The Raven Reviews

Another fantastic Universal classic horror film starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Actually the title card reads "suggested by Edgar Allan Poe's immortal classic". It would be nearly impossible to make a feature-length film based solely on a poem of 108 lines. So what the filmmakers do is weave elements of Poe's poem into the story. For example, Bela Lugosi's death-obsessed character, Dr. Richard Vollin, is an admirer and collector of Poe's works. In addition to his Poe collection, Dr. Vollin has an extensive collection of torture devices in his hidden "dungeon", including the device from Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" (which does get put to use in the movie). The scene which introduces Lugosi is cinematic gold: The huge shadow of a raven fills the screen as Lugosi's distinctive voice intones, "Suddenly there came a tapping/As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door...", and the camera slowly pulls out to reveal Lugosi seated in an antique high-back chair with the raven silouette looming on the wall above him, as he continues to recite the poem, "...open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter/In there stepped a stately raven." Beautiful scene. The story begins with Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) crashing her car and suffering nerve damage to her brain. Her father Judge Thatcher (Samuel S. Hinds) and her fiance Dr. Jerry Halden (Lester Matthews) plead with imminent surgeon Dr. Richard Vollin (Lugosi) to save her life. Dr Vollin agrees and afterwards begins to fall in love with Jean. She also becomes somewhat infatuated with him. Her father Judge Thatcher sees this and all but threatens Dr. Vollin to put an end to his advances. This unrequited love aspect of the story resembles Poe's literary "lost love", Lenore. Boris Karloff's character, Edmond Bateman, is introduced about 16 minutes into the film. He's an escaped convict and murderer who comes to Dr. Vollin to alter his face, so he won't be recognized and so he won't be "ugly" anymore. However, true to his sinister and sadistic character, Dr. Vollin actually disfigures Bateman's face; and tells him he'll fix it only after Bateman helps him with his plan to possess Jean, even if it involves "torture and murder", as Lugosi nonchalantly states. There's another great scene here when Bateman wakes up from his surgery to discover that Dr. Vollin has actually disfigured his face rather than "fixed" it. He's in a hidden surgical room inside Dr. Vollin's house, surrounded by mirrors, which he destroys with a revolver as Dr. Vollin's cackling laughter mocks him from a window, safely above the room. Karloff is great and gets top billing as usual, but it's Lugosi that really shines in this movie (that is if you don't mind Lugosi's over-the-top style of performance which in some instances almost borders on self-parody). Karloff is basically relegated to playing Lugosi's henchman. They're really good together in this film, but I still think their best and most dynamic performance together was in THE BLACK CAT. However, as a whole, this film is very entertaining. For fans of classic horror, THE RAVEN is a must.