The Raven | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roger Corman |
Screenplay by | Richard Matheson |
Based on | "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe |
Produced by | Roger Corman |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Floyd Crosby |
Edited by | Ronald Sinclair |
Music by | Les Baxter |
Color process | Pathécolor |
Production company | Alta Vista Productions |
Distributed by | American International Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $350,000 [1] [2] |
Box office | $1,499,275 [3] [4] [5] |
The Raven is a 1963 American comedy gothic horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers. The supporting cast includes Jack Nicholson as the son of Lorre's character.
It was the fifth in the so-called Corman-Poe cycle of eight films largely featuring adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories produced by Roger Corman and released by American International Pictures (AIP). The film was written by Richard Matheson, based on references to Poe's 1845 poem "The Raven". AIP released the film as a double feature with Night Tide . [6]
Three decades earlier, Karloff had appeared in another film with the same title, Lew Landers's 1935 horror film The Raven with Bela Lugosi. [7]
In the year 1506, the sorcerer Dr. Erasmus Craven has been mourning the death of his wife Lenore for over two years, much to the dismay of his daughter (Lenore's stepdaughter), Estelle. One night he is visited by a raven, the wizard Dr. Bedlo. Together they brew a potion that restores Bedlo to human form.
Bedlo explains that he was transformed by Dr. Scarabus in an unfair duel. Both decide to see Scarabus, Bedlo to exact revenge and Craven to look for his wife, whom Bedlo saw alive at Scarabus's castle. [8] After fighting off an attack by Craven's coachman, who acted under the influence of Scarabus, they are joined by Estelle and Bedlo's son Rexford, and set out to the castle. Estelle and Rexford become fond of each other over the journey.
At the castle, Scarabus greets his guests with false friendship, and Bedlo is apparently killed as he conjures a storm in an act of defiance. At night, however, Rexford finds Bedlo alive and well, hiding in the castle. Bedlo conspired with Scarabus to deliver Craven to him, so that Scarabus could acquire his magical secrets. Craven, meanwhile, is visited and tormented by Lenore, who is revealed to have faked her death to become Scarabus's mistress.
As Craven, Estelle, Rexford and Bedlo try to escape from the castle, Scarabus stops them, and they are imprisoned. Bedlo panics and begs Scarabus to turn him back into a raven rather than torture him. He then flees the dungeon by flying away. Craven is forced to choose between surrendering his magical secrets to Scarabus or watching his daughter be tortured. Having only pretended to desert his friends and son, Bedlo secretly returns and frees Rexford, and together they aid Craven.
Craven and Scarabus engage in a magic duel. After a series of attacks, counterattacks and insults, during which Scarabus sets the castle on fire, Craven defeats Scarabus. Lenore tries to reconcile with him, claiming that she was bewitched by Scarabus, but Craven disbelieves and rejects her. Craven, Bedlo, Estelle and Rexford escape as the castle collapses on Scarabus and Lenore; both survive, but Scarabus's magic is gone.
Bedlo, still a raven, tries to convince Craven to restore him to human form. Still bitter over Bedlo's earlier betrayal, Craven casts a spell to render him mute.
Roger Corman and Richard Matheson had both enjoyed making the comic "The Black Cat" episode of Tales of Terror and wanted to try an entirely comic Poe feature. [2]
"After I heard they wanted to make a movie out of a poem, I felt that was an utter joke, so comedy was really the only way to go with it", said Matheson. [2]
The film was shot in 15 days.
Roger Corman said that although they kept closely to the structure and story script, "We did more improvisation on that film than any of the others." [2] During shooting, Peter Lorre ad-libbed a number of lines in the film including: [2]
Roger Corman said that Lorre's improvisations confused both Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, but Price adapted to it well while Karloff struggled:
Overall I would say we had as good a spirit on The Raven as any film I've ever worked on, except for a couple of moments with Boris. There was a slight edge to it, because Boris came in with a carefully worked out preparation, so when Peter started improvising lines, it really threw Boris off from his preparation. [2]
Corman said the tension between Peter Lorre and Jack Nicholson as father and son came from the actors rather than the script, as the two did not get along well. [2]
Vincent Price later recalled about the final duel:
Boris hated being strung up in the air on those chairs. He was terribly crippled, and we were both floating in the air on these wires. It wasn't a pleasant feeling! And I hated having that snake wrapped around my neck for two hours... I hate snakes. [2]
Boris Karloff later said he was annoyed at having to wear the heavy cape.
The footage of the burning interior of the castle was reused from Corman's 1960 film House of Usher .
The Raven opened on January 23, 1963 in 100 theaters in the Greater New York area before opening the following week in 50 theaters in Southern California. [9]
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film as "comic-book nonsense ... Strickly (sic) a picture for the kiddies and the bird-brained, quote the critic." [10] Variety wrote that while Poe "might turn over in his crypt at this nonsensical adaptation of his immortal poem", Corman nevertheless "takes this premise and develops it expertly as a horror-comedy." [11] The Chicago Tribune called it "fairly thin fare, made up mostly of camera tricks, and some very obviously false scenery, but Peter Lorre's performance is mildly entertaining. Youngsters may find it fun." [12] A generally positive review in The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the film "starts off with the inestimable advantage of a script which not only makes it amply clear from the outset that [Corman] is cheerfully and wholeheartedly sending himself up, but manages to do it wittily." Its main criticism was a "long central section" of the film that drags until things pick up again for the final duel. [13] Peter John Dyer of Sight & Sound wrote, "Richard Matheson's script, a good deal more tenuous than its predecessors in the Corman-Poe canon, at least treats its actors generously to props, incantations and quotable lines ... A pity the equation doesn't always add up; there's too much slack, due perhaps to an imbalance between the comedy, which runs riot, and the horror, which trails behind in the wake of previous Corman films." [14]
Colin Greenland reviewed The Raven for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Not so much a raven, more a bit of a lark." [15]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on reviews from 17 critics, with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10. [16]
Shown on the MeTV show Svengoolie on January 7, 2022, and also Dec. 9, 2023.
The film was popular at the box office. [2] [ clarification needed ]
A novelization of the film was written by Eunice Sudak adapted from Richard Matheson's screenplay and published by Lancer Books in paperback. This novel was republished by Bear Manor Media in 2012.
Richard Burton Matheson was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.
Peter Lorre was a Hungarian and American actor, active first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before moving to Germany where he worked first on the stage, then in film in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lorre caused an international sensation in the Weimar Republic–era film M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang, in which he portrayed a serial killer who preys on little girls. Known for his timidly devious characters, his appearance, and his accented voice, Lorre was frequently caricaturized during and after his lifetime and the cultural legacy of his persona remains in media today.
Roger William Corman was an American film director, producer and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.
American International Pictures LLC is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing films from 1955 until 1980, a year after its acquisition by Filmways in 1979.
The Tomb of Ligeia is a 1964 American-British horror film directed by Roger Corman. Starring Vincent Price and Elizabeth Shepherd, it tells of a man haunted by the spirit of his dead wife and her effect on his second marriage. The screenplay by Robert Towne was based upon the short story "Ligeia" by American author Edgar Allan Poe and was the last in his series of films loosely based on the works of Poe. Tomb of Ligeia was filmed at Castle Acre Priory and other locations with a mostly British cast.
Hazel Court was an English actress. She is known for her roles in British and American horror films during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) for Hammer Film Productions, and three of Roger Corman's adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories for American International Pictures: The Premature Burial (1962), The Raven (1963) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964).
The Terror is a 1963 American independent horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson, the latter of whom portrays a French officer who is seduced by a woman who is also a shapeshifting devil.
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The Raven is a 1935 American horror film directed by Louis Friedlander and starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi. Billed as having been "suggested by" Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 poem of the same title, excerpts of which are quoted at a few points in the film, it was adapted from an original screenplay by David Boehm. Lugosi stars as a neurosurgeon obsessed with Poe who has a torture chamber in his basement, and Karloff plays an escaped murderer on the run from the police who Lugosi manipulates into doing his dirty work.
The Masque of the Red Death is a 1964 horror film directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. The story follows a prince who terrorizes a plague-ridden peasantry while merrymaking in a lonely castle with his jaded courtiers. The screenplay, written by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell, was based upon the 1842 short story of the same name by American author Edgar Allan Poe, and incorporates a subplot based on another Poe tale, "Hop-Frog". Another subplot is drawn from Torture by Hope by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.
House of Usher is a 1960 American gothic horror film directed by Roger Corman and written by Richard Matheson from the 1839 short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. The film was the first of eight Corman/Poe feature films and stars Vincent Price, Myrna Fahey, Mark Damon and Harry Ellerbe.
The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story of the same name. Set in sixteenth-century Spain, the story is about a young Englishman who visits a foreboding castle to investigate his sister's mysterious death. After a series of horrific revelations, apparently ghostly appearances and violent deaths, the young man becomes strapped to the titular torture device by his lunatic brother-in-law during the film's climactic sequence.
The Comedy of Terrors is a 1963 American International Pictures horror comedy film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Joe E. Brown in his final film appearance. It is a blend of comedy and horror that features several cast members from Tales of Terror, a 1962 film also released by AIP.
The Haunted Palace is a 1963 horror film released by American International Pictures, starring Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr. and Debra Paget, in a story about a village held in the grip of a dead necromancer. Directed by Roger Corman, it is one of his series of eight films based largely on the works of American author Edgar Allan Poe.
Madhouse is a 1974 horror film directed by Jim Clark for Amicus Productions in association with American International Pictures. The film, which is a British-American co-production, stars Vincent Price, Natasha Pyne, Peter Cushing, Robert Quarry, Adrienne Corri, and Linda Hayden. The film was based on the 1969 novel Devilday by Angus Hall.
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
American poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe has had significant influence in television and film. Many are adaptations of Poe's work, others merely reference it.
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