THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET (1942)

In 1889 Paris, musical star Marie Roget (Maria Montez) has been missing for ten days and pressure is building on the police to crack the case, especially from naval official Beauvais (John Litel), a friend of the family. Gobelin (Lloyd Corrigan), the police chief, calls on Dr. Dupin (Patric Knowles) to help, but when the body of a woman is found, her face mutilated by what look like animal claw marks, they assume they have found Marie. To everyone's surprise, however, Marie comes strolling into her grandmother's house as though nothing was out of the ordinary, and she refuses to tell anyone where she's been. Granny Cecile (Maria Ouspenskaya), who owns a pet leopard that she insists is harmless, hires Dupin to protect Marie's sister Camille, who is set to inherit a fortune the next day. Camille is engaged to navy man Marcel, but we soon discover that Marcel and Marie are in the middle of some seemingly nefarious planning. At a party that night, Marie again vanishes; another mutilated body is found in the river and this time, it is Marie.

Perhaps because it was based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, this movie was included in Universal's Shock Theater package of films sold to local TV stations in the 1950s and 60s, which is why is has a reputation as a horror film. It's really a fairly traditional mystery with some mild horror elements (the mutilated bodies, much nighttime action), so be forewarned. As B-mysteries go, it's enjoyable. There is a nice Holmes/Watson vibe between Dupin and Gobelin that carried me through the movie. I haven't read the original story so I can't comment on the film's faithfulness to Poe—though a reference is made to Dupin having solved the Rue Morgue murders—but the plot gets fairly convoluted and I didn't much care about any of the characters except the detectives, so it didn't feel like much was at stake in the outcome. The rich black and white cinematography is a plus, but not much is done to keep the atmosphere suitably spooky or dangerous. It was retitled PHANTOM OF PARIS for a 50s re-release. A little lightweight but not a waste of an hour. Pictured are Corrigan and Knowles. [DVD]