Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954)

Instant Favorite.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allen Poe is considered to be one of the first detective stories. While it's been made and remade several times for the big screen, I've yet to see a version that sticks very closely to the original. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the Poe story lacks the excitement of many of the films and the story is a bit brief. So, I can cut the makers of "Phantom of the Rue Morgue" some slack for taking some rather large liberties with the story. And overall, it's a decent film.Before I talk about the plot and my feelings, I should point out that this film must have either been 3-D originally or they planned on releasing that way in theaters. This is because again and again, the camera points directly at things as they are tossed at the camera---cheap 3-D tricks which were common in these films. It is also a color film...a bit unusual for 50s movies but not for 3-D pictures.As for the story, several women have been horribly murdered-- mutilated by a killer with immense strength and acrobatic abilities. The Inspector is a total idiot and comes up with a theory and then attempts to make the facts fit it--a common theme in B-mystery movies. The unlucky guy who gets arrested for the crimes (Steve Forrest) obviously didn't commit the murders and couldn't have if he'd wanted to do so. The only logical solution to the problem is an ape. Oddly, while it's an orangutan in the Poe story, here it's a gorilla and I assume it's simply because they had a gorilla suit handy! The mystery isn't just the ape, however, it's also who is behind all this and why--elements that simply weren't in the original tale....but were entertaining nevertheless.Not a brilliant horror/mystery film but an enjoyable time passer. It's also fun just to watch it and count the cheap 3-D moments where things are aimed at the audience...making this an excellent movie to be used as a drinking game with friends.By the way, it doesn't harm the film in any way, but Karl Malden's character was described throughout the film as a psychologist. At this point in history, they were not called that nor were folks doing conditioning experiments like you see in the film. No biggie, however.

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.

The Warner Bros. production of Phantom Of The Rue Morgue is somewhat based on Edgar Allen Poe's Murders In The Rue Morgue. This colorful, 1954 feature was released to theaters in 3-D during the popularity of the 3-D trend. Many changes and additions were made to Poe's story, but the main part of the story - a murderous simian (in this film a gorilla) - remains the same. Possible SPOILERS: Steve Forrest plays a man wrongly accused of murders in turn-of-the-century Paris, and desperately tries to prove his innocence. In the meantime, Karl Malden plays a man who has sent a gorilla to kill all the women who have rejected him. It so happens the girlfriend of the wrongly accused (Patricia Medina) ends up prisoner to Malden, and next victim of the gorilla. I found the film to be ludicrous with most of its plot, and aggravating with many of its characters (the police inspector tops my list.) The film is overloaded with stiff and stilted performances by all actors involved; including it main stars. Overall I found Phantom Of The Rue Morgue to be a stilted production.

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.