MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

US, 1932, 62 minutes, Black and white.
Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Ames, Bert Roach, Brandon Hurst.
Directed by Robert Florey.

Murders in the Rue Morgue is an early sound horror film from Universal Studios. It is loosely based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. The film has some interesting credits including co-writing by John Huston, direction by Robert Florey and photography by Karl Freund. Bela Lugosi has the central role and a young Leon Ames, credited as Leon Waycoff, is the hero. The film has been remade several times including Phantom of the Rue Morgue with Karl Malden in the '50s and Murders in the Rue Morgue with Jason Robards in the early '70s.

1. Interesting and entertaining horror film? '30s horror and its style? Universal Studios?

2. The imagination of Edgar Allan Poe, his story? 19th. century and horror, eerie atmosphere? The developments of science and science beyond control?

3. The atmosphere of horror, menace, fear? Sadism?

4. The carnival and the sideshows, the gorilla, the attack? The city and the houses?

5. Dr. Mirabele and the eerie atmosphere? Camille? The gorilla, following, the prostitute and her death, the experiments and the blood? Evolution and the ape?. Death and being killed? Bela Lugosi in this role?

6. Camille as heroine, attractive? Pierre as a pleasing hero? The gorilla, the search, the police? The ending?

7. The focus on the prostitute and her torture?

8. The police and their scepticism, stolid, the morgue?

9. The early example of horror and science fiction?