1960s Horror Classic The Raven, released in January, 1963, was produced and directed for AIP by Roger Corman and runs 86 minutes. Vincent Price was Dr. Erasmus Craven. Peter Lorre as Dr. Bedlo, Boris Karloff as Dr. Scarabus, Hazel Court as Lenore, and Jack Nicholson as young Rexford Bedlo were the remainder of the main cast. Richard Matheson did the screenplay.
The Raven is another of Corman's "Edgar Allan Poe" cycle of films. Like most of them, great liberties were taken with the original Poe tale. In this one, the raven, with the voice of Lorre, appears at the home of magician Dr. Erasmus Craven, who is pining away time lamenting the loss of his deceased wife, Lenore. It seems that the cantankerous Bedlo has been transferred into a bird after losing a battle of magic with the famous Dr. Scarabus. After a much-too-long opening sequence in which this is explained and Craven restores Bedlo to human form, Bedlo informs his host that Lenore is indeed alive and staying with Scarabus in his castle. This is too much for the grieving Dr. Craven, so he and his daughter Estelle, played by Olive Sturgess, and Bedlo with his son Rexford, who has conveniently shown up at Craven's front door, venture forth to the castle of the feared Dr. Scarabus. Fortunately, The Raven becomes much more interesting at this point.
Horror and comedy, in my humble opinion, do not often mix, but they co-exist in The Raven about as well as I've seen. The Raven, shot immediately before The Terror utilizing the same sets, is probably a better film but not as interesting to fans of pure horror as the latter.
Portions of the coach ride to Scarabus' castle can be viewed in one of the segments in Gallery Of Horrors, (1969), and the distance shot of the castle on the hill is all too familiar to Corman fans.
However, I digress. When the motley group arrive at Scarabus castle, they find that Lenore is indeed alive, that she left her somewhat dull husband for the interesting life that the aging Scarabus could provide, and that she and Bedlo were used by him as bait to lure Craven to his lair, where he wishes to learn more about Craven's superior magic skill. One thing leads to another, and the film climaxes with a magician's duel between Craven and Scarabus. The duel, eight minutes long on screen, is legendary in the annals of horror film-making. (See The Raven for this alone if for no other reason). I won't spoil the ending for you so I will only say that everyone gets what's coming to them in the end! But, there are plenty of other reasons to view The Raven. Karloff, (at his best here!) Amusing and ominous at the same time), Price, Lorre and Nicholson together in one film, for one. Film historians seem to appreciate this unique gathering of extraordinary talent more than they do Karloff and Nicholson together in The Terror, and perhaps this is to be expected. (Horror film fans owe AIP a huge debt, for it, more than any other studio, kept the careers of such players alive during this period. See Karloff, Price, Lorre and Basil Rathbone in 1963's Comedy of Terrors, a film similar to The Raven and which also includes a small but memorable role for comic Joe E. Brown). Hazel Court is beautiful and delightful as the scheming Lenore, a woman any man could easily yearn for and be seduced by. Indeed, The Raven enjoyed fine performances from all the players.
Old villain Peter Lorre. Late in his career he was pleasing in humorous parts. Lorre was not a well man during this period, but his performances live on. He was the equal of Robin Williams when it came to ad-libbing and driving co-stars crazy! It is interesting to note that young Nicholson, while not the actor he would become, holds his own very well against the veteran co-stars he played against, particularly Lorre, who portrayed his acerbic, browbeating father.
1962's Tales of Terror, a three-story trilogy, included The Black Cat, (by, you guessed, AIP), a humorous look at the Poe tale starring Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. Horror humor doesn't get any better than it is in the works I have mentioned in this article.
I give The Raven, very atmospheric with those marvelous sets, three well deserved stars, perhaps 3 1/2 stars to be generous. The magician's duel by itself would rate four stars. That classic scene would play well in a modern day film with state of the art special effects!
Go ahead and rent Comedy of Terrors and Tales of Terror while you're at the video store and make a very pleasant weekend out of it. I promise you won't be disappointed.
If you'll invite me over, I'll bring the popcorn.