in a chimney and the discussion over which language the murderer spoke. Much of Poe's story was changed to accommodate a role for Lugosi as Doctor Mirakle; Florey said he "had to strengthen and lengthen the Poe short story" and that he "added numerous characters". The initial budget of $130,000 was cut to $90,000. At one point, Florey left the production but later returned to it. Florey fought with Universal over the story's 1845 setting; Universal wanted the film to have a contemporaneous setting. Filming began on October 19, 1931, and finished on November 13 the same year. John Huston, who was working for Universal as a staff writer, is credited for writing additional dialogue; Huston said his role was trying "to bring Poe's prose style into the dialogue, but the director thought it sounded stilted, so he and his assistants rewrote scenes on the set. As a result, the picture was an odd mixture of nineteenth century grammarian prose and modern colloquialisms". Leon Ames later said Florey "wasn't happy on the picture, but he never talked about it [...] He didn't like the script, he wanted to fix it and they wouldn't let him". Ames also said Florey "wasn't a powerful director in those days; that's what frustrated him ... He didn't care too much for the executives". Although Murders in the Rue Morgue officially ended production at Universal on November 13, 1931, Frankenstein was becoming a commercial success so Universal put the film back into production on December 10 and increased the budget to $186,090 after adding seven days of retakes and newly developed scenes. Scenes filmed during this post-production period include a retake of the duel sequence, new scenes of Pierre's and Camille's rooms, five days of re-filming of the rooftop climax and close-ups of a monkey at Selig zoo. Several scenes in the film's first half were re-ordered during this post-production period. Release The Hollywood Reporter wrote about a preview screening on January 6, 1932, stating the film "gave Santa Ana a perfectly delightful scare and a sleepless night", calling Robert Florey as a "smart choice" for director and saying Sidney Fox is "nice in appearance". The reviewer also said Lugosi "has the physical necessities and is so legitimately trained that even though his performance does smack of the old legit, he is perfection in a role of this sort. Lugosi chews scenery, but he makes