The Raven (1935)

Wonderful character development!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Inspired by (rather than based on) Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same title, this Universal horror film stars Bela Lugosi as a surgeon whose obsession with Poe has led to him building torture devices as described in the author's writings. While the devices only exist for display, Lugosi nevertheless sets about putting them into action in a scheme to separate the woman he loves from the man she plans to marry. This plot element could have done with a bit more work as it always seems like a rushed, ill-conceived and illogical scheme, but the chief sell point of the movie is a subplot involving Boris Karloff as a murderer on the run. Things turn rather grisly as Lugosi disfigures Karloff's face on purpose with the promise of only fixing his face if he helps him in his torture scheme, and both Karloff and Lugosi excel in their respective roles. In fact, with the way Lugosi so eloquently quotes Poe while clearly growing crazier and crazier, a good case could be made for this being his very finest performance. The same cannot be said for the rest of the cast with Irene Ware especially underwritten as the love interest who goes from being smitten with Lugosi to being prepared to settle for another man within minutes. Overall though, this is arguably a better paced and more wacky horror film than 'The Black Cat', which is often cited as Lugosi and Karloff's greatest collaboration.

From Universal Studio in 1935 we have: The Raven, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (and several lesser players) is an extremely brisk running horror film, clocking in at right around exactly one hour and what an hour it is.This is probably Lugosi's most entertaining and unhinged performance, as he really seems to be enjoying himself and relishing the role of the insane Dr. Vollin - blackmail and torture is his game. Karloff is low key and far less spectacular in his role as the escaped convict Edmond Bateman and plays second fiddle to Lugosi, definitely a subservient role.PLot SHakedown: Dr. Vollin (Lugosi) is a retired surgeon who's hung-up on Poe, torture devises and above all death "death is the only certain thing, in an uncertain universe" as he say's to a guest. The doc is called upon by a judge who's young beautiful daughter (Irene Ware), has been gravely injured in a car accident and the doctors attending to her simply aren't good enough to fix her injured neck, they suggest Dr. Vollin after a little stubbornness he relents and operates on her and saves her life. After doing so he quickly becomes intensely infatuated with his young beautiful patient, however she's already engaged to a younger doctor, a colleague of Vollins. Her dad quickly catches on to Vollins infatuations through series of fixated stares and confronts him about it, which really sets him off, only furthering Vollins burning lust for her. Now he's mad with love, a love that can never be. So the only sane thing to do, is to invite them over to his posh home (filled with secret passageways, trapdoors, a fully equipped torture dungeon, and lots of other fun stuff) for a party over the weekend (and this is where the plot thickens). Which everyone eagerly excepts the doctors invitation (Mr. Judge is deeply suspicious all along of Vollins intentions) and so they all party it up a bit, then it gets late and they turn in for the night - and here's where the fun begins. Vollins deformed butler, Bateman (Karloff) is blackmailed into helping the mad doctor deal with his guests. You see Bateman is a convict who's on the run and desperate for some kind of disguise, who foolishly trusts Vollin to "fix his face" and basically Vollin does a hatchet job on him, severing some vital nerves which paralyses the entire right side of his face. He'll fix his face, but ONLY if he'll help him torture his guests to death. Breezing over the second half of this very short film - Vollin has all his guests right where he wants them, but Bateman has a change of mind, stops the torturing and attacks Vollin, knocks him out cold and drags him into one of his own torture devises, which Doctor Vollin finds to be a real -pressing- situation. The evil doctor is vanquished and ...........well it's a happy ending.This movie is a lot of fun, great acting from Lugosi, some terrific dialog (Lugosi can say just about anything and it's prime entertainment) great looking sets (i.e. the torture devices in his stonewalled torture dungeon). Lugosi is a real full-blown psychopath in this film and most of his scenes exude exactly that, up until the very end he's in complete control of the proceedings. Karloff was fresh off the success of -Bride of Frankenstein- just three months earlier, so it's likely this is the very next film he did; while certainly not as good as Frankenstein or any of James Whale's godly horror classic's - The Raven still has a hell of a lot going for it and should keep most fans of vintage horror happy for a solid hours worth of entertainment. A most charming horror flick and Lugosi proves quite capable as the devilishly deceitful host. "Doctor Vollins House of Horror's" could fittingly be an alternate title.Early in the film, when Lugosi's reciting Poe's poem The Raven, is that not a perversely picturesque shot, when he's sitting next to that raven statuette. Sure it's a simple shot, but perfectly composed.The Raven is no masterpiece, but it's still very good.

Having very little to do with Edgar Allen Poe, I went into watching this film expecting something different than what I watched. That's not to say though that The Raven was a bad movie because it definitely did have a lot of horror star power and thrilling moments. Bella Lugosi was tremendous as the evil Dr. Vollin but it seemed Karloff took a back-seat in this film. Karloff was good but he had the opportunity to put on a really good performance that the script just did not offer him.The run-time of the film was less than an hour having not a lot of buildup to the climax. However, even with the lack of character development and plot lines, I still found myself bored at times in the film. Dialogue and interesting characters have to be always present and spot on during an older film and this movie just didn't provide that. The Raven is a good watch and a classic Universal monster movie but didn't really shine like a lot of other Universal films.

Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. The movie The Raven is not the poem on film but rather about a neurological surgeon, Dr. Vollin (Lugosi), who is a huge fan of Poe and is stark-raven-mad (pun intended). He falls in love with Jean Thatcher and looks at her as Poe's Lenore.Karloff plays the criminal Edmond Bateman that wants to hide his looks by having Dr. Vollin (Lugosi) to make him look nice and different. He is forced to do Vollin's dirty work for him.The movie falls into a kind of madness that is highly entertaining and worth watching for fans of horror, Poe, Lugosi and/or Karloff.9/10