The Raven (1963)

Peter Lorre has a problem. An evil wizard, played by Boris Karloff, has turned him into a sleek, blackbird. Oh, he's still Peter Lorre, but, darn it! Vincent Price, of whom he was counting on having the correct magical formula to change him back into a man, just can't seem to get it right. Oh, his daddy seems to have all the correct magical ingredients hidden in his ancient laboratory, but, something goes wrong, and he just doesn't mix up a big enough batch! Thus, poor Lorre, whose life is tough enough for being a put-upon little fat man, is left walking around with two big black wings, occasionally dropping off feathers and lamenting his sorry luck.

The Raven is a horror comedy starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and a young and handsome Jack Nicholson. It was produced and directed by Roger Croman, the B-Movie auteur who is still kicking in his nineties and is a sort of legendary cinematic figure. During the Sixties, he made several films based (quite loosely) on the stories and poems of Poe, although this movie has nothing at all to do with Poe's famous poem, save for a few stanzas quoted by Vincent Price at the beginning of the film, over a few projected, psychedelic jelly smears.

Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price) sits in his study, when Dr. Bedlow (Peter Lorre), in the form of the titular "Raven" flies in, a wisecracking bird demanding to be changed back into a man. Craven does and is informed his "dear sweet Lenore" Hazel Court (whom he has thought dead for years, was seen at the castle of Dr. Scarabus, another wizard. Both take off with Craven's daughter (Olive Sturgess) and Bedlo's son (Jack Nicholson, who was also in Corman films such as The Terror, from 1963, and Little Shop of Horrors, made in 1960). along the way a coachman goes insane and tries to kill everyone with an axe, Jack Nicholson goes insane and tries to crash their coach, and there are several goofy and comic "magical duels": eggs falling on people's heads, Price floating through the air, a necktie that is turned into a snake; snow falling from the ceiling, that sort of thing.

It turns out that dear, sweet Lenore, "nameless here, forevermore," (as Poe said, left Erasmus with a phony corpse and a bad portrait of herself, and went to join Dr. Scarabus, who simply used Lorre to lure Craven to his castle so he could steal his magic. In the end, this is a no-go, and the film closes with Lorre once again in an unfortunate position. The final line, quoth the Raven, is taken directly from Poe. The End.

Although it seems to go on a bit longer than it should, The Raven is appropriately entertaining, although seems a bit aimless. If you enjoyed watching Price, Karloff, and Lorre in Comedy of Terrors, you'll very likely appreciate the cornball humor of this horror-fantasy send-up, with its dueling wizards and wicked women (who are very lovely to look at). otherwise, if you think this film has anything to do with the progenitor of all the gothic tropes this film lampoons then you are, forgive the pun, dead wrong.

P probably made, chiefly, because Roger Corman wanted to re-use the sets. What is undeniable is that (a) the contention between Lorre and Nicholson was NOT simply a part of the story; the two men did not get along. And (b), while the film was panned by critics as "comic book nonsense" that would have caused "Poe to roll over in his grave," it was a commercial success. Especially in France.

Go figure. In the intervening decades, it became a staple of the late-night creature features.

The Raven can be viewed for free on YouTube.