MovieChat Forums > Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) Discussion > Questions I'd like this film to answer.....

Questions I'd like this film to answer....[SPOILERS]

posted 16 years ago by fibbermac
15 replies | jump to latest

I'm a great fan of Lugosi, and as such, I found this film to be a great disappointment. Perhaps the problem lies in the missing 21 minutes that censors removed, but after watching this film, I had several questions about what I'd just seen. Feel free to add to this thread with answers to these questions, or more questions of your own.

1.) Was Dr. Mirakle a real scientist (like Dr. Frankenstein) or just a lunatic with a monkey and a knowledge of scientific jargon (like Lionel Atwill in "The Mad Dr. of Market Street")?

2.) What was that knife fight all about? It seemed somewhat odd to drop a double homicide into the middle of the film without telling what led up to it and never mentioning it again.

3.) Does Dr. Mirakle actually speak Erik's language? It is implied that he does, but when he acts as a translator in the carnival sideshow, Erik isn't heard speaking as Dr. Mirakle translates for him.

4.) Gorilla, chimpanzee, or orangutan?

5.) Italian, Danish, or German?

6.) Who was Janos, and what was his relationship to Dr. Mirakle?

7.) Injecting female humans with ape blood was supposed to prove,... what exactly?

8.) Why does Erik kill Dr. Mirakle,... to avoid being stuck with a needle again, or to save Camille's life?

9.) In the carnival, when Erik nearly throttles Pierre, Dr. Mirakle blames Pierre ("You FOOL!), but wasn't Pierre just responding to the Dr.'s invitation to examine the ape more closely?

10.) Dr. Mirakle informs the woman of the streets that she is about to die. Sixty seconds later, when she dies, he is shocked and drops to his knees in remorse. Why would he react thusly?

11.) What exactly is rotten blood?

[–] fdellostritto 16 years ago

8.) Why does Erik kill Dr. Mirakle,... to avoid being stuck with a needle again, or to save Camille's life?

9.) In the carnival, when Erik nearly throttles Pierre, Dr. Mirakle blames Pierre ("You FOOL!), but wasn't Pierre just responding to the Dr.'s invitation to examine the ape more closely?

Mirakle has a bad habit of blaming others for his mistakes. Thus, when the women die on his rack, it is their faults, not his.

But, Mirakle was as surprised as everyone when Erik attacks Pierre. Erik is always aroused to violence in the presence of Camille (a metaphor for sexual arousal). Their three encounters in the film end either in murder (Mirakle's and Camille's mother) or attempted murder (Pierre). At the very end of the movie, Erik is within point blank range of Pierre's gun, but still cannot contain the violence urges that drive thim to walk directly into the bullets that will kill him.

Only after Erik attacks Pierre does Mirakle realize that Erik loves her and that he may have found the perfect subject. Until then, he had been content to troll for prostitutes for his experiments. Still, Mirakle does not realize that Erik will be so aroused that he himself will fall victim to it.

[–] vny109-1 15 years ago

Whoa, this has been an incredibly insightful thread. You don't find many of these around here.