Mystery of Marie Roget

This one hour film is almost a paradigm for the average B movie from the 30s and 40s. It has some suspense, (it uses the great forest sets left over from The Wolf Man), and a fast pace and if you are into this type of mystery go see it, but don't go out of your way to find it. The performances, direction, etc. are all adequate and it progresses in the typical 'the dumb cop can't figure it out, so the smart young independent detective knows everything' approach. Generallly atmospheric and fun, though.

"Mystery of Marie Roget" is a sub-par B-movie from Universal. While the story purports to be from the Edgar Allan Poe story, it's really very different.

When the film begins, Marie has been reported missing and the police have so far found nothing. They do eventually find a corpse that MIGHT be her...but her face is missing. When they tell her family that they've found her, she then walks in the house...so the corpse obviously was NOT her. However, eventually Marie really is murdered and it's up to Poe's Dupin character (Patric Knowles) to solve the murder. As for Dupin, he's a know-it-all who acts a lot like the movie version of Sherlock Holmes and has a partner (Lloyd Corrigan) who is even stupider and more useless than the movie version of Watson. In fact, he's such a bumbling moron that it totally ruins the movie...as does Dupin's bizarre manner in which he investigates. Overall, just a silly and inconsequential B murder mystery--complete with all the usual clichés and plot problems. A time-passer at best...but you could easily do better.

Edgar Allan Poe's three tales of Paris crime-solver C. Auguste Dupin are considered the first detective stories. "The Mystery of Marie Roget" is the least known of the three, and by far the dullest, but it has the distinction of being the first "ripped from the headlines" whodunit. Based on the unsolved murder of a minor New York celebrity named Mary Rogers, "Marie Roget" was a thinly fictionalized essay on the facts of that case and the newspapers' theories about it. (How thinly fictionalized was it? Poe even added footnotes to remind readers that he was actually talking about Mary Rogers!) There are plenty of colorful theories about why Poe came up with such a vague, confusing solution to the mystery, but he probably just didn't want to be proved wrong if the real crime was ever solved.

Any "Marie Roget" movie true to the original material would attract mostly scholars, literary buffs and insomniacs, but fortunately this film throws in elements from other Poe stories to liven things up. It also has Dupin do something a bit more exciting than sit in an armchair and deliver a lecture. He's called "Paul Dupin" here, but as Marie Roget might say, "Just call me Mary."

Actress Marie Roget (Maria Montez) disappears and is suspected of being murdered as a woman is found murdered with her face clawed away, but one day, much to everyone's surprise, she shows up, and doesn't give much information about her disappearance...

Then at a party, she disappears again. Dr. Pierre Dupin (Patric Knowles) is determined to get to the truth. Inspector Gobelin (Lloyd Corrigan) acts as Watson to Dupin's Holmes. Suspects are a plenty, from Camille whose fiancée Marcel has been having an affair with Marie, Marcel himself who had hinted at doing away with Camille as he doesn't really love her or Mme. Cecile Rogêt who had overheard Marie and Marcel coming up with a plan to get rid of Camille.

An absolutely solid mystery from Universal studios- a mix of Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe, and you get a fast-paced mystery, at times complicated, yet fills its one hour running time like a well-oiled machine and ticks off red herrings with ease. The climax featuring a daring rooftop chase is a nail biter. Maria Montez is beautiful as always, and I loved the chemistry between Dr Dupin and the inspector- entertaining interaction.

This cast of B actors carries off a well-written murder mystery by Edgar Allan Poe. The sister of a woman about to inherit a large fortune plots her murder. But then she herself disappears. Who killed her? Her boyfriend (who was also courting the sister), her grandmother, her estate manager. Or her sister, to protect herself?

The events unfold with a number of false leads and dead ends, and with a few red herrings. However, due to the brilliant detective work of Dr. Dupin, who plays a Sherlock Holmes-type character to the local police chief's Watson-type character. The formula works to a degree, and we have an entertaining mystery.