Phantom of Rue Morgue

Phantom of the Rue Morgue is another Warner Brothers attempt at the horror genre, made in the wake of the 3-D craze and of Price's WB contributions. Only this is not in 3-D, it stars Karl Malden in the Price role, and it fails to achieve any real thrills.

Malden is not bad, he's just... Karl Malden. He plays a kindly researcher in Paris working in a kind of Pavlovian hypnosis. But he's really not all that kindly, as we learn, and goes around using an ape to murder all the women he feels have done him wrong. Some pretty boy from central casting plays the hero, but the actor is uninvolving, and the hero is only sometimes meaningfully involved in the story.

About the story: it is of course, nominally based on Poe. But that aspect seems clumsily inserted; the "locked-room" aspect is solved in about 15 seconds. We are left with a plot seemingly divided into sections; itï¿s not even episodic, just fitful and piecemeal. Sometimes this works, even surprises, as we are introduced to two people at some length, only to have them become victims. Other times it doesn't work, as during a technically necessary but less than gripping tangent with circus acrobats.

There is quite a bit of the red stuff for 1954, the ape is more convincing than some youï¿ll see, the method to control him is cool, and the actual scenes of attacks are fine, but most of the "good stuff" takes a while to occur. The director, Roy Del Ruth, did much better, and faster, especially in other genres. (Three on a Match, for example.)

PRM does build to a nice climax in a zoo, which in its much smaller way "apes" the ending of King Kong, although the whole affair is too obviously studio-bound. This movie possesses a relatively literate, even slightly subversive (in Malden's eloquently psychotic dismissal of traditional right and wrong) script, but who watches horror films for talk? We want some mayhem! And unfortunately, there is just not enough of it to make this anything more than an mediocre chiller from the era. Fans of horror with more of a mystery angle (are there really any of those?) may rate it higher.

The Lugosi version of this story, despite its own problems, is far creepier and atmospheric. Being made before the Hays Production Code took effect helped in that case.

By the way, thereï¿s no "Phantom," and no one is ever called that name. But it must have looked very promising on the marquee.