SimonJack The writers for this film had a heyday playing on words in connection with Edgar Allen Poe's classic poem, "The Raven." This was the earlier of two comedy-terror films released in 1963 with much of the same leading cast. The second film, "The Comedy of Terrors," had many more laughs. Still, this is a fun film to watch Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in their haunts. Price plays Dr. Erasmus Craven – the first obvious wordplay. Lorre is Dr. Adolphus Bedlo. Since he spends half of his time turned into a raven, the writers might have switched their names. Karloff is Dr. Scarabus. A young Jack Nicholson plays Lorre's son, Rexford Bedlo. The rest of the cast are good. The Price and Karloff characters are antagonists with magical powers in "The Raven." With a rather lame script and not much humor in the dialog, many may find the movie dragging. Fans of the great fright masters of the past should enjoy it.

GL84 While mourning the loss of his wife, a sorcerer is confronted by a raven who claims that another sorcerer is behind a series of occurrences around his house, and upon learning of his true intentions behind the events challenges each other into a showdown for the ultimate sorcerer.This is one of the more obscure Vincent Price films that brings in the right amount of humor and comedy. That is one of the best part of the movie, which is the highly unexpected comedy that is incredibly prevalent in the film. Among the best parts of the comedy here is the fact that this has a lot of those lines that aren't exactly funny, yet they are due to the present situation, as the scenes of the sarcastic raven hopping around his chamber, that he wants to challenge him to a duel of magic, but only if he was sober which he rarely was, how he kept referring to his son as a brain- dead idiot and the utterly hilarious chants and spells being cast in common, identifiable Latin phrases that are totally the opposite of what they're intended to be was pretty funny and was the key to it's humor. We even got some great physical humor, complete with people bumping into walls, slamming into each other, or other forms of slapstick that are featured regularly enough that it makes for quite a truly hilarious effort that comes as a great surprise here considering this isn't exactly from a master comedy director. Another great aspect here is that this is one of Corman's few films where he is able to use mood and atmosphere very well. This is nowhere more apparent than in the beginning of the movie, while recapturing the opening lines of the poem the entirety of the events play out exactly as they are written which is a fine opening and gets some solid suspense out. This also works nicely for the final confrontation between Karloff and Price as well as the magic used to combat the other was very inventive and was realistic at how two sorcerers would fight each other, and even the special effects used in the fight were a nice surprise. Considering the time that the movie was made, it looks good the way that they filmed it's special effects which are the perfect combination of cheesiness and finely attuned black magic that works well in the large, impressive Gothic castle while making for a few laughs as well. These here are what really help this one while there's only a few minor elements to be held against it. The main thing about this one is the opening of the movie is Vincent Price reciting the Edgar Allen Poe poem of the same name. Even though it fit with the movie, I thought that it was merely an uninteresting way to start the movie. Price has a fine voice, but all it did in the scene was to provoke dreariness for one of the few times even in a Price movie. Corman could've thought of any number of ways to make the scene better. Some people might even be upset because the only references to the Poe story are the raven and Lenore, and the comedy as well might bother some looking for a more serious outing, but otherwise it's all personal preference for those issues.Today's Rating/PG: Mild Violence

tomgillespie2002 Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations always had a loose spirit about them, fleshing out the source material so it would flow nicely as a 90-minute feature. With The Raven, the tale of a tortured lover tormented by a bird rapping on his chamber door that was so hilariously lampooned in a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode ("Ever more! Ever more!"), Corman uses just a couple of Poe's 18 stanzas as inspiration to tell his own preposterous story of duelling wizards and a stolen love. The fifth in the so-called Corman-Poe cycle, Corman and script-writer Richard Matheson, bolstered by the success of Tales of Terror the year before, again opt for a comedic take on Poe's haunting text.In the 15th century, powerful sorcerer Dr. Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price) broods in his study, mourning the loss of his wife Lenore (Hazel Court) two years earlier. Much to his surprise, he is visited by a talking, wine-guzzling raven who turns out to be fellow wizard Dr. Adolphus Bedlo (Peter Lorre), transformed after an altercation with the evil Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff). After Craven turns the boozy spell-caster back to his normal self using a concoction of bizarre ingredients, Bedlo sees a painting of the apparently-dead Lenore and swears he saw her in Scarabus's castle. As curiosity gets the better of him, Craven, along with his daughter Estelle (Olive Sturgess) and Bedlo's goofy son Rexford (Jack Nicholson), journey to Scarabus's caste in the hope of finding answers.Although it is nowhere near the standards seen in the likes of The Fall of the House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), The Raven has its moments, and the main strength is in the ingenious casting of Price, Lorre and Karloff, all legends of the genre. They are totally game and are bags of fun, particularly Karloff who, at the time, was being introduced to a whole new generation of horror fans. The comedy is hit-and-miss. Sometimes it's funny and charming, but often it is cringe-inducingly daft. The climax is well directed and impressive- looking, especially for such a low-budget feature, but it's also overwhelmingly silly, and not in a good way. While The Raven is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, it feels like a 20-minute piece stretched out over 86 minutes, and may have worked better as part of a portmanteau piece.

SanteeFats This movie is a hoot. It is so funny when Vincent Price and Boris Karloff have their magic duel to the death, but when Price wins he leaves Karloff alive but exhausted of magic. By facial expressions alone during the duel you can see that Price is in control and even contemptuous of Karloff's magical attempts. Now Price's wife, Lenore, having left a substitute body in her tomb went over to Karloff two years ago. She is basically a whore for power. Peter Lorre is one of the three sorcerers but he is the least of the three. Actually pretty pathetic compared to the other two. Jack Nicholson appears in this film as Lorre's son. He evidently has no magical talent but does have chutzpah and helps out Price's daughter. In the end Lorre has been turned back into a raven, goes to Price to become human again. It doesn't happen as Price decides it is a fitting punishment for hem to remain a bird. The last line of the movie is the last line of Poe's poem, quoth the raven nevermore.