Line #35 Film/MurdersInTheRueMorgue1971


1	[[quoteright:688:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rue_morgue.jpg]]
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3	''Murders in the Rue Morgue'' is a 1971 American horror film directed by Gordon Hessler, starring Creator/JasonRobards, Christine Kaufmann, Creator/HerbertLom, Lilli Palmer, and Creator/AdolfoCeli. It is a loose adaptation of Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's 1841 [[Literature/CAugusteDupin short story of the same name]], although makes several significant departures from the original story and incorporates aspects of Gaston Leroux's ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''.
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5	In late 19th-century Paris, theater impresario Cesar Charron (Robards) is staging a gruesome theatrical version of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". His wife Madeleine (Kaufmann) is playing the female lead and suffering from horrible nightmares. These nightmares prove to be an ominous prediction of the future when members of the cast start turning up dead, and Inspector Vidocq of the Sûreté investigates. Cesar suspects that the murders are the work of his former partner, René Marot (Lom). But Marot murdered Madeleine's mother many years ago and committed suicide immediately after.
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7	!!Includes examples of:
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9	* BestServedCold: Morat waits 12 years before taking revenge on Cesar and his troupe: the spur being Cesar marrying Madeline.
10	* BuriedAlive: Marot [[FakingTheDead faked his suicide]] and used a deep breathing trick taught to him by Orsini to survive being buried.
11	* BlindAlley: After Marot murders Erik at the theatre, he is pursued by an angry mob. He escapes them by stepping into a narrow alley. After the mob runs past, he steps out and goes on his way, [[PetTheDog dropping a coin the cup of a blind beggar]] as he goes.
12	* CoatHatMask: The murderer wears a top hat, and opera cape and a flesh-coloured Phantom of the Opera mask.
13	* ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination: Marot murders Orsini at the climax of Orsini's BuriedAlive act, when he surrounded by a crowd of spectators, including Inspector Vidocq and several policemen.
14	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In Madeline's recurring nightmares, the man with the axe keeps cutting through one of the ropes in the theatre, causing a rope to drop from the rigging. During the climax, [[spoiler:Marot is using one of the ropes to descend from the rigging towards her on the stage. Seeing the axe on stage, Madeline realises that the dream has been telling her how to defeat Marot. She grabs the axe, cuts through the rope and Marot plunges to his death]].
15	* EtherealWhiteDress: Madeline is always dressed in one in her recurring nightmares.
16	* EyesAreUnbreakable: Morat's eyes are fine, despite his face all around them being destroyed by acid.
17	* FacialHorror: Marot's face was hideously disfigured by acid, and that is now how he murders all of his victims.
18	* FakeActionPrologue: Opens with a KillerGorilla breaking loose, kidnapping Madeline, then being shot by the police and beheading a MadScientist before he dies. This is then revealed to the climax to Cesar's stage version of ''Murders in the Rue Morgue''.
19	* FakingTheDead: Marot faked his suicide and used a deep breathing trick taught to him by Orsini to survive being BuriedAlive.
20	* TheGay90s: Set in the closing years of the 1890s.
21	* GorgeousPeriodDress: Features many scenes of men in evening wear and women in glorious La Belle Époque evening gowns.
22	* HarmfulToMinors: After Cesar and Madeline are abducted, it is revealed that when she was a child, Madeline had seen her mother murdered [[spoiler:by Cesar]], but had completely blocked it from her mind; even to the extent of forgetting the home where she used to live.
23	* HighClassCallGirl: Genevre used to be an actress in Cesar's troupe, and is now an exclusive courtesan.
24	* HollywoodAcid: Marot's [[FacialHorror face was destroyed]] by acid in a NotSoFakePropWeapon incident,and he later uses similar acid as his murder weapon.
25	* TheIgor: In the InUniverse ''Murders in the Rue Morgue'' play, the major antagonist, played by Cesar, has a hunchbacked henchman called Varga, who kidnaps the female protagonist, played by Madeline.
26	* InNameOnly: While the actual film obviously bears almost no resemblance to the source material, this actually doesn't stop there. Humorously enough, the InUniverse stage adaptation doesn't have much to do with the original short either, sporting an entirely new human killer who acts as an abusive owner of the killer primate. It's not even the same primate, being a traditional gorilla, instead of an orangutan like in the book.
27	* LingerieScene: When Cesar visits HighClassCallGirl Genevre, she is dressed in sexy period lingerie, including a [[OfCorsetsSexy corset]].
28	* MuggedForDisguise: In the opening scenes, Marot murders Eric--the actor playing the ape in the play--steals his costume and takes his place in the play.
29	* NewspaperThinDisguise: Marot does not even bother pretending to read the newspaper, but just holds it up to the side of his face when he sneaks into the theatre. Nobody notices anything.
30	* NotSoFakePropWeapon: Marot is scarred when the fake acid in a prop bottle on the stage was replaced with real acid, and Madeline's mother tossed it into his face during a performance.
31	* OfCorsetsSexy: Cesar visits one of his former actresses who is now a [[HighClassCallGirl exclusive courtesan]]. She is dressed in a corset and stockings, and stays dressed that way for when her next client visits her.
32	* OffWithHisHead: Marot murders [[spoiler:Cesar]] by beheading with an axe.
33	* PetTheDog: After escaping the angry mob, the murderer Marot drops a coin in the cup of a blind beggar he passes.
34	* ShoutOut: There are a quite a few visual and plot-related references to Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and themes they explored. These include the BuriedAlive plotline, strange dreams, a MasqueradeBall, a vengeful dwarf, elaborate and gruesome revenge, dilapidated family mansion.
35	* SlashedThroat: Marot murders those he blames for his disfigurement but pouring HollywoodAcid on their faces. The others he kills, who are merely in his way--like Vidocq's detective at the carousel and Jean who is guarding Madeline's door--he kills by slashing their throat.
36	* SwordCane: Pierre Triboulet, the dwarf who is assisting Marot, carries one. Unfortunately for him, he is not very adept at using it and, when he attacks Cesar, Cesar takes it off him and stabs him with it.
37	* TheatrePhantom: Marot is a talented disfigured artist, who wears [[CoatHatMask top hat, opera cape and a mask]] to disguise his scarred face, swings from the rigging, stalks a theatre building and is in love with the leading lady. The fact he’s played by HerbertLom, who played the Phantom in 1962 Hammer studio adaptation, certainly doesn’t harm.
38	* WifeHusbandry: It is all but directly stated that Cesar raised Madeline after secretly murdering her mother, only to marry her eventually. The fact Madeline is suggested to be around 19 years old during the movie’s major events doesn’t help the case.
39	* VorpalPillow: Cesar and Madeline smother Marot with a pillow and hide his body in his sarcophagus in the crypt. However, Marot survives by the using the [[ChekhovsSkill deep breathing trick]] he had earlier used to [[FakingTheDead fake his suicide]].

Context Film / MurdersInTheRueMorgue1971