Directed by Roger Corman
Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre
Three elderly wizards engage in a war of wits and magic in Roger Corman’s irreverent spoof of the famous Poe poem.
Dr. Craven: Are you some dark winged messenger from beyond? Answer me monster, tell me truly! Shall I ever hold again the radiant maiden whom the angels call Lenore?
Raven: How the hell should I know? What am I, a fortune teller?
In the early ‘60s Roger Corman made a series of movies based loosely on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. In this case, very loosely. The Raven is a spoof starring three of the greatest horror icons of 20th century film – Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre, all of whom have a wonderful time puncturing the lugubrious pretensions of gothic fiction. Price is the mournful, milk-drinking Dr. Craven, Lorre the oily Dr. Bedlo, and Boris Karloff is the villainous Dr. Scarabus. Add Hazel Court as a disconcertingly robust Lenore, a very young Jack Nicholson in a romantic supporting role, and a screenplay by Richard Matheson, and you have the perfect movie to start the countdown to Halloween.
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