Movielogr
The Raven (1963)
Directed by Roger Corman
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Overview
A magician who has been turned into a raven turns to a former sorcerer for help.
Rated G | Length 86 minutes
Actors
Vincent Price | Peter Lorre | Boris Karloff | Hazel Court | Olive Sturgess | Jack Nicholson | John Dierkes | Connie Wallace | William Baskin | Aaron Saxon | Leo Gordon | Dick Johnstone
Viewing History (seen 2 times)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/22/2022 | TV | Blu-ray | Owned | 7 stars |
| 10/14/2019 | TV | Streaming | Video on Demand | 6 stars |
| (Average) 6.5 stars |
Viewing Notes
Okay, so this really isn’t horror (it’s totally fantasy comedy, however) but I will accept horror-adjacent which is good enough for the 31 in 31 Challenge… *and* if features TWO horror legends hamming it up plus a very willing Peter Lorre, who I guess is a horror legend in his own right just for starring in M. So yeah it counts for the challenge, which is also weird that I haven’t seen this before given that I’ve seen all the other Corman-directed Poe adaptations.
Gotta use “adaptation” loosely here b/c this is hardly an adaptation in the known sense. Instead it’s a crazy battle between two Grand Magicians for the title of Grand Master. There’s a sequence where Vincent Price and Karloff are sitting in their battle chairs inflicting one spell after another on each other and it’s so long and tedious I was dozing off.
This isn’t really a very good movie yet has a lot in common with The Comedy of Terrors (dir. Jacques Tourneur) from the same year and I have to believe these films played a part in each of them getting made with a similar cast and tone. They’re silly comedies (both feature Lorre, Price, and Karloff - the only two films that have all three?). TCoT released at the end of 1963 (The Raven at the beginning of 1963).
Anyways, what’s most hilarious about THE RAVEN is that Corman does that Corman thing where he just repurposes his sets for multiple movies. So here we have The Raven released at the top of 1963 then a few months later his hodge·podge production The Terror was released that uses the same set and Karloff/Jack Nicholson. For that reason plus Lorre/Price and a game Hazel Court 😍😍😍, I give this a half star bump. It’s joy to see them all so committed and earnest with the material despite its goofiness.
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