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The Paris Blood Drive Nobody Asked For
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In this episode of The Introverted Obelisk, we stumble through the foggy backstreets of Paris with Bela Lugosi’s eyebrows leading the way in Murder in the Rue Morgue (1932). Supposedly adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s pioneering detective tale, the movie tosses out logic and deduction in favor of mad science, ape costumes, and enough bad biology to make Darwin claw his way out of the grave.
I break down Lugosi’s turn as Dr. Mirakle, a carnival sideshow scientist who kidnaps women to inject them with gorilla blood — not because this makes sense, but because Universal needed another monster movie and Poe didn’t supply one. What should have been a story about a clever detective solving an impossible crime instead becomes a parade of abductions, failed experiments, and a gorilla who alternates between stock footage and a man in a fuzzy suit.
We talk about how Karloff got Frankenstein, Lugosi got gorilla transfusions, and how even in 1932, Universal couldn’t resist wringing atmosphere out of every fog machine on the backlot. The result is less Poe, more pulp — but with Lugosi’s wild eyes and tortured accent, it’s unforgettable in its own lopsided way.
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