Cry of the Banshee / Murders in the Rue Morgue
by Gordon Hessler
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Actor: Adolfo Celi, Christine Kaufmann, Herbert Lom, Jason Robards, Maria PerschyDirector: Gordon Hessler
Producer: Gordon Hessler
Producer: Clifford Parkes
Producer: James H. Nicholson
Writer: Christopher Wicking
Writer: Edgar Allan Poe
Writer: Henry Slesar
Writer: Tim Kelly
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 189 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-15
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Cry of the Banshee / Murders in the Rue Morgue
DVD Review: A pair of rather boring AIP "Poe" films from Gordon Hessler
Summary: 3 Stars
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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