The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Director: PHIL ROSEN. Screenplay: Michael Jacoby. Based on the 1842 short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Photography: Woody Bredell. Film editor: Milton Carruth. Art director: Jack Otterson. Costume supervisor: Vera West. Set decorator: Russell A. Gausman. Music composed and directed by Hans J. Salter. Song, "Mama Dites Moi" (Montez dubbed by Dorothy Triden), by Everett Carter and Milton Rosen. Sound recording: Robert Pritchard. Associate producer: Paul Malvern.Copyright 24 February 1942 by Universal Pictures Company, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 4 May 1942. Australian release: 28 May 1942. 7 reels. 5,502 feet. 61 minutes. Alternative title: PHANTOM OF PARIS.SYNOPSIS: Medical examiner, Paul Dupin, tries to discover why a famous actress disappears from home.COMMENT: Beautiful photography and strikingly imaginative compositions are here undermined by banal dialogue and some equally atrocious "acting" - particularly by Lloyd Corrigan whose bumbling police chief has as much right in Montmartre as a barge-load of coal in a typewriter.OTHER VIEWS: Rosen's direction was more intent on period atmosphere than drama. The film lacked excitement and suspense. - Robert C. Roman in Films In Review.

Enjoyable Universal mystery about the murder of a not-so-nice but beautiful young woman with her fair share of male suitors. Based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, which itself was based on the real-life case of the Cigar Girl Murder that was big news in Poe's time. Starring a fine cast including many Universal contract players. The lineup includes Patric Knowles, Maria Montez, Maria Ouspenskaya, John Litel, Nell O'Day, Edward Norris, and Lloyd Corrigan. Montez plays the title character and brings her usual sex appeal. She also gets to lip sync a French tune. Knowles, one of Hollywood's great also-rans, is good as Dupin, the forensic detective. Corrigan is fun as the comic relief sidekick. It's a good B movie with a decent murder mystery. Not among the best of Universal's horror/mystery films of the 1940s but a good time-passer nonetheless.

Certainly, the nasty Marie Roget deserved to pay for her sins. Determined to kill her step-sister, she creates a nefarious scheme to fulfill her goals. Having already defied death once, she presumably ends up a corpse again, and a diary left behind gives evidence to who may have knocked her off for real. Any number of suspects could be the killer including her accomplice or even her wealthy grandmother. Or perhaps even the good step-sister.Rising star Maria Montez had not yet hit cult status when she was given top billing but basically a supporting role in this version of the Edgar Allan Poe short story that even makes reference to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" which Universal had made just a decade before. Montez isn't a great actress by any means, but she's perfectly haughty and sneers convincingly. Maria Ouspenskaya hams it up as the matronly grandmother ordering everyone around. Patric Knowles leads the case while Nell O'Day is appropriately fragile. The best performance is Lloyd Corrigan's who plays a befuddled detective who is actually smarter than he seems to be. Some genuine thrills, a fine atmospheric structure and just a hint of Gothic horror makes this a must even though some details added to the plot seem unnecessary.

1942's "Mystery of Marie Roget" was not only Poe's sequel to "Murders in the Rue Morgue," but also Universal's. Leon Ames' Pierre Dupin, medical student, is now Dr. Paul Dupin, a rare leading role for the likable Patric Knowles, fresh from "The Wolf Man," the story set in 1889 Paris (1932's "Rue Morgue" was set in 1845 Paris). The nominal star, Maria Montez, on the cusp of stardom, doesn't have much of a showcase as the scheming, one-dimensional Marie Roget, who wants her younger sister Camille (Nell O'Day) dead before her 21st birthday. Missing for 10 days and presumed dead by the authorities, Marie doesn't exactly endear herself to anyone after she suddenly turns up, unwilling to divulge where she'd been; is it any surprise that she winds up murdered instead of Camille? Also from "The Wolf Man," Maria Ouspenskaya again proves a scene stealer, barking demands with a slinky leopard by her side. The low key Knowles makes a rather unorthodox detective, using forensics and grave robbing to find the proper solution (a shame there are too few suspects). The excellent supporting cast also includes John Litel, Lloyd Corrigan, Charles Middleton, Reed Hadley, and Frank Reicher. Curiously, although part of television's SHOCK! package, "Mystery of Marie Roget" never aired on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, but did appear on channel 11 annually during the 1980s, after CT had come to an end by Jan 1 1984.