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American International Pictures uses Edgar Allan Poe’s story as a backdrop for what is really an original mystery story about actors in a turn-of-the-century Grand Guignol theater who are being murdered one by one. Jason Robards headlines as one of the troup, someone who may not be who he appears to be. Christine Kaufmann plays his wife and fellow thespian. She’s having dreams and premonitions about the killer’s identity while the police are on the case and the body count rises. Herbert Lom plays a prime suspect, despite the fact he died many years ago.

The first ten minutes of this movie hooked me and I thought I would be in for a good time with the Grand Guignol setting. But then Christopher Wicking’s screenplay gets confoundedly murky, winding here and there without much emotional engagement with any of the characters. Director Gordon Hessler spends too much time on slow-motion photography of Kaufmann running around in big, open spaces. Transitions into and out of the dream scenes are clunky. Kaufmann is wooden and Robards seems angry to be in the movie.

Overall, this Rue Morgue adaptation left me disappointed, but it’s not all bad. Lom is serviceable as a stock bad guy, complete with acid-burned face and Phantom-style mask and Michael Dunn is charismatic as Lom’s diminutive cohort. I dug the groovy score, one that has just a touch of 60s lounge to it, and the last ten minutes of the movie get a little bit exciting when the police chase the killer around the theater during a live performance.