This modest but solid mid-80s TV thriller/horror is the third film version based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story with the same bone-chilling title, but they are all very different. The oldest one, released in 1932, is a delightful contemporary Mad-Scientist movie starring Bela Lugosi. The 1971 version, featuring names like Jason Robards and Herbert Lom, is also typical for its period of release, as it's a slasher set in a flamboyant Grand-Guignol theater. This version, starring the legendary George C. Scott and upcoming young talent Val Kilmer, is perhaps the least spectacular one of the bunch, but it is the adaptation that remains the most faithful to Poe's tale.
Poe's fictional character August Dupin, elegantly depicted by Scott, was actually the first super-intelligent detective. If, during "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", the character of Dupin reminds you of immortal sleuths like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, do realize they were invented by their respective authors much later. At the beginning of the story, Dupin is embittered because he got forced to retire by the obnoxious Prefect of Police. Even a visit from his acolyte Philippe or the engagement of his beautiful daughter Claire can't cheer him up. When the whole of Paris is struck by fear and panic due to the indescribably gruesome murders of two women inside their house, Dupin finally considers focusing on something else than his chess board. Claire's fiancé is the police's only suspect, but Dupin quickly deducts the truth behind the murders is far more unusual.
If you read Poe's tale or seen the previous versions, the climax of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" doesn't come as a surprise, of course, but the film nevertheless remains compelling thanks to the performances and the marvelous decors & scenery. Jeannot Szwarc, a more than competent genre director (and, moreover, French) clearly wanted the recreation of Paris at the turn of the century to be very detailed and accurate. Unfortunately, the pivotal murders occur off-screen. Probably because it's a TV-film production and/or because they are described in Poe's wicked imagination as ultimately savage. Poor us, horror fanatics, we don't get to see anything. Not even any short clips of the ripped apart corpses upon their discovery.
