“Murders In The Rue Morgue” is overlooked Universal horror movie from the early 1930s. It stars Béla Lugosi, who had just done the excellent “Dracula” the year before. “Murders In The Rue Morgue” is based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe, who was also the inspiration for other Universal horror movies such as “The Raven”.

Set in 19th century Paris, Dr. Mirakle (Lugosi) is runs an exhibition at a carnival. There he shows the world his prized ape. However, Mirakle is an insane scientist that wants to mingle human blood with that of an ape and will kidnap young women for his sick experiments. Now, he is out to kidnap the lovely Camille (Sidney Fox “Midnight”).

Lugosi is great as always. Whether it’s here, “Dracula”, “The Raven” or “White Zombie”, he’s just splendid in a villainous role. The other characters are okay but not too memorable. In all fairness, the mad scientist in the old Universal horror films is usually the most captivating. I mean, just look at “The Invisible Man”. Sometimes, the ape is a real ape yet in many shots, it’s clearly a man in a suit. The two look nothing alike so it can be unintentionally funny to see the film cut between the two.

“Murders In The Rue Morgue” may not be one of the absolute best Universal horror movies but I enjoyed this one a lot. It’s got a very interesting visual style that reminded me a lot of the German horror film “The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari”. The two films also share some plot elements. If you are a fan of Lugosi and have not seen this one, it’s definitely worth checking out. If you like killer ape movies, this is also good and it’s infinitely better than the infamous “Béla Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla”. That being said, just don’t expect anything on par with “King Kong”.