Svengoolie is often the way to go when it comes to the lesser known Olden Days Universal type Horror pictures and he is usually pretty spot on with the choices. This one ... not so much ! He always gives a "who-is-who" spiel but with Rue Morgue he was a little late. The young lady who gets killed on a pre-Hays cross is identified as being played by Arlene Francis of "What's My Line" fame BUT not until well after she is dead and gone from the film. (CHECK FOR SPOILER BOX... OK ... IT'S ON ! whew) Sadly, the plot didn't really clearly tell what was going on and what he was trying to do or even how. Seems he was injecting, not withdrawing, blood... big difference ! (yup, spoiler still active).Leon Ames as young man was a great surprise and a treat to see his younger self. The voice had seemed so familiar. Supporting cast was, as usual, good and interesting. The very corpse like morgue attendant reminded me of my guide in Les Invalides in Paris ! The rather silly chubby room-mate was just plain not needed, annoying and pointless. All of his scenes could have been cut with no ill effect. We won't go into the whole baboon / gorilla / chimp thing. It's just too darn sad to mention ! Lugosi himself - over the top even for Lugosi. The V-shaped-uni-brow and lighting from under the chin didn't make him look scary or menacing .. just foolish. No wonder the poor man turned to drugs ! Unless you are a compulsive "Gotta see them all" for any of the cast or the classic era horrors.. skip this one !

It would be difficult to find a more tragic Hollywood figure than winsome, pert, diminutive Sidney Fox. Here she is at the apex of her career, appearing as the number-one star (Bela Lugosi was second-billed) of Universal's fascinating if somewhat unbalanced entry in the thriller cycle, Murders in the Rue Morgue, adapted from the story by Edgar Allan Poe by director Robert Florey, with additional dialogue by John Huston (his third screen credit and we sincerely hope that his contributions are the best of a rather mixed sample). Oddly, Florey's direction is a bit inconsistent. The scenes of menace are handled most effectively, but Florey seems less able directing some of the dialogue scenes particularly all those that revolve around Bert Roach's comedy relief material. The ambitious over-acting by Leon Ames doesn't help either. Nevertheless, some of Florey's directorial touches are nothing short of masterly particularly in the scenes depicting Mirakle soliciting a prostitute, Fox's dizzying ride on a swing, and the rapid cutting in the murder scene. These touches are nothing short of sheer genius.

The horror for a young girl held prisoner by a mad scientist today would be that she wouldn't have a cell phone in her hand, but in the case of the poor prostitute here (Arlene Francis), you really feel fear for her. She's first seen screaming as two drunken men fight over her, and all of a sudden Bela Lugosi is approaching her, a nefarious close-up dominating his saunter towards her. The next thing you see is her being held hostage, tied to a cross, screaming in horror. The chills aren't only on her body, but in the viewers as well, as the photography and tense music and editing make the horror all the more real. Lugosi is determined to prove the connection between man and ape, and he is first seen explaining that to an audience which includes the heroine (Sidney Fox). "Your blood is rotten!" Lugosi screams at the poor unfortunate street walker, but he had originally set his sights on Fox and has his man- servant locate her so he can have his gorilla kidnap her for more nefarious experimentation.In a very short running time, the Universal horror classic really makes an impression, and even with his Chico Marxx like hairdo, Lugosi is absolutely frightening. Who'd think that an early 30's horror film without blood, throat slashing and body parts being ripped off could be so frightening? Of course, the music of "Swan Lake" is heard in the background as it was for all of the early Universal horror films, and in playing it rather slowly makes it all the more haunting. The photography resembles the silent German expressionism of films like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "Nosferatu" and in a way, this makes it even spookier than "Dracula" and "Frankenstein". A re-make in 3-D pales in comparison to this.

I saw "Murders in the Rue Morgue" when I was just a child in the sixties and wasn't impressed. But now that I've seen the uncut original on Universal's Lugosi collection, I believe "Murders" is one of the most under-rated films from the golden age of horror.Direction by Robert Florey, cinematography by Karl Freund, and art direction by Charles Hall will satisfy the cravings of atmospheric horror fans. And the sources that Florey uses—the Poe story and the silent classic "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"—dovetail nicely. What seems rather silly in the Poe story (an ape escapes from a sailor to commit senseless murder) is more plausible and horrific when the ape's owner becomes Dr. Mirakle, a mad scientist intent on proving humans and apes are evolutionary cousins. Why else inject ape's blood into nubile young women if not to find a suitable mate for his side show attraction Erik? I was also impressed by the way director/writer Florey zeroed in on one of Poe's themes. The confusion of tongues scene from Poe's story in which people of different nationalities (ear-witnesses to a murder) mistake the ape's language for unintelligible human speech, demonstrates that humans are no different from Erik, another species of savage primate inhabiting the planet. Seeing Dr. Mirakle talk with Erik and translate for the carnival audience doesn't seem as far-fetched today considering the recent research into primate communication.These thematic elements, together with Lugosi's sinister but surprisingly low-key (for him) performance, and the scene in which Dr. Mirakle injects the street walker with ape blood (Arlene Francis made a good screamer), and in which fiendish assistant Noble Johnson (who made an art of playing such roles) cuts the ropes that bind her Christ-like between crossbeams, releasing her body through a trap door into the river, make this one of the most daring of pre-code horror films.The print Universal included in its Lugosi collection looks fine, much better that the one I saw in the sixties. And neither the bland performances of the romantic leads, nor the man in the ape costume detracts from the over all effect. The inter-cutting between the actual animal and the costumed double is really not that jarring when you consider what was being done elsewhere in this era.