Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1971 American horror film directed by Gordon Hessler, starring Jason Robards, Christine Kaufmann, Herbert Lom, Lilli Palmer, and Adolfo Celi. It is a loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story of the same name, although makes several significant departures from the original story and incorporates aspects of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.
In 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.
Includes examples of:
- Best Served Cold: Morat waits 20 years before taking revenge on Cesar and his troupe: the spur being Cesar marrying Madeline.
- Buried Alive: Marot faked his suicide and used a deep breathing trick taught to him by Orsini to survive being buried.
- Blind Alley: 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, dropping a coin the cup of a blind beggar as he goes.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: The murderer wears a top hat, and opera cape and a flesh-coloured Phantom of the Opera mask.
- Conspicuously Public Assassination: Morat murders Orsini at the climax of Orsini's Buried Alive act, when he surrounded by a crowd of spectators, including Inspector Vidocq and several policemen.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: 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, 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.
- Ethereal White Dress: Madeline is always dressed in one in her recurring nightmares.
- Eyes Are Unbreakable: Morat's eyes are fine, despite his face all around them being destroyed by acid.
- Facial Horror: Marot's face was hideously disfigured by acid, and that is now how he murders all of his victims.
- Fake Action Prologue: Opens with a Killer Gorilla breaking loose, kidnapping Madeline, then being shot by the police and beheading a Mad Scientist before he dies. This is then revealed to the climax to Cesar's stage version of Murders in the Rue Morgue.
- Faking the Dead: Marot faked his suicide and used a deep breathing trick taught to him by Orsini to survive being Buried Alive.
- The Gay '90s: Set in the closing years of the 1890s.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: Features many scenes of men in evening wear and women in glorious La Belle Époque evening gowns.
- Harmful to Minors: After Cesar and Madeline are abducted, it is revealed that when she was a child, Madeline had seen her mother murdered by Cesar, but had completely blocked it from her mind; even to the extent of forgetting the home where she used to live.
- High-Class Call Girl: Genevre used to be an actress in Cesar's troupe, and is now an exclusive courtesan.
- Hollywood Acid: Marot's face was destroyed by acid in a Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon incident,and he later uses similar acid as his murder weapon.
- In Name Only: While the actual film obviously bears almost no resemblance to the source material, this actually doesn't stop there. Humorously enough, the In-Universe 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.
- Lingerie Scene: When Cesar visits High-Class Call Girl Genevre, she is dressed in sexy period lingerie, including a corset.
- Mugged for Disguise: 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.
- Newspaper-Thin Disguise: 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.
- Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon: 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.
- Of Corsets Sexy: Cesar visits one of his former actresses who is now a exclusive courtesan. She is dressed in a corset and stockings, and stays dressed that way for when her next client visits her.
- Off with His Head!: Marot murders Cesar by beheading with an axe.
- Pet the Dog: After escaping the angry mob, the murderer Marot drops a coin in the cup of a blind beggar he passes.
- Slashed Throat: Morat murders those he blames for his disfigurement but pouring Hollywood Acid 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.
- Sword Cane: 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.
- Theatre Phantom: During the climax, Marot is chasing Madeline around the theatre while wearing top hat, opera cape and mask, and swings from the rigging in a manner very reminiscent of the Phantom of the Opera.
- Vorpal Pillow: 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 deep breathing trick he had earlier used to fake his suicide.
