A certain Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi) helps to keep a carnival in Paris classy. He is a scientist, you know, pulling in quite the crowd with his talk of evolution and the relationship between man and ape, even if he's annoying his public more than he's enlightening them. He keeps a gorilla (in fact, a costume that does not look like any monkey or ape I've ever seen but magically transforms into a laughably harmless looking chimp for close-ups) called Eric whom he claims he can talk to through some nonsense babble that seems to predict future ape related losses of dignity soon to come in Lugosi's career.
Secretly, Eric assists Mirakle in experiments to "scientifically" proof evolution by finding a woman with gorilla-compatible blood to - carry Eric's babies, I guess. The film does not make the latter part of the plan all that explicit, but it's not all that subtle about it either.
One day, charming young Camille (Sidney Fox) and her suitor Pierre Dupin (Leon Waycoff, hero and incredibly bad actor) stroll into the good doctor's little show. Mad scientist and murderous ape are both quite taken with Camille's button-like cuteness and there's not a long way from seeing her to abducting her for the good of science and a little bestiality.
Murders in the Rue Morgue is one of the less loved and less well known films of Universal's first horror cycle. This time, film history has been relatively fair - Rue Morgue just isn't in the same class as James Whale's Frankenstein films or Karl Freund's The Mummy. Most of the film's flaws can be nicely put on the shoulders of writer/director Robert Florey's script that only has its nicely pulpy crudeness going for it, but does not seem to have much of a clue about what to do with the few elements and scenes it takes from Poe's literary model nor have a lot of experience with the subtleties or basic concepts of plotting. Most of the scenes that are taken from Poe don't make a lot of sense in their new context and - even more problematically - the changes Florey makes are mostly for the worse. This is not as hurtful for the film as Leon Waycoff's puzzling inability to act at all (and imagine my surprise when I learned what a long career that guy had nonetheless), though. While one does not expect much acting or charisma from the romantic lead in a film of this age, Waycoff's oscillating between Shatner-like mugging and wood block imitations still comes as a bad surprise.
Fortunately there are reasons that make Rue Morgue worth the time in spite of its flaws. Bela - as always - does a fine job with the little he's given and gives Dr. Mirakle his standard undertone of wounded pride that somehow became plain homicidal madness. There are a few moments when you can see what kind of a person Mirakle must have been before he became a ranting maniac - those are most certainly not based on anything in the script, but part of a thoughtfulness and subtlety that was always present beneath the stage theatrics of Lugosi's acting, but sadly underused in his films. (I must admit, I always want Bela to be the hero of his films, based on impressions like this).
Karl Freund was working as director of photography here, and, comparing his track record with that of Robert Florey, it seems only fair to see him as responsible for all that goes well on the visual side of this film. He delivers some fine shots that still carry much of the dream-like artificiality of the Expressionist era and also had an ability to keep the camera moving (without being too showy with it) that was not typical for the films of the time, letting the film look much more dynamic than the script deserves.
So, if you are going into this without looking for a masterpiece, but keep your eyes open for the things Lugosi and Freund have to offer, you'll find a lesser Universal horror film that is still lively enough to keep you interested.
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