Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1971 American horror film directed by Gordon Hessler, and starring Jason Robards, Christine Kaufmann, Herbert Lom and Lilli Palmer. The screenplay by Christopher Wicking and Henry Slesar is a loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story of the same name. However, it departs from Poe's version in several significant aspects, at times more resembling Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.[2] In a DVD interview, Hessler said that he felt it necessary to reinvent the plot as he believed the majority of audiences were too familiar with Poe's story.