User reviews

I recall watching this as a kid, though not the opinion I had made of it back then. With this in mind, I am baffled by its maligned reputation (the "Leonard Maltin Film Guide" gives it a measly **); mind you, I would not say that I prefer it to the classic 1932 Bela Lugosi version but it is more readily enjoyable (and faithful to its source). The film, in fact, is quite stylish in color – with special care given to the art direction – and a worthy follow-up to Warners' success of the previous year HOUSE OF WAX (1953); like that one, it was one of the numerous genre efforts from the early 1950s to be made in 3-D (though, typically, it was used gratuitously more often than judiciously). The cast is effective, too: Karl Malden adds an Actor's Method sensibility to the lead role of biologist/misogynist, Claude Dauphin is fine as the Police Inspector investigating the various gorilla slayings, Steve Forrest ideal as the handsome hero/accused and Anthony Caruso as Malden's loutish henchman/gorilla keeper. The murders are well-done, suggesting the animal's brutish strength without actually showing it – even the 3-D process comes in handy here as one of the victims throws something at the ape in defense and the latter responds by throwing a chair back at the girl!; there is, however, a goof in the scene depicting the killing of the circus performer (assisting her jealous husband in a knife-throwing act) as she is seen taking off the tell-tale bracelet but is then unaccountably back at her hand in a shot of the mangled (albeit conveniently covered) body! On a personal note, Malta's name comes up a number of times throughout the film: the Maltese cross on a sailor's (eventually revealed to be Caruso) scarf and his inopportune meeting in a dingy tavern with a drunken former 'colleague' (sealing his fate by unwisely disclosing his knowledge of the ape's existence). The latter stages, veering from the Poe tale, actually feel closest to Universal's earlier adaptation – as Malden cannot hold back his obsession with heroine Patricia Medina (engaged to his former student, and presently incarcerated, Forrest), an impulsive move which can only lead to the expected poetic justice of the climax in which the villain meets his own grisly come-uppance at the hands of the trained (read: abused) gorilla. By the way, having included a handful of films during this challenge in which this type of animal was featured as a menace (two more followed in quick succession), I came to realize just how many were made over the years. Finally, as I said in the beginning, this is pretty much underrated both as horror/monster movie and as adaptation of a highly-influential literary work.

Although not in the same league with Warner's HOUSE OF WAX, at least this version of the Edgar Allen Poe story has some interesting ingredients that make it passable entertainment. First and foremost, the always dependable KARL MALDEN as a sinister man terrifying Paris with his ape and a pleasant supporting cast that includes CLAUDE DAUPHIN, PATRICIA MEDINA and a very young and slim MERV GRIFFIN.

David Buttolph's music adds some flavor to the improbable Poe story and the sets and costumes provide additional quality. But the basic story is so silly that none of it seems quite credible. You just have to suspend your disbelief long enough to enjoy the tale, expanded a bit from Poe's original short story with only modest returns.

STEVE FORREST, as a man wrongly accused, gives the film's most earnest performance but it's KARL MALDEN and his ape companion that you're most likely to remember.

At any rate, a vast improvement over the stilted '32 version directed by Robert Florey with a very young Leon Ames as the romantic lead and Bela Lugosi providing the only thrills.

If you've never seen this Parisian outing in 3-D, you must. It's been decades since the last time I enjoyed it at a temporary 3-D revival, but I remember the effects quite well. I won't discuss the story because too many commentators have already discussed how it is modified from Poe's original, but the script works. It is a horror movie, after all, which makes me think the writer who critiqued the "over the top" and "stilted" acting, doesn't realize that like fair rides we go to these movies to be thrilled and shudder. By current slasher film standards, this movie is very tame ... but it effectively depicts enough to give you nightmares, if you really think a bout what's going on. As mentioned, the 3-D effects are stunning. No, this movie is not as good per se as "House of Wax" but it is definitely worth a look. Why the devil doesn't Warner Brothers release both HoW and PotRM on DVD in 3-D using the shutter process utilized for the Imax releases?

Rory Del Ruth directed this film supposedly based on the classic Edgar Allen Poe story 'Murders in the Rue Morgue' though showing only the slightest resemblance. A number of young women are brutally murdered and all evidence points to Professor Dupin (Steve Forrest). However, Dupin continues to protest his innocence but his attempts to prove it to exasperating Inspector Bonnard (Claude Daulphin) are ignored by the abhorrent police officer.

I found this movie to be quite entertaining. To begin with the story moves slowly and one has to question where this movie is going? However, the final twenty minutes or so are very tense leading up to an almost blistering and highly exciting finale. Steve Forrest is great as Dupin, the university professor apparently caught up in the middle of a very elaborate murder plan, and commands his role as if it were written for him. Unfortunately the rest of the cast did not seem to perform to the same standard in my opinion with the exception of Karl Malden in the role of Dr. Marais. Even though Malden certainly hammed it up a bit his performance was still of a high quality and during a particular scene gave one of the more fearsome horror performances I have been privileged enough to witness.

Phantom of the Rue Morgue's finest quality is in its thriller aspect. As all murders are off-screen and only the aftermaths are shown the film searches out for a different type of brutality and succeeds but unfortunately rather late on. During the first half of the film 'Phantom.' remains a pleasant crime thriller but suffers somewhat from slowness in places. All this changes when it becomes obvious to us all who the killer is and what their motive is for doing so. Upon acquiring this knowledge we are given an insight into one of the more disturbed killer minds in horror and also some marvellous final scenes.

Despite the occasional slowness and poor acting I still quite liked this film. Though I must admit I found the first half to be of only average quality and reasonably dull when the story eventually become more interesting 'Phantom of the Rue Morgue' managed to regain my attention. I can understand its low rating on IMDb but I don't think it's a true representation of this film. 'Phantom.' certainly has flaws but is worth watching if only for the blistering finale. My rating for 'Phantom of the Rue Morgue' - 6.75/10

This is a good version of the Poe story, and I liked it much more than the Bela Lugosi version. This held my attention throughout the whole movie. The color cinematography was very effective and Steve Forrest and Patricia Medina make a very believable couple. The ending is a bit unintentionally funny, at least to me. And it sure is something to see a very young and a very slim Merv Griffin. LOL.

But I do like this version, I think because the Lugosi version has a weird look to it. This is the better version.

A total rip-off of Edgar Allan Poe's short story. The plot is a bunch of crap, it has something to do with an animal running around killing woman. This reason why he does it is also a bunch of crap. Karl Malden is a good actor but totally wasted here. Watch house of wax instead.

Yet another chapter in the Rue Morgue opus. This one is fun because Karl Malden is quite good. He makes an admirable villain. Even the ape is pretty convincing. The downside is the head of the police who wants to arrest anyone that moves. No evidence. No logic. There is a ridiculous scene where a circus acrobat tries to recreate a possible method for the murder of a woman. When he fails, the cop still ignores his eyes and won't release the young man. This is really shot will with vibrant color and and almost expressionistic outside set.

1954's "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" was an attempt by Warners to duplicate the success of Vincent Price's "House of Wax," both in color and 3-D, but in adapting Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (shooting title "The Phantom Ape") they went in a much different direction than Universal's 1932 Bela Lugosi vehicle, where he was the obvious focus. Despite top billing as the villain, Karl Malden takes a back seat to the dull police procedural led by Claude Dauphin, an investigation so tedious that they repeatedly bark up the wrong tree until the final reel reveal (RKO's "Gorilla at Large" is a much more interesting view with a better cast). Steve Forrest's Paul Dupin studies the evidence in a series of brutal slayings of young girls, concludes that an ape is responsible, and reasons that a human agent is involved due to a clever frameup involving bracelets with tiny tinkling bells. Malden's zoologist Dr. Marais is only too happy to see Dupin take the blame for his crimes, having set his sights on Dupin's lovely fiancee Jeanette (Patricia Medina). Suspects like Paul Richards ("Beneath the Planet of the Apes") or Merv Griffin (!) are trotted on, only to vanish once proven innocent, with only Anthony Caruso's one eyed Jacques a standout if only because he has no competition. Only during the final third do we see the extent of Marais' madness, with at least a decent looking gorilla costume worn by Charles Gemora, repeating the same furry role from 1932 (almost as effective as Paramount's "The Monster and the Girl"). Due to the extreme brevity of Poe's short story, virtually every movie version must necessarily be done from scratch, but due to a weak script and aggressive police tactics to force a phony confession from Dupin this item must be regarded as a bitter disappointment (yet not so bad as Gordon Hessler's 1971 adaptation, Jason Robards deputizing for Vincent Price).

As a series of strange murders plague a small area of Paris, the lack of clues force the police to team up with the prime suspect in the case to find the maniac responsible when he claims a friend's trained killer gorilla is responsible and targeting his fiancée.

This was a fairly impressive and fun effort that has a lot going for it. One of the better elements here is the fact that there's a large amount of attack scenes on the victims, which really drives this one nicely as these continuous sequences provide plenty of action, shocks as well as generating some sultry teases with the women being targeted being quite attractive overall. As the attacks are framed so the audience doesn't see the culprit, and the only times they are is when they're obscured or casting a shadow on the wall, it leaves a distinct impression, and the fun continues due to the investigation done to recreate the crime at the scene, and the evidence either way makes for some fun times overall. The fact that these investigations point to the main purpose of this one is a little troubling since they can drag on at times especially when they keep trying to pin it on the hero through flimsy circumstances that won't work in any real courtroom. The other real flaw is the romance angle that appears late in the film, which stops the film cold and comes out-of-nowhere to create a really confusing mess, though it does solve the film's murders quite nicely. Overall, this one was pretty enjoyable.

Today's Rating-PG: Violence.

The story is known to most, but the added plot points are mostly weak. The police inspector is unnecessarily played as an imbecile, and the 50s Hollywood obsession with dime store psychology is pretty funny, but it doesn't help the fear factor.

It's great seeing Anthony Caruso as the creepiest guy in the movie, about 12 years before his TOS performance as Bela Oxmyx.

A top notch horror thriller for it's time when it was released in the 1950s.....not a slasher film, those types of movies were not even considered during that time period....story concerns some very brutal murders of beautiful young women in and around some Paris France nightclubs in the very early 1900s....women are mutilated and the local gendarmes (police) are mystified....how could they be so badly beat up and decimated....the local police question everyone and the local inspector pays too much attention looking for suspects at the local college.....no clues are to be found.... finally after another gruesome murder a local student is implicated since he was near the area looking for the murderer himself...the local cops are very anxious to pin the murder on the student since they have no other suspects and the heat is on to find the killer (s). After some serious head scratching the student, Steve Forrest puts two and two together and figures that no man could be physically capable of crashing through glass ceilings and mutilating and stuffing corpses up a chimney and severing limbs....the evidence points to an animal such as a gorilla...naturally the local gendarmes do not believe it a first. After the gorilla escapes from his local pen at the zoo and murders again, police have to release Forrest from custody. Evidence points to the local zoo and its curator Professor Marais (Karl Malden) Police quickly rush to the zoo to find the ape carrying around another potential victim, the fiancé of Forrest. The cops kill the gorilla and in a somewhat funny scene the ape lands on Malden and gives him a Mike Tyson working over...ugh!! This film was released in 3D in 1954 during a period when Hollywood was trying to figure out how to keep its audiences away from television.....3D was a silly gimmick that gave a few thrills by wearing plastic glasses to enlarge and somewhat make more believable the image on the screen...it looked like the image was coming right at the viewer more explicitly than in regular format. All in all this is a good, decent horror thriller for it's time...the music composed by David Buttolph is pretty good and adds a touch to the mystery. The guy in the gorilla costume is very believable and you feel almost compassionate seeing the gorilla in his cage responding to affection from the fiancé of Forrest. Decent little thriller.

This was a good mystery, and I suppose by 50s standards, a good thriller. As a young man obsessed with horror films, I was bored throughout the first half of the movie. It takes a long time to build up the plot, like so many movies of the 50s and 60s, like Rosemary's Baby and Night of the Ghouls.

I will not spoil it, but lets just say its better than night of the ghouls. From a horror standpoint, it is weak. However, it is a nice mystery. Because it is a mystery, I can't go into too much detail without spoiling it. Trust me though, if you like mystery, you will like this. Do not do what I did and watch it while drunk, you will need to pay attention to this movie. If you're like me, and like to watch bad horror movies that actually look good while drunk, than stick to "The House that Screamed" I and II and "Witchhouse II."

I gave it 6 of 10. Only the last 20 minutes are enjoyable, but you have to watch the whole thing to understand it, and be sober (an attribute I don't like in movies.)

Surprisingly Bloody, this was made after House of Wax (1953), also in 3-D, was Such a Hit. This one Holds Up pretty Well with the Vincent Price Movie, although Karl Malden seems Out of Place.

The Attraction of this Film is the Gruesomeness of the Violence. There are some Attractive Indoor Scenes. But when the Movie Ventures Outdoors it is Stilted and Stage Bound.

There is some Tension as the Brutal Murders continue and when the Evil Doctor Locks the Heroine in the Barred Room (cage) it is quite Terrifying.

Overall, a Man in an Ape Suit is Rarely Effective, although done somewhat Believable Here. The Movie is just about as Good as one would expect Considering the Limitations of the 3-D Format and 1950's Sensibilities, in Fact, maybe a Bit Better.

The Downside is the Aggravating Police Department and there are a lot of Scenes where Folks just Stand around and Jabber.

If you read the Poe story that inspired this, there's not much suspense here. Roy Del Ruth's competent direction offers little help. Some beautiful actresses in Gay Paree are entertaining and some good actors who got very little screen time in the 1950s make sure this is not a complete waste. Karl Malden gets the mad scientist job and Patricia Medina is the main damsel in distress. Still, rather than spend another 83 minutes watching this show again, examining Emmanuel Fremiet's sculpture would be more fun.

In another adaptation of the legendary Edgar Allan Poe this picture has an usual storyline about several murders committed at Rue Morgue in a sinful Paris on 19th century, the outlier is who really is slaughtering those gorgeous women in so fierce way, also all victims wearing a bracelet with bells, it intrigues the Insp. Bonnard (Claude Dauphin) in charge of this odd case, soon Bonnard reaches in the neighbors of rue Morgue as the youngers students whom were found their photographs at victim's room, including the already engaged Prof. Paul Dupan (Steve Forrest) with the beautiful Jeanette (Patricia Medina), also has the bleak character of Zoo's director Dr. Marais (Karl Malden), however all clues points out to Prof. Dupan as real culprit of all murders implied by the hasty Insp. Bonnard.

Despite the lavish sets in every single sequences the picture didn't hold too much, nonetheless many colorful characters somehow save the movie due lack of veracity, as so many gorgeous girls as Veolla Von and Allyn Ann McLerie on outstanding spicy-hot sequences, portraying a bustling Paris at its period of time, further the ominous and bad manner character as Jacques One-Eye (Anthony Caruso), without forget smallest key roles as the uncredited actors Henry Kulky as Maurice the sailor, Henry Corden as Detective Mignaud, even the cogent extremely resemblance Sultan the Gorilla, altogether raise the offer to another path, painting in strong colors a flimsy plot.

Thanks for reading

Resume:

First watch: 1985 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.

One after another, attractive girls are savagely murdered and the police are baffled by the seemingly motiveless crimes. Set in turn-of-the-century Paris this version of Edgar Allen Poe 's classic story, Murders in the Rue Morgue, was originally filmed in 3D.

Karl Malden stars as Dr Marais, head of the Paris Zoo, in this colourful re-make of Edgar Allan Poe's classic story, which has some fine cinematography, the combination of the gaudy and a creepy atmosphere of rooftops. The murders are strikingly done, the victim hanging from a fireplace is quite jolting. It's a bit too leisurely in pace at times, but the aforementioned elements and fine acting compensates. Patricia Medina is beautiful as always. Any ape would go ga-ga over her.

This version of "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" is far superior to the earlier Bela Lugosi version in virtually every respect! Firstly, the music score by David Buttolph adds a sinister spine tingling note that heightens the element of fright. The cast members, all of them, led by Karl Malden and the underestimated Claude Dauphin as the Inspector, move the plot along and ably hold the audience's attention as the story unfolds. The mood, the period, the locale of turn-of-the-century Paris are all re-created very well by Director Roy Del Ruth. The garish hues of Warner Color, too, heighten the imagery. Having first seen this flick more than half a century ago as a young boy, I was terrified then. Given some of what makes it to the screen these days, "Phantom" is, indeed, quite tame by comparison! Nonetheless, it is a very entertaining horror flick of the period

A woman is screaming that a murder has occurred in the Rue Morgue. Paris police Insp. Bonnard leads the investigation. More women are killed. A strange figure is seen escaping along the rooftop. Prof. Paul Dupin volunteers to help. Dr. Marais (Karl Malden) is a suspect.

This is an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story. It's done in 3D in the way that things are sometimes thrown at the screen. I'm not familiar with this Poe story. It's more a suspense thriller than a horror story. It does turn a bit campy with the gorilla. It can't help be anything other than a man in a gorilla suit. Otherwise, it's a fun thriller that has many B-movie elements.

Like the previous film I watched, Gorilla at Large, this is a 1954 ape horror with a better than average cast originally presented in 3-D; and like Gorilla at Large, I think it really needs to be seen in 3-D, because without the extra dimension it is an unremarkable piece of nonsense.

Based on Poe's The Murders of the Rue Morgue, the film sees a series of brutal Parisian murders being investigated by the police. Chief suspect is Paul Dupin (Steve Forrest), but he maintains his innocence, suggesting that the culprit might be non-human -- an ape, perhaps. Dupin is, of course, on the money, the killer simian controlled by crazed psychologist Dr. Marais (Karl Malden).

This one suffers from too much talk and not enough gorilla action, although when we do get to see the killer ape, it's another case of it being played by a man in an unconvincing costume, which works for horror comedies, but not when it is played for genuine scares. The rooftop sets are fairly decent and there's a fun scene where a trapeze artist tries to show how the killer might have escaped, but overall this is quite the disappointment.