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Cry of the Banshee / Murders in the Rue Morgue Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 8 Reviews)

A new definiton of horror
Two wretched `horror' movies from director Gordon Hessler. Unfortunately, Hessler appears in a pair of short intro-interviews preceding each movie, and he seems like a nice elderly gentleman with a sincere love of movies. Mentions Ninotchka and Casablanca in glowing terms. It's not fun to come down hard on a nice person, but these are really a pair of not-so-great movies.

CRY OF THE BANSHEE just manages an "It's alright" three stars. The always reliable Vincent Price stars as a nasty 18th century lord of a ribald court who spends his time branding witches - comely witches, if truth be told - with an H for heretic. Naturally, the comely suspected witches have to have their blouses ripped down the front for the branding. That is unless they're to be flogged. Then their blouses are ripped down the back. Lord Vincent, decked out like Henry VIII, is distantly opposed by Witch Oona, a mature nature child with a coven of comely witches and a basketful of dolls to stick pins into. The dolls look suspiciously like members of Lord Vincent's family, who begin to fall victim to this werewolf-like thing when the Man - Lord Vincent - starts making life tough for the hippies... er, witches. Price is restrained but, as usual, seems to be enjoying himself in the carpet-chewing scenes. The thrills, chills, and scares are undermined by a limp plot and a tightly focused, pastel hued look that subverts any attempt at eerie mystery. This silly, simple and harmless movie probably should have let Price cut loose, and added someone like a Marty Feldman for him to play off of.

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. I felt as embarrassed watching this thing as Jason Robards looks in the lead role of a theater director intimately linked to sudden spat of acid-in-the-face murders occurring in late-18th century Paris. Loud and bright (after this one I'm convinced you can't make a good horror movie using bright primary colors, and tone down the Sousa bands) MURDERS barely merits one stars. The `twist' in this is the premonitory visions experienced by Robards actress wife, played by German actress Christine Kaufmann. Herbert Lom plays the mask-wearing meanie causing all the problems. What a waste of talent! Kaufmann's premonition gimmick work alright, but so what? They don't push the plot ahead an inch, and they slowly reveal mysteries we've already figured out. Absolutely zero chills experienced at the end, although confusion abounds. Worse, and what caused me to rate this so low, was that this is an awful movie wasting the considerable talents of three major talents. Five, if you're a fan of Michael Dunn and Lilli Palmer. Robards was a strong actor who could deliver up to and above the level of the material. It's nice to note, after his career bottomed out to this depth in 1971, that Robards would later win two Academy award, for Julia and All the President's Men. Of course, that doesn't help this movie much; the suspense level is nil-minus-one, the plot is relatively confusing, and the look is too loud and too bright. Only recommended for those who are curious to seen their favs in an off-beat (for them) movie. Other than that no redeeming qualities whatsoever.


Fun sort of
The weird thing about this movie version of the classic story "Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe, is that it really isn't the story of Murders in the Rue Morgue at all. Actually, this movie is a weird version of Phantom of the Opera in which the show being performed and sabatoged - instead of an Opera - is a play of "Murders in the Rue Morgue"! All the classic Phantom elements are here. The former great performer who once had his face destroyed by acid is thought dead by everyone, but actually is alive, and lurks about the building wearing a mask, obsessing over the show's lead actress, and occasionally murdering other actors surrounding her. The only difference here is, when he wants to kill people, this film's Phantom dons the gorilla costume from the "Rue Morgue" play. In other words, he pretends to be the actor playing the part of the gorilla and kills people for real. So... all of the classic "Rue Morgue" imagery from the original short story and the earlier Bela Lugosi film version is here: you do get to see a crazy-looking, murderous gorilla fondling and carrying around a sexy, dazed girl in a flimsy white dress. You do get to see a head chopped off and an axe buried in the evil monkey's back. Except... none of the "Rue Morgue" stuff is supposed to be "Real" within the context of the story, it's all supposed to be part of the play being performed. So you see it, but in a way there is a sense of disappointment to it. If the same over-the-top images in this film had been used to actually tell the story of "Rue Morgue", I would have loved this flick. But the way it is presented, I was left feeling like, "I just watched a movie in which nothing actually happened. The killer ape (the best part of the original story) wasn't real!" In some strange way this sucked all the fun out of it! The only "real" stuff that is supposed to be happening in this film are the Phantom murders. One of these, early in the film, is really great, when the Phantom pours acid on the face of a hot chick in black lingerie. But I have to admit, I was a little disappointed and consider the title of this movie to be a case of false advertising. I just think all horror fans need to be aware of this aspect of the film so they know what they are getting before they buy it!

A pair of rather boring AIP "Poe" films from Gordon Hessler
Director Gordon Hessler figured it was because he had an English accent that somebody at Universal decided to put him under contract to Alfred Hitchcock. Working on the director's two television series, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," Hessler worked his way up the ladder eventually becoming a director and producer. He finally directed his first theatrical film "The Woman Who Wouldn't Die" (a.k.a. "Catacombs") in 1965 and at the end of the decade teamed with screenwriter Christopher Wicking to make three Edgar Allan Poe movies in England for AIP. Two of those movies are included on this double-sided DVD (the one you still have to track down is the first of the three, 1969's "The Oblong Box," with Vincent Price and Christopher Lee which is paired with "Scream and Scream Again" on another DVD in this series). Hessler later went on to do Ray Harryhausen's "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" and to return to television for various projects, including "Scream, Pretty Peggy" with Bette Davis.

Hessler is not only the director of these two movies, he also shows up in the only other special features on this DVD besides the trailers for the two movies to talk about how they got made. You would love to let this guy talk for an entire commentary track, but even though the two featurettes do not add up to a half-hour between them they are certainly more informative and insightful than most full-length commentary tracks (although as a general rule I will admit directors tend to do a better job than actors). Too bad his movies are not as impressive.

"Cry of the Banshee" pits Lord Edward Whitman (Price) as a wicked magistrate against a local coven of witches in Merry Olde England. When this 1970 film begins you think that Whitman is just another religious fanatic who gets his kicks branding innocent young women as witches and having them lashed through town until they are put in the stocks. But it what would be considered something of a twist, at least for those of us familiar with the sad spectacle of the Salem Witch Trials, Whitman really is going up against a coven of actual witches. They are led by Oona (Elizabeth Bergner) who curses Whitman and his family after he breaks up one of their parties in the woods (look for a young Stephen Rae as a townsperson) and makes the mistake of wondering why she does not use her powers to stop him. So she does, which is where at least the idea of the Banshee comes into play.

The animated title credits are by Terry Gilliam, which makes sense the minute you see them. There is a subplot involving Whitman's daughter, Maureen (Hilary Dwyer), who is smitten by young Roderick (Patrick Mower), but he is suspected of witchcraft because animals like him. There is an obvious effort to make you think this is another Poe story, but "The Conquering Worm" is the obvious cinematic reference point. Hugh Griffith is around to play a local drunk for what limited intentional comic relief there is to be offered, with the chief unintentional laughs being the coven acting more members of a 1960s commune on drugs then anything remotely having to do with wiccans or druids. Then there is the odd fact that periodically young women have their tops ripped off so that their breasts are exposed. True, that is more exciting than the blood and gore sections of the movie, but surely that was not the intention here.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" was made with Bela Lugosi in 1932 with relative fidelity to the original Poe short story. This 1971 remake, ironically known also as "Edgar Allan Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue," takes the original story and makes it a stage play within this movie and then tacks on a serial murder plot that will make you think of the Herbert Lom version of "The Phantom of the Opera," especially since Lom plays the part of the scarred killer. Cesar Charron (Jason Robards, looking uncomfortable from start to finish) runs the theater company putting on these Grand Guignol-style plays in 19th Century Paris. After the performance that opens the film he finds out that the actor who was supposed to be in the gorilla suit has been murdered and the killer was on stage. But this is just the first in a string of murders, all of which seem to be connected to the acting company.

Meanwhile, Madeleine Charron (Christine Kaufmann) keeps having "flashforwards" in her sleep. These are to be distinguished by the flashbacks we have to when her mother (Lilli Palmer) was alive. Adolfo Celi plays Inspector Vidocq, who is always a step behind the murderer, and the best performance in the film comes from Michael Dunn as Pierre Triboulet, who aids the killer to track down and get his victims (even if they are buried alive). The production values are pretty good, but Robards (who replaced Price in the lead role at pretty much the last minute) seems totally bored and Lom is almost sleepwalking through what must have struck him as a "Phantom"-redux role.

Both of these films need to be jump started and kept going by much better scores. I think it was the score by John Williams that helped make the original "Star Wars" movie seem like anything but a big-budget B-movie, and what I noticed in both of these films is how little music is used. Granted, there are so many contemporary horror films that overwhelm the audience with music to make up for stupid stories and cheesy special effects, but the minimalist approach to the music here is just way too little. It is a coin toss as to which of these two films is better and I do not feel compelled to actually advocate a choice, and even what Hessler has to say in the featurettes is not enough to justify rounding up.

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