LUGOSI AD IN 'PICTURE PLAY' MAGAZINE

"Uncle" Carl Laemmle had a penchant for speaking directly to theater-goers through Universal Pictures' printed advertising. When a movie title was preceded by the phrase, "Carl Laemmle Presents", he wasn't kidding.

In this case, he was puffing Robert Florey's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, starring Bela Lugosi and Sidney Fox in the March 1932 issue of PICTURE PLAY. After being dragged, kicking and screaming into producing horror films by his son, "Junior" Laemmle, it was obvious he saw the profit potential in them -- especially after the box office successes of DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN -- when he stated in this ad, "The majority of the people love grim and mysterious pictures". Notice the term, "horror film", that is used commonly today is absent from the description.

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE is widely acknowledged as Laemmle's consolation prize to Robert Florey after he was pulled from the director's chair of FRANKENSTEIN. Lugosi, whose actor's pride would not allow him to be made up into a shambling, green-faced laboratory experiment was thrown a bone as Florey's lead. Despite Lugosi's sometimes overly-acted, melodramatic moments, RUE MORGUE still is a potent, pre-code brew of obsession, blood-lust, heretical science and sexual perversion.

LUGOSI ON THE SET OF MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

Another pre-code perversity was Universal's very loose adaptation of Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue". Bela Lugosi and director Robert Florey had both been ushered (no pun intended) from the production of Frankenstein and Murders in the Rue Morgue was their consolation prize. Even with the advantage of hindsight, it is hard to imagine that a Florey-directed Frankenstein would have eclipsed Jame Whale's, Arthur Edeson's, and Jack Pierce's creation of monsterdom's most iconic imagery.

Presented here is a two-page spread of an on-the-set photo from the filming of Murders in the Rue Morgue (Universal, 1932) from the February 1932 issue of Photoplay. Also seen in the shot is the Rue Morgue's murderous ape. Although Charlie Gemora designed and created the ape makeup, it appears in the photo to be more likely stuntman Joe Bonomo, who doubled for Gemora. Nearly a decade earlier, Bonomo had also doubled for Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Included here are full-page ads from the February and March issues.