Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971 film)

Murders in the Rue Morgue
Directed by Gordon Hessler
Produced by Louis M. Heyward
executive
James H. Nicholson
Samuel Arkoff
Written by Edgar Allan Poe (story)
Christopher Wicking
Henry Slesar
Based on Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Starring Jason Robards
Herbert Lom
Christine Kaufmann
Adolfo Celi
Maria Perschy
Lilli Palmer
Michael Dunn
Music by Waldo de los Ríos
Cinematography Manuel Berenguer
Edited by Max Benedict
Distributed by American International Pictures
Release date
  • September 1971 (1971-09)
Running time
 87 min / 98 min restored director's cut
Country United States
Language English
Budget $700,000[1]

Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1971 American horror film directed by Gordon Hessler, starring Jason Robards and Herbert Lom.[2] It is ostensibly an adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, although it departs from the story in several significant aspects, at times more resembling Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. In an interview on the film's DVD, Hessler said that he thought everyone already knew the ending of the story, so he felt it necessary to reinvent the plot.

Plot

The story revolves around an early 20th century theatre troupe in Paris specializing in gory, naturalistic horror plays in the fashion of the Grand Guignol. The director, Cesar Charron (Jason Robards), is presenting Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue". Cesar's wife, the actress Madeline (Christine Kaufmann), whose mother (Lilli Palmer) had been murdered by axe, is haunted by nightmares of an ax-wielding man. Then, suddenly, Rene Marot (Herbert Lom), a former lover of Madeline's mother thought long dead after being horribly disfigured on stage, mysteriously returns and begins murdering members and ex-members of the acting troupe, confounding the Paris police, who initially suspect Cesar.

Cast

Production

Gordon Hessler was hired to direct the film. Hessler says he felt the story was so familiar it needed to be changed, so he and writer Christopher Wicking decided to do it as a play-within-a-play, with a mystery happening around a theatre that was putting on a production of Murder in the Rue Morgue. The new storyline owned a lot to Phantom of the Opera.[3]

Hessler said Vincent Price "was very upset that he wasn't in" the film "but I had nothing to with that."[4] He thought Price was having contractual fights with AIP at the time.

Hessler says AIP hired Jason Robard "because of his name, and he was quite well respected. Most actors like to play a horror part at some point in their life, so he was brought onboard."[4]

Filming started October 1970.[5]

The film was shot in Spain, in the town of Toledo, rather than England because of cost. They had streets which looked like old France. "You couldn't shoot that in London unless you built sets," said Hessler.[4]

Hessler said Robards was "fine to work with" but two weeks into filming he told Hessler he had the wrong part and wanted to be doing the other part. Hessler would have been happy to give him the other role but by then it was too late. "It's always the monster who gets the best part in a horror picture, it's much more juicy," said Hessler.[4]

"We may have had to much fun," said Robards after production. "It's hard to tell."[6]

Release

Hessler says James H Nicholson saw and liked the film when he saw it in Spain. The director says he felt "it was one of the best films I had ever made"[7] However the film was drastically recut in the US.

Hessler says he was "appalled when I originally saw the theatrically released version."[4]He wrote a five page letter to Samuel Arkoff complaining about the changes made but the film was already in release.

Among the changes he disliked were removing a sequence from the end and tinting the flashback scenes. "The whole idea was not to tint them so that you wouldn't know when you're more or less in a dream sequence or just being puzzled by it," said Hessler. "The whole trick in that was instead of it being a flashback, this would be a flash-forward, which people really hadn't done before at that time. It was a premonition of what was going to happen. When it's tinted, it's just so obvious. Audiences picked up on it immediately."[4]

AIP also removed a lot of Lilli Palmer's scenes. "She was vital to the plot and by cutting her scenes down, it was like she was an extra in the film," said Hessler.[4]

Robards later called the film "a disaster... but I got a good price and part of the picture."[8]

Reception

Murders in the Rue Morgue received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Leonard Maltin panned the film, awarding the film 1 1/2 out of 4 stars.[9] Howard Thompson from The New York Times gave the film a positive review, praising the film's direction, costume design, color, and performances. Thompson did however note that the film's ending while sound was fairly predictable.[2] Donald Guarisco from Allmovie gave the film a negative review, criticizing the film's substandard pacing, convoluted plot, performances, and lack of actual tension, writing "This riff on the famous Edgar Allen [sic] Poe story has an intriguing, experimental edge to it but is not fully successful at reinventing the Poe subgenre".[10]

Home media

The film was released on DVD as a double feature with Cry of the Banshee on Apr 15, 2003.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Weaver p 150
  2. 1 2 Thompson, Howard. "New York Times: Murders in the Rue Morgue". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
  3. ↑ Tom Weaver, "Gordon Hessler", Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews 2000 McFarland, p 149
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Interview with Gordon Hessler". DVD Drive In.
  5. ↑ Burton to Play Gangster Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times (1923-1995); Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]13 Aug 1970: g20.
  6. ↑ CRITIC AT LARGE: Robards Gets Kicks With Poe Champlin, Charles. Los Angeles Times 15 Jan 1971: i1.
  7. ↑ Weaver p 150
  8. ↑ STAR OF 'COUNTRY GIRL': Backstage With Jason Robards Murphy, Mary. Los Angeles Times 29 May 1972: g1.
  9. ↑ Maltin, Leonard (September 2012). leonard Maltin's 2013 Movie Guide. New York, New York: Penguin Press. p. 962. ISBN 978-0-451-23774-3.
  10. ↑ Guarisco, Donald. "Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) - Gordon Hessler". AllMovie.com. Donald Guarisco. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  11. ↑ "Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) - Gordon Hessler". Allmovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.