Murders In The Rue Morgue (1932)

In 1845 Paris, a deranged scientist (Bela Lugosi) kidnaps young women and injects them with the blood of his gorilla in the hopes of finding a mate for his ape. Very loosely based on the classic novella by Edgar Allan Poe which has been filmed many times. Directed by Robert Florey (BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS), this is a very primitive film. The acting is mostly terrible (Lugosi an exception) but Florey and his ace cinematographer Karl Freund manage to create a dark, disquieting climate that instills a sense of morbid dread. This is a pre-code film but apparently the violence was unacceptable even back then so the running time was cut by about 10 minutes. It's the flip side of the beauty and the beast of KING KONG which would come the following year. Part of the film's unsettling titillation is the implied sexual mating of a gorilla with the young girls. With the stiff Leon Waycoff as the nominal hero, he would become a reliable character actor once he changed his name to Leon Ames. Also in the cast a very young Arlene Francis as one of the victims, years before she became one of TV's most famous game show panelists.