The Murders in the Rue Morgue

George C. Scott, Val Kilmer and Rebecca De Mornay in the Victorian Era

In Paris, a recently-retired detective (Scott) is encouraged by his daughter (De Mornay) to investigate a shocking double murder in order to save her fiancé. Kilmer plays his associate godson while Ian McShane is on hand as the Prefect.

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1986) is a fairly faithful adoption of Edgar Allan Poe’s tale, published in 1841. This is in contrast to the 1971 film of the same name (with Jason Robards and Herbert Lom), which totally deviated from the original yarn and is more akin to “The Phantom of the Opera.” Here, scriptwriter David Epstein wisely augmented Poe’s story to spice it up a little and make it worthy of a feature length movie, albeit a TV production. (Poe's tale is only about 38 pages in modern form).

It's Victorian mystery/horror in the manner of Hammer's "The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll" (1960) and Klaus Kinski’s "Jack the Ripper" (1976), as well as later films like "Edge of Sanity" (1989) and “From Hell” (2001). It lacks the colorful sensationalistic elements of those movies and focuses on the murder mystery but, remember, Poe’s tale is famous for being the first fictional detective story and obviously influenced Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, amongst others.

I first became aware of “Murders in the Rue Morgue” as a teen due to Iron Maiden’s song on their (best) album KILLERS, but never read Poe’s yarn and so wasn’t familiar with the creative revelation of who the murderer is. As such, this kept my interest. No, it’s not as colorfully entertaining as most of those other movies noted, but you can’t beat the authentic French locales and the great cast. The special effects for the ending are surprisingly convincing and hold up.

The movie runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in the Paris area, including Notre Dame Cathedral, the Place de l'Opéra and in Buttes-Chaumont, the latter standing-in for the Bois de Boulogne. Almost a third of it was filmed away from the city, such as the prison sequences, which were done in Corbeil, Marne, which is in the country 115 miles east of the city.

GRADE: B-