The Raven
Roger Corman
Initial release: (USA)
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| images c/o IMDB |
Roger Corman's cycle of films based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe is kind of hit or miss, but for all the fact that he cheaped out on sets and effects (and, it seems, scripts) and the franchise mostly seemed to exist to pay Vincent Price's rent, you can't call it unimaginative, often filling in gaps where the source material left off. The Raven is the fifth film in the cycle, but while its links to the source material are more tenuous than usual, it swaps out much of the original gothic vibe for straight comedy. Somehow, it works.
First off, the cast. Vincent Price again, albeit in a rare heroic role, playing the mage Erasmus. Peter Lorre plays Dr. Bedlo, a lesser mage turned into a raven. A nearly larval Jack Nicholson is Bedlo’s son, and a very over-it Boris Karloff plays the evil Dr. Scarabus. Lotta big names. With a cast like this, even a weak script is salvageable. And while the plot is as paper-thin as it gets, the script manages to be a laugh a minute. Lorre ad-libbed most of his lines, making for some seriously funny moments. Quoth the raven: “how the hell should I know?” With scant details to draw from in the original story, the film pretty much goes off the rails right away. As you might have guessed, this is more a fantasy than a straight adaptation of the original poem (if you want that, go watch the first Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episode.) While
there is a healthy dose of gothic horror (everything from unsettling
non-events to the classic “scaling the walls of the castle,”) the clear
emphasis in this film is on comedy, and a lot of that comedy lies in
dialogue and amazingly obvious special effects.
Set
sometime in the early 15th century (at least, that’s what we can
surmise from a death date in a tomb and a little math,) the film opens
much more like you’d expect: with Price in voice-over, reading a few
lines from the poem over a psychedelic opening sequence, with much gloom
and thunder. The first hint that this isn’t the usual fare is a
physical gag where Erasmus bonks his head on his telescope. Eventually
the titular raven appears, and before long it speaks, revealing itself
to be Bedlo. Bedlo has been turned into a raven and sought out Erasmus,
the only mage he knows not part of the so-called “Brotherhood of Magic.”
Hijinks ensue.
The film was savaged when it was new, but looking at it now, especially in the context of the rest of the Poe cycle, it’s easy to see it as a self-aware parody of early 60s low-budget gothic horror that Corman was undoubtedly the master of. This it is and nothing more.