The Raven, 1935
Directed by Lew Landers
Starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Irene Ware, Samuel S. Hinds
One year after The Black Cat, horror icons Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff teamed up again to take on the famous Egdar Allen Poe poem. But, unlike The Black Cat, The Raven feels like it has more to do with the actual poem – even if it’s still not really connected.
Lugosi plays Richard Vollin, a brilliant but slightly eccentric doctor who is called in by Judge Thatcher to help his daughter who has been in a car accident. Not only does Vollin save her life, he also falls in love with her – despite the fact she is set to be married. As Vollin pictures her as his “Lost Lenore”, he begins to slip further and further into madness and plots to kill her father and fiancé in his Poe inspired dungeon.
I mentioned in my review of The Black Cat that Karloff turned in a career best. And while many would argue that his role of The Monster is clearly more iconic and therefore “better”, there is little doubt in my mind that Lugosi’s role as Dr. Richard Vollin outshines anything else the actor did on film.
He plays the part perfectly with a fantastic awe of charisma. Starting off as a little bit odd with a slight obsession with Poe’s work (in particular The Raven) before slowly falling further and further into his obsession to marry Jean. He even sinks to new lows when he enlists the help of Edmond Bateman (Karloff) and purposely disfigures his face, forcing him to help him kill the judge. This act alone would have made him an evil madman, but his torture devices to kill his victims are even worse. In a tribute to The Pit and the Pendulum, Vollin straps the judge to a table with a swinging pendulum axe that slowly lowers its way down to him.
Sadly Karloff isn’t given a lot to do in here. He does the best with what he has, but he is very much reserved for the supporting role. Bateman is a very sympathetic character and you do find yourself hoping that he will do the right thing by the victims as opposed to helping this evil genius just so he will fix his face. New viewers to the movie may also scoff at the prosthetics on Batman’s face, but I think they look just fine.
With a sharp runtime of 61 minutes, The Raven doesn’t pull any punches with regards to its pacing. Perhaps it would have been a better film had more time been devoted to some of the earlier scenes, but the film never feels overly rushed. It moves along at a brisk pace, but time is given to pivotal scenes (the pendulum scene for example).
Out of the two movies, I would easily say that The Raven is the better film. I don’t like to compare films that aren’t overly connected, but it’s hard to talk about one without talking about the other. Lugosi is fantastic in his role and the story is incredibly gripping. A lot of the supporting cast get short changed in terms of screen time, but this Lugosi’s movie and he owns it. His character is riveting and you just want to see more of what he will do to get what he wants.
The Raven is the perfect double feature movie to go alongside The Black Cat. It features two of the best of the genre pulling out some of their greatest performances on screen. They may not have much to do with the poet they claim to be suggested by, but they both get their jobs done perfectly.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published June 16, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
