Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) on Netflix
Passed19321h 1mCrimeHorrorMystery
In 1845 Paris, Dr. Mirakle injects kidnapped women with ape blood to make a mate for Erik, his sideshow ape. Pierre Dupin, a medical student, brings his fiancée Camille to the show.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.3/106,037 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes79%
Trailer
Plot summary
Dr. Mirakle runs a sideshow in 1845 Paris, where he exhibits Erik, an ape. He kidnaps women and injects ape blood into them, hoping to produce a mate for Erik, and each attempt fails. Pierre Dupin, a medical student who has been looking into the earlier killings, visits the show with his fiancée Camille L'Espanaye. Erik seizes Camille's bonnet, and when Pierre reaches to take it back the animal goes for his throat until Mirakle pulls it away. Mirakle offers Camille a new bonnet, but she distrusts him and refuses to give her address, so he has his servant Janos follow the couple. A woman's body is pulled from the river, and Pierre asks the morgue keeper for a sample of her blood.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Harrison Greeneas Sideshow Barker (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bette Davis was auditioned for the part of Camille L'Espanaye, but, according to director Robert Florey, studio head Carl Laemmle Jr. rejected her for what he called "a lack of sex appeal".
- Although Murders in the Rue Morgue wrapped at Universal on November 13, 1931, the success of Frankenstein sent it back into production on December 10, with seven days of retakes and new scenes pushing the budget to $186,090.
- The film was the first to put Bela Lugosi in the role of a mad scientist or a doctor, a part he would return to for years, from The Black Cat (1934) to Bride of the Monster (1955).
- Censor boards across the United States shortened the death scene of the prostitute played by Arlene Francis, cutting shots of her being stabbed and tied up, and also removed dancing-girl scenes and plot elements suggesting humans evolved from apes.
- Director Robert Florey walked off the production at one point and later came back, and he fought Universal over the film's 1845 Paris setting because the studio wanted a contemporary one.
- John Huston, then a Universal staff writer, was credited with additional dialogue and tried to bring Poe's prose style into the script, but the director thought it sounded stilted and had scenes rewritten on the set.
- Only two elements of Poe's story survived into the film, the discovery of a corpse in a chimney and the argument over the murderer's language, because much of the tale was rewritten to give Bela Lugosi a part as Doctor Mirakle.
