Watch The Raven For Free

You won't be disappointed!

That was an excellent one.

Beautiful, moving film.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I thought I know what to expect from Roger Corman's movie from 1963, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in leading roles. Boy, was I surprised. What I did not expect was comedy with Jack Nicholson !!! With Po's Raven this movie has very little connections. It's not particularly funny either. But it is pretty much entertaining and I'm always happy to see Price and Karloff. It's interesting to see Nicholson's beginnings too. To fans of Corman, Price and Karloff warm recommendations. The rest of you better skip it.7/10

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.

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.

It's hard to believe this was written by Richard Matheson, who passed on just a few days ago, R.I.P. He wrote some fine short stories and a couple of neat scripts for "The Twilight Zone." But here, I suppose, trapped in the strictures of time and budget, the story is meandering and ultimately unimportant, taking second place to a variety of inexpensive special effects and whimsical conversation that aims at wit but never quite makes it. You want comedy? Here are Vincent Price and goggle-eyed Peter Lorre as two Medieval sorcerers trying on funny hats.There are a few amusing lines. Peter Lorre is changed back and forth from a raven to a human and in the latter configuration is given to complaining about how itchy the pin feathers are and how he's always being attacked by hawks. They're not VERY funny but at least someone was trying.I don't think the film deserves much more attention. Boris Karloff is the third sorcerer and I understand they had fun making this silly movie. Clowning around, Lorre opened one of the caskets and said, "Why, Jack WARNER!" I'm glad they enjoyed themselves. I doubt many viewers will, except maybe children.Poe's poem, "The Raven," is a genuine nightmare. I remember visiting the house in Philadelphia where he wrote it. A small piece of crumbling brick had fallen out of one of the walls and I pocketed it. I don't know why I'm mentioning that. It's probably a crime. But I've always admired Poe's work and often been moved by it, one way or another. And all we see or hear of the original raven is, I think, the first stanza (or part of it) of the poem, in a voice over by Price. For a fine reading, if anyone is interested, see if you can find Basil Rathbone's tape. But, as for this movie, why did they both to drag Poe in at all?