Few authors earned their reputation more than Edgar Allan Poe, and his status as the quintessential master of the macabre, his style being embraced as some of the most important literature ever to be written in Gothic horror and mystery. Pinpointing his most challenging and disturbing work is a challenge, but one of the strongest candidates is “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt”, in which Poe tells the story of a pair of detectives (one a policeman, the other a medical investigator) tasked with the case of a missing shop clerk, who went missing under suspicious circumstances, and with the sudden discovery of a body beneath a bridge in Paris, unrecognizable due to the face being mauled beyond any possible identification, they soon realize they are dealing with someone (or rather, something) far more dangerous than they initially expected. The short story was adapted into a film of the same title, helmed by celebrated cinematographer-turned-director Philip Rosen, and with only a few minor changes (such as the setting, a few plot details and character-specific traits), it evolved into a quaint curio of a film, a challenging and offbeat blend of psychological horror, dark comedy and film noir, made at a time when all these genres were starting to take shape, particularly the latter, which was still in its infancy in comparison to other mystery films prominent at the time. A fascinating deconstruction of complex themes that Poe so seamlessly wove together, and which Rosen and his cohorts manage to successfully translate to the screen, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is a terrific film with many merits, including how it captures the spirit of the author’s work, while still blending it with common cinematic techniques very popular in Hollywood at the time, which lends it a degree of incredible authenticity and a sense of suspense that is difficult to describe without becoming too involved in the plot mechanics.

While we may be aware of his most prominent works of fiction, recognizing a more obscure work by Poe is quite an easy endeavour – the combination of the lingering dread of gothic horror and a taste for the macabre are the hallmarks of his work, and the cinematic adaptations of his novels, short stories or poems often follow a specific structure or contain references to his unusual but iconoclastic style. The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is not one of his most well-known works (in fact, it is designed as a quasi-sequel to The Murders of the Rue Morgue, which is actively referenced a few times in this film adaptation, almost as a means to remind us of the origins of this story), which actually makes it a solid candidate for such a film adaptation, since the dependency on recognizable material is not quite applicable to what is essentially a more obscure story, albeit one that is not entirely unknown. The director uses this to his advantage, taking this peculiar short story that blends a number of different themes, and applying it to a cinematic form that follows a similar pattern of looking at these ideas through a few different lenses, both in terms of genre and formal structure. Running at only an hour, Rosen didn’t have much time to tell this story, and there wasn’t enough space for embellishments, leading to a film that is lean, sinister and deeply compelling, and a wonderful tribute to the exceptional work Poe did throughout his career. It’s slightly more offbeat in terms of overall structure, and Rosen does put in a few additional elements to make it more cinematic, such as a few well-placed moments of humour, and an ocassional musical performance to tie everything together, but it is mostly a faithful adaptation of the original short story, keeping the same unconventional narrative while being mostly very simple in how it examines the underlying themes, which are not entirely prominent, but still have an integral place in the narrative.

Poe is a writer who can be easily adapted, granted whoever is tackling his work is aware of a few key components that can’t change. His stories are usually quite malleable and can be reconfigured to take place in different milieux, but only when the right approach to the more inflexible elements is taken, which was clearly a priority for Rosen when adapting The Mystery of Marie Rogêt into a film. Most of this has to do with the tone – Poe’s stories are known for a very dense, otherworldly tone, even when they are set within a recognisable reality, which is integral to the overall structure of these stories, and needed to be maintained in whatever form an adaptation took. Rosen makes sure that The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is kept precise and never embellished to the point where its roots are not clear. A lot of what makes this such an intriguing project is how the director cobbles together various ideas, some taken from Poe, others formed from his own artistic interests – and both visually and narratively, this film is an intriguing adaptation. Much of the brilliance lies within the style the film takes, and it is clear that this is a film made by someone who started as a cinematographer, since the framing of certain scenes is truly magnificent and leads to a film that is as visually striking as it is daring. Rosen understands how to compose a shot better than most of his contemporaries, and simply looking at any given frame, we find ourselves bewitched by what we are seeing on screen. For the director, a shot is not only a way of telling a story, but conveying certain emotions and sensations that cannot be stated in words. The visual component of The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is amongst its greatest strengths, and we find it to be the most effective element in the construction of this film.

Rosen understood that a film like The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, by virtue of being based on a slightly lesser-known story, had to contain some element that would bring audiences in, which comes in the form of the cast, as was a common practice at the time (as well as in the present day, albeit not quite as prominently), and which is clearly defined as being the main attraction, at least on the surface. The two central characters are surprisingly not the titular femme fatale but rather the dedicated detective and brilliant medical examiner, who are handed this nearly impossible case and asked to solve it. The parts played by Lloyd Corrigan and Patric Knowles, respectively, and both are terrific – the former is in the smaller of the two roles, but is by far the most expressive and interesting of the pair, whereas the latter is the more heroic and acts as the de facto lead, and is suitably valiant, but not all that interesting. The titular role is played by singer Maria Montez, who takes what could have been a thinly written archetype and transforms her into a more complex and intriguing character based purely on the role she plays in the unfolding of the narrative. Arguably it may have been more effective to keep the character of Marie Rogêt in the periphery, rather than giving her an entire song-and-dance number (clearly designed to be a showcase for the actor’s talents), but it is still very effective, and proves to be the foundation for quite a unique psychological thriller that makes good use of its characters and gives each one of them something of value to do, even when the story can sometimes be slightly tenuous.

The Mystery of Marie Rogêt has unfortunately not enjoyed a particularly positive existence – initial reactions at the time pointed towards it being far too offbeat and peculiar to be embraced, and it has mostly regressed into obscurity as years have progressed, especially since audiences tended to be far more receptive to Poe adaptations that kept the more dense gothic spirit of his writing, rather than shoehorning these narratives into a more glossy, mainstream production that sometimes feels more like a vehicle for its stars than a faithful adaptation of the author’s work. Yet, there is still a lot of value in this film, a lot of it coming from the more formal aspects of the narrative – Rosen was a superbly gifted filmmaker, even just the visual elements are enough to make this an engaging and thoroughly entertaining work, albeit one that doesn’t always adhere to expectations. The performances are quite strong, especially those amongst the supporting cast, who add nuance to an otherwise very dense narrative that is not always clear in what it intends to achieve, but which easily compensates with quite a starkly unique approach to an already compelling text. Chilling, strange and deeply unnerving, but also wickedly entertaining and profoundly meaningful, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt is a fascinating blend of thriller, horror and mystery, setting the foundation for a few genres that were still developing, making a few bold choices that may not be acknowledged as being particularly remarkable, but still serve as the foundation for this tremendously entertaining and genuinely unsettling experimental film.