The Raven is the second teaming of Karloff and Lugosi, and this time it's Bela who's the black-hat bad guy, while Boris takes on the sympathetic brute-role he did so well. There's plenty of black humour to be had - the above dialogue is uttered by Karloff after Lugosi's mad surgeon has hideously distorted his face - and the last twenty minutes gives us serial-style thrills as the poor saps lured to Lugosi's house appear doomed to take the place of some of Poe's protagonists.
The Raven opens splendidly; a quick car-crash and we are soon off to Dr. Richard Vollin's (Lugosi) house, where we get a splendid short rendition of Poe's poem, Lugosi's profile wonderfully contrasted with a looming stuffed Raven. Judge Thatcher (Samuel S. Hinds) begs Vollin to save his daughter Jean (Irene Ware) who has suffered a serious head injury in the crash we witnessed at the beginning of the movie. Initially reluctant, Vollin gives in and saves Jean's life, developing a Poe-like infatuation for her in the process. Perhaps somebody saw the early rushes for Mad Love as the situation is almost identical.
Enter Karloff's San Quentin escapee Edmond Bateman, seeking a new face from Vollin, in a strange echo of one of his victims during a bank job. Unwilling to give Bateman the combination of the safe, he suffers an acetylene torch in the eyes for his trouble. Vollin, rejected by Judge Thatcher as a suitor for Jean, realises he can use Bateman in a scheme of revenge....
Lugosi was never more gloriously over the top than here. It's great fun to watch him put his murderous scheme into action, and Karloff, who surprisingly has a more limited part, does well too. Bateman wants to change his ways, but once made hideously ugly, is forced to do Vollin's will if he wants a cure. Actually Karloff's makeup is unintentionally funny. Poor Boris, second best again to Lugosi.
The Raven is great fun, complete with descending bedroom and the blade from The Pit And The Pendulum. Gone is the art-house decadence of The Black Cat; in its place is a blackly humorous horror-thriller...
The Raven opens splendidly; a quick car-crash and we are soon off to Dr. Richard Vollin's (Lugosi) house, where we get a splendid short rendition of Poe's poem, Lugosi's profile wonderfully contrasted with a looming stuffed Raven. Judge Thatcher (Samuel S. Hinds) begs Vollin to save his daughter Jean (Irene Ware) who has suffered a serious head injury in the crash we witnessed at the beginning of the movie. Initially reluctant, Vollin gives in and saves Jean's life, developing a Poe-like infatuation for her in the process. Perhaps somebody saw the early rushes for Mad Love as the situation is almost identical.
Enter Karloff's San Quentin escapee Edmond Bateman, seeking a new face from Vollin, in a strange echo of one of his victims during a bank job. Unwilling to give Bateman the combination of the safe, he suffers an acetylene torch in the eyes for his trouble. Vollin, rejected by Judge Thatcher as a suitor for Jean, realises he can use Bateman in a scheme of revenge....
Lugosi was never more gloriously over the top than here. It's great fun to watch him put his murderous scheme into action, and Karloff, who surprisingly has a more limited part, does well too. Bateman wants to change his ways, but once made hideously ugly, is forced to do Vollin's will if he wants a cure. Actually Karloff's makeup is unintentionally funny. Poor Boris, second best again to Lugosi.
The Raven is great fun, complete with descending bedroom and the blade from The Pit And The Pendulum. Gone is the art-house decadence of The Black Cat; in its place is a blackly humorous horror-thriller...