The Raven (1935)

Memorable, crazy movie

Fresh and Exciting

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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.

After the phenomenal success of 1931's Dracula and Frankenstein, the names of Hunarian Bela Lugosi and Englishman Boris Karloff adorned nearly every poster Universal released in their horror range for the few years that followed. Despite Lugosi playing the central figure in many of these films, he always found his name overshadowed by that of Karloff, who was enjoying roles outside of the horror genre while Lugosi found himself typecast to his utter dismay. 1935's miniature The Raven (it runs at just an hour and 1 minute) is a prime example of this, despite Lugosi appearing in nearly every scene and delivering one of his best performances as a raving-mad doctor.When Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) is seriously injured in a car crash, her father Judge (Samuel S. Hinds) and fiancé Jerry Halden (Lester Matthews) call upon the services of highly-skilled surgeon Dr. Richard Vollin (Lugosi). Vollin successfully nurses Jean back to health and becomes enamoured by her, though his advances are discouraged by her father. Vollin is approached by fugitive criminal Bateman (Karloff), who wants the doctor to perform plastic surgery on him to hide his identity. Still enraged at Judge for denying him the woman he loves, Vollin disfigures Bateman and promises to fix his face, but only if he assists in a plan to exact vengeance using various torture devices inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe.Like Roger Corman's 1963 film of the same name, The Raven bears little resemblance to the work of Poe. Lugosi's deranged doctor is a fan of his work, pondering whether Poe's work was a reflection of the man himself, and keeps the bust of a raven as his talisman. Lew Landers' The Raven instead is a rather suggestively grisly horror, with characters being trapped in famous Poe devices such as the shrinking room and the pendulum, and was so extreme for its day that it flopped at the box-office and led to a ban on horror in the UK. By today's standards, it's wonderfully daft and incredibly fun, never feeling rushed despite it's slim running time. Outside of Dracula, this may also be Lugosi's best performances, although it came just before Universal's change of management and the start of Lugosi's tragic mainstream career decline.

One dark and foggy night a young woman named "Jean Thatcher" (Irene Dunne) is driving her car when she suddenly swerves and careens out of control. Because her injuries are too severe for the doctors at the hospital to handle, her father "Judge Thatcher" (Samuel S. Hinds) pleads with an extremely skilled but retired surgeon named "Dr. Richard Vollin" (Bela Lugosi) to operate on her. Sure enough the operation is a total success and about a month after surgery Jean is completely healthy again. Unfortunately, Dr. Vollin has fallen totally in love with her and when he realizes that Jean is engaged to be married to another man and Judge Thatcher subsequently refuses to allow him to see his daughter again he goes completely insane. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a splendid little movie which suffers somewhat from the short running time (only 61 minutes). Of course, being produced during the height of the Great Depression a number of films were similarly abbreviated in order to save money. In this particular case the film seemed to end much too soon. However, Bela Lugosi puts on an outstanding performance as does Boris Karloff who plays his accomplice "Edmond Bateman". In short, all things considered I rate this film as above average and recommend it to anyone who might enjoy a movie of this type.

In "The Black Cat", Boris Karloff (billed only as "Karloff") and Bela Lugosi were equals in the cat and mouse game. Now the former "Dracula" has gotten the same privilege to be billed just with his last name in the film where he has the upper hand over Karloff until the very end, and oh, what an end it is. Lugosi is an Edgar Allan Poe obsessed doctor, a man whose ego is so large that he compares himself to God and in one sequence, screams "Poe, you are avenged!". The opening scene is the car accident of a young dancer (Irene Ware) who is treated by the reluctant Lugosi, able to remove her scars with little effort. But Lugosi is so vain he feels that this entitles him to more with her, making her judge father (Samuel S. Hinds) filled with suspicion and certainty that Lugosi is a nut case. "Send her to me!" Lugosi orders Hinds as if she were a waitress, not caring that she's engaged to another man. Of course, Ms. Ware didn't help matters by dancing in public to a ballet of Poe's poem "The Raven" which Lugosi is first seen dramatically reciting. A knock on Lugosi's door puts his evil plan in motion. It is Karloff as an escaped convict who demands plastic surgery, and Lugosi uses this as his method for revenge against his self-created enemies. Karloff is filled with hate, realizing that great ugliness breeds great hate, something Lugosi himself finds profound. He agrees to give Karloff the surgery he demands but turns him into something even more hideous. But there is something in Karloff's soul which will not let him be used for the vicious revenge Lugosi seeks and this leads to the evil doctor's downfall in one of the most frightening of ways that will leave you in chills as it does every time I see this masterpiece.This is my favorite of the Lugosi/Karloff pairings because it really shows the depths of one man's downfall. Lugosi is obviously deranged, but his madness increases as the film goes on, laughing evilly as Karloff shoots out mirrors of his own image. He is initially somewhat gentle, very touched by the ballet which Ware performs in his honor, and that makes the decent into depravity all the more horrifying. There's a bit of comedy thrown in as is used in most of these films, here surrounding two of Lugosi's guests who can't sleep, but the overall atmosphere is absolutely frightening. Lugosi would go on to repeat this style of character in many films, but never would it be as well developed as this man, gifted with genius but one who turns it into a method of revenge that can only mean his eternal damnation.