then rearranged Florey’s existing order of scenes. Finally the film was cut from 72 to 61 minutes removing footage considered too disturbing. The end result was a terrible mess that barely resembles what Florey envisioned. However there are several moments which still make the film worthwhile. Lugosi’s performance, Karl Freund’s camerawork, and a surprisingly effective appearance from Arlene Francis of WHAT’S MY LINE fame as a victimized prostitute. It’s a pity that we will never see what Robert Florey intended but what is left to us is still fascinating in spite of everything that happened.
The film originally appeared as one of five movies in Universal’s 2005 BELA LUGOSI COLLECTION set of DVDs. It then reappeared in 2012 as part of the Universal Vault series as did all of their non-franchise horror films of the 1930s. This was a bare bones affair using the same print but with no subtitles provided and no commentary included. After the appearance of a Region 2 Blu-Ray from France (not playable on Region 1 machines), Shout Factory’s Scream Factory division issued this Blu-Ray in 2019. It has gotten rid of an inappropriate soundtrack and cleaned up the print so that is the best that it has ever looked and sounded. It also has two different commentaries of great interest to Lugosi fans and comes with the necessary optional subtitles that will help you to follow the story despite the many changes indicated in paragraph two.
POSTSCRIPT 2026: British label Eureka and their Masters Of Cinema series released a Region 2 only Blu-ray that features the 3 Edgar Allan Poe movies that Lugosi made for Universal in the 1930s (RUE MORGUE, THE BLACK CAT, THE RAVEN) in quality prints. As an added bonus (and it’s a BIG one), there is a full length re-creation of what Robert Florey originally wanted. It is vastly superior to what Universal finally released and should be made the standard version for all future releases.
The Capsule Critic 