The year 2009 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Charles Darwin. Most people today are well aware that Darwin is the author of THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (its full title is THE ORIGIN OF SPE- CIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION OF THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE; John Murray Publishers, 1859) and creator of the Theory of Evolution, which stated that human beings—indeed, all life forms on earth—were not created in a single instant by an omniscient Deity but had instead evolved over time from simpler life forms, a discovery that shook the foundations of the scientific community and drew criticism of blasphemy from religious quar- ters around the world. What few people know is that another scientist, a far more obscure one, is on record as having proposed similar theories a full 14 years before the publication of Darwin’s clas- sic book. Given the known facts, it’s not outside the realm of possibility to conclude that Darwin attended a lecture by this individual and pilfered his famous theory from him.
Or so Universal Studios would lead us to believe. The obscure scientist in question was appar- ently known by a variety of different monikers, but the one by which history knows him is Dr. Mirakle. According to director Robert Florey and screen- writers Tom Reed and Dale Van Every, Dr. Mirakle visited Paris in the Fall of 1845. Mirakle’s scientific theories were considered so bizarre at the time that he was ostracized from the mainstream sci- entific community and forced to continue his re- search under the guise of a traveling circus. Mirakle’s main experimental subject was an ape he called “Erik” who, according to Mirakle, pos- sessed the intelligence of a normal human being. Mirakle’s theory, stated hundreds of times during his sideshow presentations, was that human be- ings were descended from apes like Erik. Con- versely, Dr. Mirakle contended, apes such as Erik had the capability of adopting human behaviors if trained properly.
Mirakle conducted these experiments 121 years before Dian Fossey began her work with gorillas in Zaire in 1966. Unlike Fossey, however, Mirakle chose to train his experimental subjects to kill with precision rather than communicate peacefully with
Bela Lugosi as Dr. Mirakle, preparing to make Sidney Fox’s Camille his bride of science in Robert Florey’s MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE.
human beings. As a result, Erik the ape was re- sponsible for several deaths in the Rue Morgue area of Paris in 1845.
The 32-year-old writer Edgar Allan Poe must have encountered Dr. Mirakle when the traveling circus with which the doctor was associated put down stakes in Baltimore, Maryland in 1840. Poe must have had some foreknowledge of Mirakle’s plans, for he published a short story entitled “Mur- ders in the Rue Morgue” in GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE in 1841, four years before the actual murders oc- curred. Since no character resembling Mirakle appears in the story, it’s reasonable to assume that Poe was attempting to protect the doctor’s identity for some reason. Perhaps Poe respected Mirakle’s theories and wished to see him free to continue his ground-breaking scientific investigations. Or so Universal Studios would lead us to believe. In 1932, Universal produced a feature length film entitled MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, ostensibly based on Poe’s story. Fans of Poe were no doubt disappointed when they saw the film, as it bears little resemblance to the short story. On April 16th, 1932, the British publica- tion TODAY’S CINEMA called the film a “[v]ery free and greatly elaborated version of Edgar Allan Poe[‘s] story,” not knowing that the Universal film was based less on the Poe story and more on actual historical events. Because Poe pos- sessed such popular name value, Universal ad- vertised the film as an adaptation of the celebrated Poe tale—and, in some respects it was. But the main character of the film, Pierre Dupin, a young medical student, bears almost no resemblance to Poe’s brooding detective, C. Auguste Dupin.
The primary artists responsible for the 1932 Universal production of MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE were director Robert Florey and his trio of screenwriters: Tom Reed, Dale Van Every and a very young John Huston, who would later win acclaim as the director of such classic films as THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948). Ap- propriately enough, Tom Reed would later co- write THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE (1941) while Dale Van Every would go on to write Vic- tor Fleming’s CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937), among other notable screenplays. Huston came onto the project late in its development and merely polished the dialogue in Reed and Van Every’s initial draft.
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