The Mystery of Marie Roget
Cast & Crew
Phil Rosen
Patric Knowles
Maria Montez
Maria Ouspenskaya
John Litel
Edward Norris
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1889, all of Paris is talking about the disappearance of musical comedy star Marie Roget, who has been missing for ten days. Henri Beauvais, the French minister of Naval Affairs and a close friend of the Roget family, threatens to demand the removal of police inspector Gobelin if she is not immediately found. Gobelin calls medical officer Dr. Paul Dupin onto the case, then is informed that a woman's body has been found by the river. Although the dead woman's face has been mutilated, Beauvais states that the body's characteristics match those of Marie. Gobelin and Beauvais then go to the Roget home to tell Marie's younger sister Camille and her grandmother, Madame Cecile Roget, that they believe they have found the actress' body. Just then Marie returns home, but refuses to state where she has been. Later, Camille and Marcel Vigneaux become engaged. In private, however, Marcel and Marie are lovers, and the engagement is simply part of their plot to murder Camille. Dupin is then called to the Roget home by Cecile, who offers the physician 50,000 francs to escort Camille, who is set to inherit 1,000,000 francs the next day, to a party at the De Luc home, as she fears her granddaughter will be murdered there. Dupin declines at first, but when he meets the beautiful Camille, he changes his mind. At the party that night, Beauvais propositions Marie, telling her that he knows of her affair with Marcel. Later, Marie argues with Marcel when he hesitates to kill Camille as planned. Soon thereafter, Marie disappears. Divers are sent into the river near the De Luc home, and once more the body of a faceless woman is found. Before Dupin can examine her, however, Beauvais orders his men to take charge of the body. Later that night, Dupin sneaks into the morgue and removes the brain from the second unidentified body. When Gobelin hypotheses that Cecile used her pet leopard to kill Marie, Dupin takes the police inspector to the De Luc home, and shows him the gardening tool used to disfigure the second body. Later, Dupin identifies the second dead body as Marie, but Cecile refuses to allow a further medical examination of the body or a search of the Roget home for Marie's diary. After Cecile tells Camille about Marie's murderous plan, Marcel confesses to killing Marie, but says he did so to save Camille. At Marcel's arraignment hearing, Beauvais demands that the charges be dropped, and is supported by Dupin, much to Gobelin's bewilderment. Afterward, an angry Marcel, who believed that he would be found not guilty, challenges Dupin to a duel. That night, Gobelin learns from Scotland Yard that the first dead body was that of Marcel's English wife, who had recently come to Paris to find her husband. Later, Dupin and Gobelin rush to the Roget home when they learn that both Beauvais and Marcel have escaped police surveillance. Dupin tells Gobelin that he had openly accused Camille of having Marie's diary, which he knew did not exist, knowing that the murderer would attempt to retrieve it. They arrive at the Roget home just in time to stop Marcel from killing Camille, and Gobelin shoots the murderer dead as he runs across the Paris rooftops. Later, Gobelin learns that Beauvais had actually been secretly helping Dupin all along.
Director
Phil Rosen
Cast
Patric Knowles
Maria Montez
Maria Ouspenskaya
John Litel
Edward Norris
Lloyd Corrigan
Nell O'day
Frank Reicher
Clyde Fillmore
Paul Burns
Norma Drury
Charles Middleton
Bill Ruhl
Reed Hadley
Paul Dubov
John Maxwell
Paul Bryar
Raymond Bailey
Charles Wagenheim
Lester Dorr
Alphonse Martell
Francis Sayles
Jimmy Lucas
Joe Bernard
Frank O'connor
Caroline Cooke
Crew
Elwood Bredell
Bernard B. Brown
Milton Carruth
Everett Carter
Alanson Edwards
R. A. Gausman
Michel Jacoby
Paul Malvern
Jack Otterson
Charles Previn
Robert Pritchard
Richard H. Riedel
Milton Rosen
H. J. Salter
Seward Webb
Vera West
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The opening credits of this film read: Edgar Allan Poe's Mystery of Marie Roget. Poe's story, first published between 1842 and 1843 in a New York magazine, was a follow-up to his 1842 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which was filmed by Universal under the same title in 1932 (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.3007). Modern sources include Beatrice Roberts (Wife on street) in the cast and state that the film was reissued by Realart as Phantom of Paris. Modern sources also state that Maria Montez's singing voice was actually that of vocalist Dorothy Triden.
