Leofwine_draca A middling adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue, this is no better nor worse than a hundred other old-fashioned horror films. In the typical crime thriller mould of American cinema in the '40s and '50s, the plot has a police force investigating various brutal murders. The police in this film appear even dumber than many of their contemporaries, using various haphazard contrivances to question and nearly arrest a number of innocent people. After noticing that the killer may have escaped by swinging from various flagpoles, they immediately visit a travelling circus and question the trapeze artists there. In other instances, they visit people living close to the crime scene - it's obvious that they don't have a clue what they're doing. When the actual killer falls into their hands in the final reel, they still don't believe in him, instead preferring to make up a confession and nearly hang some poor chap who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! What spoiled this film for me was the fact that I'd already read Poe's short story - so I knew the identity of the killer all along, of course. For those who don't know, the killer is an ape - trained by (in this case) a hypnotist to attack and kill various women. What made this film interesting is the psychology used - like Pavlov and his dogs, the killer trains the ape to kill when it hears the tinkle of a bracelet - a bracelet worn by the intended victims. Other than this clever spin, it's a well-worn story with a nicely-choreographed ending which seems to have come straight from KING KONG. The ape decides not to kill the screaming heroine, and instead climbs up a tall building with her. There's no particular reason for this apart from the sheer spectacle of having a woman in peril and giving the police ample opportunity to gun the ape down and kill it (they also slaughter an escaped lion, obviously there was no animal protection in these days!).The film lacks having a big-name "star" to add glamour to the proceedings - in the '30s version they had a sinister-looking Bela Lugosi, while in the '80s television movie veteran George C Scott played the detective Dupin. Karl Malden is the killer here, and to be honest he's not much cop - neither menacing nor convincing in his role, more laughable really. The monkey suit is also pretty fake-looking. The film does benefit from some surprisingly nasty murder scenes (in one, a man is violently thrown out of a window and down a flight of steps), giving us glimpses of bloody legs which make us imagine a lot worse. Although there is little atmosphere or suspense built up, PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE does have that colourful look about it, all full of vivid (sometimes garish) yellows and reds, much like in HOUSE OF WAX from the same period. They also manage to thrown in a few can-can dancers and a sinister eye-patched foreigner for good measure.While not a particularly bad film by any means, there are just no original distinguishing features which would really make this movie stand out from the crowd or become a minor classic. It simply goes through the well-trodden motions and lacks a vital spark or pace to it. And, to tell the truth, there were so many ape movies made beforehand (THE APE MAN, THE GORILLA, etc.) that this has an air of familiarity about it which destroys a lot of the fun. Check it out for the colourful photography and grandiose look, but you'll realise why this has been all but forgotten in the annals of horror.

howardmorley Being an amateur artist I paid particular to the voluptuous actress Veola Vonn as (Arlette)who is posing and playing an artist's model.In the unfinished painting (where work has stopped because the light has gone), the artist has already painted a blue sheet covering her on the bed but Arlette is holding up a green sheet to her body.Also freeze framing the scene where she impulsively gets up from the bed in an attempt to slash the unfinished work, clearly shows she is wearing panties even though she is playing a nude model.Of course censorship took its' toll in 1954.My DVD came with the option of French sub-titles or just English dialogue but I would have appreciated French dialogue dubbed on the soundtrack.For example I like to put on Italian dialogue for my DVD of "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" for the Jennifer Jones/William Holden classic from 1955 as Jennifer sounds really sexy with her voice dubbed in this language.The above user comments do not register when you input "La Phantome de la Rue Morgue" into the search box on IMDb.com only the English title which I found surprising as this is how my copy was sold to me.There are some entertaining scenes so I awarded this film 6/10.

GL84 As a series of strange murders plague a small area of Paris, the lack of clues force the police to team up with the prime suspect in the case to find the maniac responsible when he claims a friend's trained killer gorilla is responsible and targeting his fiancée.This was a fairly impressive and fun effort that has a lot going for it. One of the better elements here is the fact that there's a large amount of attack scenes on the victims, which really drives this one nicely as these continuous sequences provide plenty of action, shocks as well as generating some sultry teases with the women being targeted being quite attractive overall. As the attacks are framed so the audience doesn't see the culprit, and the only times they are is when they're obscured or casting a shadow on the wall, it leaves a distinct impression, and the fun continues due to the investigation done to recreate the crime at the scene, and the evidence either way makes for some fun times overall. The fact that these investigations point to the main purpose of this one is a little troubling since they can drag on at times especially when they keep trying to pin it on the hero through flimsy circumstances that won't work in any real courtroom. The other real flaw is the romance angle that appears late in the film, which stops the film cold and comes out-of-nowhere to create a really confusing mess, though it does solve the film's murders quite nicely. Overall, this one was pretty enjoyable.Today's Rating-PG: Violence.

thewag777 This was a good mystery, and I suppose by 50s standards, a good thriller. As a young man obsessed with horror films, I was bored throughout the first half of the movie. It takes a long time to build up the plot, like so many movies of the 50s and 60s, like Rosemary's Baby and Night of the Ghouls.I will not spoil it, but lets just say its better than night of the ghouls. From a horror standpoint, it is weak. However, it is a nice mystery. Because it is a mystery, I can't go into too much detail without spoiling it. Trust me though, if you like mystery, you will like this. Do not do what I did and watch it while drunk, you will need to pay attention to this movie. If you're like me, and like to watch bad horror movies that actually look good while drunk, than stick to "The House that Screamed" I and II and "Witchhouse II."I gave it 6 of 10. Only the last 20 minutes are enjoyable, but you have to watch the whole thing to understand it, and be sober (an attribute I don't like in movies.)