Set in Paris during the late 19th century, “Murders in the Rue Morgue” is the tale of a series of unsolved crimes, where women are abducted and murdered by an unknown circumstance. While this adaptation from Universal wasn’t as successful as their previous horror entries Dracula or Frankenstein, it seems that today it finally gained the appreciation it deserved.

We’ve seen Lugosi being involved in different ape-themed movie titles during his career, but this one definitely gives the goosebumps, being the gamechanger for both Lugosi and Universal pictures. You can’t help but notice the popular wave and fascination for gorillas, vampires and creatures that are a product of some mad scientist lab experiment. Decades later, the creative industry still explores questions related to Darwinism and forces of nature. Even the casino gaming industry took the advantage and released many adventuristic, ape themed online games like this Gorilla Gold Megaways slot game. One thing is certain – the subject may be controversial, but it sure keeps the audience interested and triggered about what will come next.

The Poe story was both adapted and directed for the screen by Robert Florey together with the cinematographer Karl Freund who gave the visual appeal.  The origin of this movie is deeply connected with the making of abovementioned classic Frankenstein, starring with the horror icon phenomena of that time, Bela Lugosi. However, people at Universal changed their plans and assigned the film to British Director James Whale, who replaced Lugosi with Boris Karloff, another famous actor in the horror genre. Owning a film to both Florey and Lugosi, Universal decided to go with a project based on the famous novel by Edgar Allan Poe.

“Murders in the Rue Morgue” is not exactly an authentic adaptation of Poe’s story as the script focuses more on the reasons behind the murders rather than the investigation itself. Because of this reason, Dr Mirakle (Lugosi) is in the spotlight, while Poe’s main character Dupin has been transformed from a detective to a young student of medicine. With this change, writers allowed themselves to completely focus on the horror side of the story and deliver one of the darkest and most violent releases among Universal’s classic horrors. However, as many critics pointed out in few occasions, this is not a tribute to Poe’s tale, but more of an experimental project celebrating the style called German expressionism, best known for its triumph title Das Cabinet Des Dr Caligari.

Dr Mirakle who is played by Lugosi works in a carnival sideshow in Paris around 1845. In his act, he displays his man-like ape pet Erik while searching for a female to mate with him.  One night, a pretty young woman named Camille (Sidney Fox) and her partner Pierre Dupin (Leon Ames) visit the show and take a good look at the man-like ape performance. The ape takes Camille’s bonnet in a brief moment of time and from then on becomes obsessed with her. “You have made a conquest, mademoiselle” – adds Dr Mirakle, who interrupted the duel between Erik and Dupin.

Meanwhile, we learn that Mirakle has been searching for the right blood match for his pet Erik. In the plot, we discover that two women have been already murdered. Their mysterious death and reason behind it are inspected by the young medical student Dupin, who becomes directly involved in the process of finding and revealing the culprit. Somewhere between the moments where Mirakle tries to win over Camille for Erik and hopefully pair them, and his dark shivering appearance, he finds his next victim on the streets - the helpless Arlene. What you’ll witness next are probably the bravest and bold footages for that time, having Lugosi at the highest point of his role, mixing evil, horror, ruthlessness and shock all in one.

While Florey doesn’t seem to direct his actors through the visuals, Bela Lugosi shows off his talent in a remarkable performance that’s one of the best throughout his career. The main reasons why this movie didn’t deliver so well in those days was probably because of the fact that the audience wasn’t ready for the dark nature of the plot and violence displayed on the screen. There are rumours that Universal removed almost 20 minutes of the original cut, taking away scenes that were supposedly too violent to be released.