Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) on Netflix
PG-1319711h 27mCrimeHorrorMysteryRomanceThriller
In early 1900s Paris, Cesar Charron stages Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" with wife Madeleine, who has nightmares. Acid murders of people connected to Cesar attract Inspector Vidocq.
- Netflix1.8/5
- IMDb5.2/101,810 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes20%
Trailer
Plot summary
In early twentieth-century Paris, Cesar Charron runs a theater on Rue Morgue, where his troupe performs gory horror plays in the Grand Guignol style. He stages Poe's story of the Rue Morgue murders with his wife Madeleine. Her mother was killed with an axe, and Madeleine has nightmares of an axe-wielding man. After acid kills several people connected to Cesar, Inspector Vidocq investigates.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Two weeks into filming, Jason Robards told director Gordon Hessler that he had the wrong part and wanted to be doing the other part; Hessler said he would happily have given him the other role, but by then it was too late.
- Vincent Price was upset at being left out of the film, according to Hessler, who said he had nothing to do with it and believed Price was then in contractual fights with American International Pictures.
- Hessler said he was appalled by the theatrically released version and wrote a five-page letter to Samuel Arkoff complaining about the changes, which included removing a sequence from the film's end and tinting the flashback scenes; by then it was already in release.
- Believing audiences were too familiar with Poe's story, director Gordon Hessler and writer Christopher Wicking remade it as a play-within-a-play about a theater staging "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", borrowing plot elements from The Phantom of the Opera.
- American International Pictures removed many of Lilli Palmer's scenes; Hessler said she was vital to the plot and that trimming them down made her like an extra in the film.
- Filming in Spain was a cost-cutting measure: the theater scenes were shot at Teatro Rojas in Toledo, while the Charron estate was portrayed by the Palace of the Dukes of Osuna. Hessler said Spain was easier because London would have meant building sets.
- The film was made by the British branch of American International Pictures and is the final film of the studio's "Poe cycle".
