blackastheace Bela Lugosi was campy as hell and yet hellishly enjoyable.Boris Karloff's role, on the other hand, was quite subtle and downplayed, yet good in the opposite spectrum of that of Lugosi's.The plot was, to put it briefly, bizarre. The author of the script may have been an Edgar Allan Poe fanatic. The various incursions regarding Poe, however, although somewhat out of place, are doubtless enjoyable to fans of Poe, especially if they happen to like The Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum.The script seems to have been tightly edited; the plot moves along at breakneck speed, and there are no meandering scenes whatsoever.All in all, a rather enjoyable—if only mainly for its strangeness —"old dark house" movie from the 30s.Recommended.

Roman James Hoffman "The Raven" sees horror legends Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, who had both achieved star-status four years earlier as Dracula and Frankenstein's monster respectively, sharing a billing for the second time after the previous year's classic "The Black Cat". However, while on paper "The Raven" and "The Black Cat" share key similarities (both star Lugosi and Karloff, both are inspired by the morbid works of American writer Edgar Allen Poe, and both films even share a similar trapped-in-house-of-death plot) the latter feature has none of the eccentricities, suspense, or depth which characterized the earlier film and, as a result, I found "The Raven" uninspired, uninspiring, and really un-scary.The final part of a trilogy of (really loosely) Poe-based films, beginning with "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1932), "The Raven" has Lugosi playing Dr. Richard Vollin, a brilliant ex-surgeon who is lured out of his research to save the life of beautiful dancer Jean (Irene Ware) who he then falls madly in love with. However, she is already engaged and his desire turns to obsession and then to insanity as he hatches a plan involving Bateman (Karloff), a wanted criminal that literally knocks at Vollin's door who he facially disfigures and enlists to help him deal with those that got in the way of his love for Jean with the help of a dungeon full of Poe-inspired torture devices.The film's main problem is the total lack of suspense which, despite its 60 minute run time, seems to drag. I put this down to the characterizations which have the charismatic Vollin dominating the broadly ineffectual and pitiable Bateman (harking back to Karloff's role in Whale's "The Old, Dark, House" (1932)) in contrast to "The Black Cat" where the characters were equally matched in a bitter game of death. In addition, Lugosi's performance starts off as creepy and menacing in the Dracula mould but as the film goes on his hysterical madman's laughter is exaggerated and campy like Kenneth Williams in horror-spoof "Carry on Screaming". Add to this the dull sets (apart from the mirror room reveal scene) which, again, seem woefully dull compared to the cold, futurist masterpiece set design of "The Black Cat", and we have a movie struggling to keep its head above water.Maybe it's unfair to keep referring to "The Black Cat" in a review of "The Raven", but I think that, considering all the elements that the films share, the comparison is unavoidable. And as a result, with the first film being a classic, it was always going to be hard to come out from its shadow. Saying this, I still think that even without the comparisons to "The Black Cat" running through my head the whole film, "The Raven" still wouldn't quite cut it.

utgard14 Third and final movie in the trilogy of Edgar Allan Poe-themed horror films Bela Lugosi did for Universal in the 1930s. Also the second movie in which Lugosi and Karloff appear together. Lugosi plays a Poe-obsessed surgeon named Dr. Vollin, who is begged by a judge (Samuel S. Hinds) to save the life of the judge's daughter (Irene Ware), a dancer who suffered brain damage in a car accident. Vollin agrees and manages to perform the surgery successfully. Then he becomes fixated with the girl but her father steps in and tells him that's not going to happen. Vollin crafts a vicious revenge plan on the father, daughter, and her fiancé (Lester Matthews). To this end he forces wanted criminal Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff) to help him, by disfiguring his face and refusing to fix it unless he assists in helping Vollin torture his victims! Tour-de-force performance from Bela Lugosi in this one. A rare case of Lugosi outperforming Karloff. Lugosi's wild, over-the-top Dr. Vollin is so much fun to watch. Karloff is good, too, but Lugosi's part is much juicier. He's just off-the-rails here, laughing like a lunatic over the thought of torturing people! The highlight in all of the insanity is seeing Lugosi shout "Poe, you are avenged!" What exactly Poe is avenged of, I'm not sure, but I was loving every minute of it! I actually found myself rooting for this madman to win. That's how good Lugosi is in this. The rest of the cast is fine, with no one hitting a false note. But it's really a one-man show. Boris does good with what screen time he has, his face partially obscured by first a beard then some Jack Pierce makeup to show his disfigurement. He lets out a Frankenstein grunt at one point that I found amusing.If you're a Lugosi fan, this is for you. He's clearly having a great time with the role, especially the parts where he gets to taunt Karloff. You just know Bela loved that. For everybody else, don't go into this expecting something like The Black Cat. That film was more artistic. This is just sheer popcorn fun with one of the greatest personalities in horror films showing off in grand style.

AaronCapenBanner Lew Landers directed this loose adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short story, starring Bela Lugosi as Dr. Vollin, a brilliant yet mad surgeon who is contacted by wealthy Judge Thatcher(played by Samuel S. Hinds) to operate on his daughter Jean, who was gravely injured in a car accident. He is successful, but develops an obsession for her, and demands she be his. Jean is already engaged, and not interested in Vollin romantically, so he devises a plan to lure them and some other guests to his home, in order to avenge himself, and his idol Edgar Allan Poe, whom he is obsessed with...Bizarre companion piece to "The Black Cat", though this costars Boris Karloff as wanted criminal Edward Bateman, who is forced to help Vollin carry out his evil scheme. Though this is melodramatic nonsense, it is so well acted and over-the-top that it becomes quite entertaining, as long as one doesn't take it seriously!