A woman and her mother are murdered in a most grizzly manner in the Rue Morgue of Paris and the city is in a panic. The Prefect of Police (Ian McShane) has arrested a bank employee, Adolphe Le Bon, who escorted the women home with a sack of 4,000 francs in gold. As it happens, the man is engaged to Claire Dupin (Rebecca De Mornay) and her father is the famous retired Inspector Auguste Dupin (George C. Scott). Auguste did not choose retirement; he was pushed out by the Prefect. However, with his daughter's fiancée in jail, he is obligated to act. With the help of Phillipe Huron (Val Kilmer), Dupin sets out to solve the insoluble crime.
Though the crime is faithful to the source material, everything else has changed. C. Auguste Dupin was a young man who solved riddles and mysteries as a hobby; he was the original gentleman detective. Furthermore, he was on good terms with the prefect who regularly called upon his services. He had neither wife nor children but lived with another bachelor who served as his Watson. Though the original story takes place around 1840, this version places it in the 1880s or 1890s; that's Sherlock Holmes' time period. Of course, keeping with what is written would make for a short movie, so the added characters and conflicts serve a purpose.
Good popcorn fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment