Nice horror film suggested by Poe's immortal stories , thanks mainly to fortuitous teaming of terror kings as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi . A brilliant surgeon obsessed with Poe saves the life of a beautiful dancer and goes mad when he can't have her . But while this lunatic surgical genius chanted "The Raven," horrible screams rose up from his torture chamber below . The gloomy surgeon (Bela Lugosi) has a dungeon full of torture gadgets inspired by Edgar Allen Poe stories , then he is begged by a judge (Samuel Hinds) to save his daughter's life . The eccentric neurological surgeon does and then falls in love for the beautiful girl (Irene Ware) but she's already engaged . The nutty doctor recruits a wanted criminal (Boris Karloff), and turns him into a hideous monster . Meanwhile , the dull doctor invites a group of guests (Lester Matthews , Charters, Courtney , and eternal secondary Ian Wolfe) at his dismal mansion
The script has very little to do with Edgar Allen Poes's tales , though the screen-writers do manage to squeeze in his pendulum torture from : The pit and the pendulum and Poe's Raven . This is a quickie professionally realized by Lew Landers , an expert in rapid pictures that rarely ran longer than 70 minutes ; although here he stands out and it is among his most forceful and fastest works. Lew Landers began directing features in the mid-'30s under his real name of Louis Friedlander, but changed it to Lew Landers after several films , his first effort, The Raven , was probably his best. The movie belongs to a group of a few of the bargain-basement horrors that Lew Landers directed for Universal Pictures , including production designer Albert D'Agostino , all of them in low-budget , starred by terror stars and have a certain hypnotic fascination such as ¨Return of the vampire¨ , ¨The ghost that walks alone¨ ,¨The mask of Diijon¨ and of course this ¨The raven¨. Bela Lugosi is at his prime in this character as a mad doctor who when is rejected he plans vendetta in his chamber of horror and good acting by terror master Karloff as a criminal who winds up ruining the mad doctor's schemes . Several inconsistencies in the somewhat twisted screenplay can be overlooked because of their chilling acting by the classic horror duo , Lugosi and Karloff .
The motion picture was well directed by Lew Landers , rivaling Sam Newfield and William Beaudine as one of the American film industry's most prolific directors, The Raven was his first feature made under his real name . Landers galloped his way around 130 movies , called quickfire and almost none of them exceeding 80 minutes , they have nearly all vanished into the mists of time now . It would be nice to record that Lew's output as one of the most prolific filmmakers in the field is studded with undiscovered treasures . Lew Landers got into filming serials with Universal , the first of them ¨Tailspin Tommy¨ and ¨Parole¨ , then the studio moved him on to features and he began his long career . Landers spent a lot of time at RKO and Columbia turning out low-budget adventure epics, thrillers and westerns . Towards the final of his shooting days , Landers became involved with all types of frivolities in a variety of strange color process as SuperCinecolor , filming several adventure films such as ¨Last of the Bucaneers , Blue blood , Captain Kidd and the slave girl , Captain John Smith and Pochahontas¨ and his most important ¨California conquest¨ . In the 1950s he turned to series television, as many of his fellow B directors did, and alternated between that and features for the remainder of his career , for that reason Landers was extremely busy in TV episodes until his early death at 60 years old .
The script has very little to do with Edgar Allen Poes's tales , though the screen-writers do manage to squeeze in his pendulum torture from : The pit and the pendulum and Poe's Raven . This is a quickie professionally realized by Lew Landers , an expert in rapid pictures that rarely ran longer than 70 minutes ; although here he stands out and it is among his most forceful and fastest works. Lew Landers began directing features in the mid-'30s under his real name of Louis Friedlander, but changed it to Lew Landers after several films , his first effort, The Raven , was probably his best. The movie belongs to a group of a few of the bargain-basement horrors that Lew Landers directed for Universal Pictures , including production designer Albert D'Agostino , all of them in low-budget , starred by terror stars and have a certain hypnotic fascination such as ¨Return of the vampire¨ , ¨The ghost that walks alone¨ ,¨The mask of Diijon¨ and of course this ¨The raven¨. Bela Lugosi is at his prime in this character as a mad doctor who when is rejected he plans vendetta in his chamber of horror and good acting by terror master Karloff as a criminal who winds up ruining the mad doctor's schemes . Several inconsistencies in the somewhat twisted screenplay can be overlooked because of their chilling acting by the classic horror duo , Lugosi and Karloff .
The motion picture was well directed by Lew Landers , rivaling Sam Newfield and William Beaudine as one of the American film industry's most prolific directors, The Raven was his first feature made under his real name . Landers galloped his way around 130 movies , called quickfire and almost none of them exceeding 80 minutes , they have nearly all vanished into the mists of time now . It would be nice to record that Lew's output as one of the most prolific filmmakers in the field is studded with undiscovered treasures . Lew Landers got into filming serials with Universal , the first of them ¨Tailspin Tommy¨ and ¨Parole¨ , then the studio moved him on to features and he began his long career . Landers spent a lot of time at RKO and Columbia turning out low-budget adventure epics, thrillers and westerns . Towards the final of his shooting days , Landers became involved with all types of frivolities in a variety of strange color process as SuperCinecolor , filming several adventure films such as ¨Last of the Bucaneers , Blue blood , Captain Kidd and the slave girl , Captain John Smith and Pochahontas¨ and his most important ¨California conquest¨ . In the 1950s he turned to series television, as many of his fellow B directors did, and alternated between that and features for the remainder of his career , for that reason Landers was extremely busy in TV episodes until his early death at 60 years old .