as an Easter egg on the Masters of Cinema Blu-ray; it can be accessed by highlighting the film's title on the main menu. Reception According to the book Universal Horrors, Murders in the Rue Morgue critical reception on its release was "harsh". Among contemporaneous reviews, Andre Sennwald of The New York Times said the film suffers from "an overzealous effort at terrorization" and that the cast were overacting. Variety called the film "sexed up to the limit" as "Sidney Fox overdraws the sweet ingenue to the point of nearly distracting any audience from any fear it may have for her". The National Board of Review Magazine commented: "The story holds one's interest throughout although the acting is not especially outstanding and the story does not take advantage of the full amount of horror that one would expect from Poe's work". Kate Cameron of the New York Daily News said the film is an "artificial screen story" and praised the ending sequence. Among the positive reviews, Bill Swigart of The Hollywood Herald said the film will "evoke loud praises from those who appreciate the beauty of soft artistic backgrounds in harmony with the beauty of the period and environment" and praised the characterization as "near perfect as one could expect". While reviewers commented negatively on the acting, some praised Lugosi's performance. Cameron noted Lugosi's "suggestion of the insanely criminal doctor is effective" while the British publication Today's Cinema said Lugosi portrayed Dr. Mirakle "in a most realistic fashion". The Washington Post called Lugosi "a great actor" who "can coin new thrills". From retrospective reviews, Patrick Legare of AllMovie rated Murders in the Rue Morgue with four stars out of five, praising Lugosi's acting, Freund's cinematography, and Florey's direction while finding the script and the rest of the cast and characters weak. The authors of Universal Horrors said despite the film being "flawed and creaky" with "dated acting, stilted dialogue and mawkish romance", Murders in the Rue Morgue is "very likely the most underrated of the Universal Horrors". Glenn Erickson of DVD Talk called the film a "hugely enjoyable mess" that is "often derided for its awkward acting and logic-challenged story". Erickson also commented Lugosi's acting contributes "to a feeling of dreamlike unreality". In Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, the film is ranked the highest of the three feature-film adaptations of Poe's eponymous story. Michael H. Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram compared