Saturday, March 1, 2014

Murder In March Madness Day #1

Welcome to Murder In March Madness. I will highlight one title with the word Murder, or a variant,  in it all during the month of March. Today kicks off this event.Everyone should know that the first detective story was the short story written by Edgar Allen Poe way back in April 1841, it was called The Murders In The Rue Morgue. So this title will kick off the Event.

The Murders In The Rue Morgue
by Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)

The story surrounds the double murder of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris. Accounts of the murder revealed that the mother's throat was cut so badly that her head was barely attached and the daughter was strangled and then stuffed into a chimney. The murder occured in an inaccessible room on the fourth floor, locked from the inside. Neighbors give contradictory accounts because they each claim that they heard the murderer speaking a different language. Bcause none of the witnesses can agree on the language the murderer spoke, It is concluded they were not hearing a human voice at all. A hair at the scene of the murder that is quite unusual is the basis of the investigation. An ad is put in the Paris news and a sailor answers it and offers a reward for the return of his animal that escaped into Madame L'Espanaye's room.



Trivia
Originally titled Murders in the Rue Trianon

This classic was made into a movie three times.

1932
 

Cast
Bela Legosi
 Sidney Fox
Leon Ames
Betty Ross Clarke

Directed by
Robert Florey
 
1954
as Phantom of the Rue Morgue

Cast
  Karl Malden
Patricia Medina.

Directed by
Roy Del Ruth

 1971

Cast
Jason Robards
Christine Kaufmann
Herbert Lom

Directed by 
Gordon Hessler

And a PC game

2 comments:

  1. Scott - That is definitely a classic, old-school kind of detective story. One of the very first, and really influential.

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  2. What a great collection of covers to kick off your meme, Scott.

    ReplyDelete