The Mystery of Marie Roget

 

(1942)
Directed by Phil Rosen
Written by Michael Jacoby, from a story by Edgar Allen Poe (Ha!)
Starring Patrick Knowles, Maria Montez, Maria Ouspenskaya, John Littel, Marcel Vigneaux, Nell O'Day, Lloyd Corrigan, Edward Norris
IMDB Entry

Edgar Allan Poe was probably the author whose works were rarely made into films by Hollywood. Oh, his titles were used in quite a few films but the stories often had nothing in common with the movie. Faithfulness was not a consideration. An example of this was The Mystery of Marie Roget, based on one of his C. August Dupin detective stories, credited as being the beginning of the genre,

Marie Roget (Maria Montez), a famous stage starin Paris, disappears. Inspector Gobelin (Lloyd Corrigan) depends on the police medical officer Pierre Dupin (Patrick Knowles) to try solve the case, trying to deal with pressure from her grandmother Cecile Roget (Maria Ouspenskaya).  Dupin also meets Marie's sister Camille (Nell O'Day), who is engaged to Marcel Vigneauz (Edward Norris).  When a body is found -- her face mutilated as though clawed by a big cat -- it is identified as Marie.  Soon after, though, Marie returns, none the worse for wear.

The story isn't bad, though it gives away the murder plot far too soon. But it has little to do with Poe,* who was writing about an actual murder case and used Dupin to point out a solution that the police of the time hadn't discovered.

Patrick Knowles was a successful Hollywood actor, thought not often as a leading man. He actually makes a good detective here.  Maria Montez was a major star of technicolor costume epics of the era.  Lloyd Corrigan sounds like the name of an action star, but he certainly didn't look like one and never played one.  He was active throughout early television.

Director Phil Rosen had a long career directing B pictures after a start with silents.

The title, of course, used Poe as a marketing ploy. It wasn't a good one, since people had associate Poe with horror more than mystery.

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*That was obvious when they changed C. August Dupin to Pierre Dupin, and made him a police medical officer insted of a detective.