Murders in the Rue Morgue

Murders in the Rue Morgue
Warning - Contains a lot of pictures

Starring: Béla Lugosi, Sidney Fox
Director: Robert Florey

So now I've finally gotten around to another post and it's a Lugosi movie! When I first read a synopsis of this movie, I have to say that I was very confused by it. Although,I have to say the same about the other two Poe films Lugosi was in, they're certainly not simple stories. If you want a peek into my first response, take a look at this poster:

But, once I got past the enicial shock of Béla Lugosi's monobrow, it was a very good film and another after Dracula and Frankenstein(If I remember right) to use Swan Lake as an opening theme. Typical Universal cheapos.

The film's set in Paris in 1845 where there is some sort of carnival going on. Here we meet a pretty bog-standard couple, Camille L'Espanaye(Sidney Fox plays an original character here) and Pierre Dupin(Leon Ames- Credited as Leon Waycloff) and a few of their friends who are visiting the sideshows, along with a show owned by Dr. Mirakle(Béla Lugosi) where he is exhibiting Erik the 'talking' gorilla. (Any Phanatics reading this are permitted to cheer with me over a character being called Erik.) Both Mirakle and Erik are enchanted by Camille, who Mirakle plans to make Erik's mate. Why won't a normal gorilla do? Because Mirakle seems to be striving towards making themost human gorilla possible. What's not normal about that? Mirakle invites Camille to come and take a closer look at Erik who steals her bonnet. The ever brave and manly Pierre attempts to wrestle it back through the bars and is nearly strangled by the gorilla. After backing the gorilla of, Mirakle offers to replace the bonnet, but Camille refuses to give her address. Which seems silly, I mean who wouldn't give this smiling face their house number? After she has left, Mirakle sends one of his servants after her.

I'll take a little time out now to tell you what Mirakle is actually doing. For a Poe film, I think that this film actually stays quite close to the story, at least in the sense of Lugosi's character. Béla Lugosi, "Dracula" himself, as it says in the credits, which is a great bit of 'Gosi Glorification, is Dr. Mirakle who abducts young virgin women and injects them with ape blood in order to find a mate for Erik (Who looks suspiciously like a chimpanzee in some scenes). Lugosi is obviously playing his usual kind-hearted, shy, retiring-type character.

One of Mirakle's victims is found dead in the river (A homage to Poe's The Mystery of Mary Roget) and is taken to the police station after being fished out. Pierre, being a young medical student, attempts to examine her blood and discovers a foriegn substance which is also found in the blood of other victims.

Mirakle visits Camille and asks her to visit Erik again, but she refuses. Mirakle sends Erik after her to kidnap her. Pierre hears her screams, and tries to get into the locked room. When the police arrive, Erik has already gone and Pierre is arrested.

This scene is probably the most confusing I have ever seen. At this point one of three things could be happening:
1. A woman is being shoved up a chimney by a gorilla.
2. A woman is being beaten by a gorilla.
3. A woman is being raped by a gorilla.
When I watched, I got the third impression, as the the gorilla's chest is seen thrusting up and down, but afterwards, Camille's mother is found dead, inside the chimney, so I'll leave the choice up to the watcher.

From the fur left behind, Pierre points out that Erik must be involved. Pierre and the police present run to Mirakle's hideout, where Erik has turned on his master and strangles him. Grabbing Camille, Erik escapes with her and is chased along the rooftops of the dockside houses. Pierre confronts the ape and shoots him dead, saving his fiancee from the peril.

The end, like with most 20's 30's films seems to come so suddenly and is over very quickly, but this is proboably one of the better speedy endings I've seen, as it still manages to squeeze in an ounce of suspense in such a short amount of time.

This film has a great use of shadows, it's one of those films that wouldn't be as good in colour. That's what I love the most about these films.

And can some one tell me? Is that a gorilla in the carriage?

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Starring: Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes
Director: Alexander Hall

I was busy on Sims earlier on today when I caught site of the TV times, and what should be on BBC 2? Nothing but a Claude Rains film!

The title 'Here Comes Mr. Jordan' made me die, just a little, inside. Being used to titles like 'Dracula' and 'The Old Dark House' I knew this'd be a change from the norm for me which wasn't nessecarily a good thing, as, with the three Claude Rains films I already have under my belt, Casablanca, The Invisible Man and The Phantom of the Opera, as fantastic as they are, there's always a really, really, REALLY annoying woman; Ingrid Bergman, Una O'Conner and Susanna Foster's dialogue.

But onto the plot:
The story follows Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery), a boxer who, when on a joyride in an aeroplane decides it would be a good idea to play his saxophone. Now I’ve written some strange things in my time, but that is one of the weirdest. Anyway, distracted from the controls, Joe loses control of the plane and crashes.
His soul is taken from his body and “rescued” by 7013, an angel who is new on the job, who assumed that because of the crash, Pendleton couldn’t have survived which seems pretty likely to me as nosedives at blankity mph into the floor normally don't end too cheerfully, but I'm willing to roll with miricle circumstances. 7013 takes Joe to a plane, which I assume takes the dead to heaven, which is manned by Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains who looks quite out of place standing with two skyscrapers standing next to him). When checking the records, 7013 says that he isn’t due to die for another 50 years, which Mr. Jordan confirms. 7013 takes Joe back to Earth only to find Joe’s body has been moved, it’s not long before they discover Joe’s trainer, Max Corkle (James Gleason, a middle-aged looking bald bloke who doesn't look like he's boxed in his life) has had it cremated. Idiot. This could be a problem, having no body and all.
7013 quickly takes Joe back to the ever-helpful Mr. Jordan, who explains that Joe will have to take over a newly dead body. I wonder what the spirit's in heaven'll think about that? Pendleton insists that the person’ll have to be in good shape or “In the pink” as he says about 50 times during the whole movie “That is becoming a rather redundant colour, please don’t say it again,” Mr. Jordan tells him but he’s back saying it by the end of the movie, which really made me need to smack my head into something a few times. Honestly, if I ever hear an American say pink again, I'll explode. Another annoying thing is that Joe brought his saxophone to heaven with him; he may as well have brought a dying goat for the noise it makes.
Joe turns down quite a few candidates until Mr. Jordan takes him to visit Bruce Farnsworth, a wealthy, crooked bank-investor. If he had so much money, why didn't he change his name? Really, Farnsworth? Farnsworth’s wife, Julia (Rita Johnson) and his secretary, Tony Abbott (John Emery) have just drowned him in his bath. Joe’s not too keen on taking over such a different life with such a wife, but when he sees the two mocking Miss Logan (Evelyn Keyes in the proto-type cheesy, pretty girl role) the daughter of a financer, he changes his mind. Weed.
As Farnsworth, Joe sorts his life out and then sends for his manager, Corkle, who he convinces that he’s Joe by playing his dying goat saxophone. Corkle begins training Joe again, getting him ready for a fight against the boxer, Murdock, who Joe was originally set to fight. Mr. Jordan and 7013 appear again to warn Joe that he can’t keep Farnsworth’s body. He ignores them, but warns Miss Logan, who he’s fallen in love with incredibly quickly to look out for ‘his eyes’ in a fighter’s body. Turns out Joe is a melon-headed idiot, no surprise there, as he gets shot by his secretary soon after.
After a long period of searching for a new body, Mr. Jordan and Joe visit the Farnsworth house where the occupants are being questioned as to the whereabouts of Bruce who has “disappeared”, also known as being stuffed in a fridge. Corkle explains to the private investigator about Joe, Mr. Jordan and the body-swapping and, despite not being able to see, hear, touch etc. him, a little nudging from Joe, turns on the prize-fight between Murdock and Gilbert. During the fight, Murdock collapses without being touched, much to everyone’s shock. Mr. Jordan reveals to Joe that he’s just been shot for refusing to throw the fight. Quickly, Joe takes over his body and wins the fight with what looks like fists-of-fury. Back at the mansion, Corkle hears from the announcer that a saxophone has appeared at the side of the ring, evidently there wasn’t too much going on at the time, realizes that Joe’s found a new body and heads down to Murdock’s dressing room. There, Joe tells Corkle where Farnsworth’s body is hidden. Corkle tells the detective, who has Mrs. Farnsworth and the secretary arrested. As Murdock, Joe fires his old, crooked manager and hires Corkle, who, come to think of it, lso has a stupid name. Mr. Jordan tells to Joe that this is his destiny; he can be Murdoch and live his life. Healing the gunshot wound and at the same time removing Joe's memory of his past life, Mr. Jordan hangs around for a bit longer until Miss Logan arrives. She wanted to see Corkle, but runs into Murdock instead. The pair think they have met before. The two go off together, while Mr. Jordan smiles over another job well done and says "So Long, Champ”.

Evelyn Keyes who played Miss Logan's career lasted from 1938-1993. 55 years! All in all she lived a very fruitful 92 years, which isn't a bad life span, really.

In this very complicated storyline is a generally great film that’s very enjoyable. I don’t think I’d call it the best classic comedy, as I laughed more at Casablanca, but then again I do have a strange sense of humour. Though it takes a lot of death-defying liberties and generally has a mad beginning, it is a fantasy film I suppose and is definitely worth a watch, though I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it. All in all? I think I’d give it a 3 ½ out of 5.

Stupidity Time:

On a totally random note.

Created by Oatmeal

Phantom of the Opera (1925)

The Phantom of the Opera

An Original Release Poster

Starring: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry

Directed by: Rupert Julian

This is a silent movie, so whilst I was on my laptop, I unfortunatly missed several snippets of it, but I got the amjority of it, and let me tell you: PHAN-TASTIC! The ending was altered from the book to a cheesy chase scene which ruined the very bookurate film but was...alright as an ending. Though let this be a lesson to you; Chicago plebs from the mid-1920's do not good film critics make.

The front cover of the DVD I got as a suprise from the wonderful Amazon (no advertising intended) was not one of the two I'd come to recognise as the fully composed, meaning specially soundtracked, two. On the back, it gave a very brief idea of the film in two lines and then mentioned a few things on Chaney. But then, it comitted the worst crime possible for every Phanatic, such as myself; It mispelled Erik. No, it did not spell it Eric, it did not spell it Erique outside of the 1943 version, it, somehow (God only knows how), spelt it Erick.

So naturally my hopes weren't high.

I found the strange, crackly, badly sound-tracked version from Youtube and played that along with snippets, such as the opening credits and the ballet scene. Thank God, they were different, I was getting worried there. Speaking of opening scenes, I don't understand the scene straight after the credits, with the man with the lantern. He just wanders aimlessly for ten minutes before, I presume, getting punjabbed by our dear Erik. But I'm getting side tracked.

The DVD turned out to be the European composed version by Gabriel Fibber...gibber...kskfnaksnf...biscuitbarrel...or however you say it, as, much to my dismay, Erik end Christine descending into the lair was accompanied by a slow, mournful: DEEEEEEER DEEEEEER DDDEEEEEDEEEEE! DEEEEER DEEEEER DEEEDEEEE! Over and over and over and over andover again. And worse yet, it featured more than once!


This version is fantastic for more reasons than the superb acting of Lon Chaney Sr. The dialogue really gets through emotion, even just by itself, the costumes and set are both fantastic, absolutly astounding, in fact. And the main cast that wasn't already famous, would go onto be.

As far as I know, Mary Philbin was relativly unknown when she did Phantom, though I can't back this up with anything more than the people on Youtube, so I'm probably completly wrong, But I am sure that she went on to do The Man Who Laughs, a fantatsic film with the amazing Conrad Veidt, which is probably my favourite silent film out of the ones I've seen so far.


So that concludes my first blog review. Reading back throuh it, I notice that I spent more words explaining the story behind my version than the actual film. I'm sorry for that, but I really haven't got the strength to change it now. It's been a reaaaallly loooong daaaaay.