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Undescribable Perfection

hyped garbage

Excellent but underrated film

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

After saving a beautiful dancer's life at the bequest of her distraught father, the eccentric, Poe-quoting doctor who successfully performed the girl's surgery finds himself smitten with his lovely patient; the young woman's father fears the feeling might be mutual and disapproves. Meanwhile, a gangster begs the doctor for a new face--and gets one, but not the handsome mug he had hoped for; the doctor makes a deal to fix the botched surgery if the gangster carries out his plan for the murder of the girl's father. Grab-bag thriller from Universal gives both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff (top-billed as Karloff) deliciously creepy roles, but perhaps it was the multitude of uncredited writers on this project that helped to stall the story's momentum. Initially, Lugosi is obsessed with the girl--and she's enchanted by him--but soon, she's back with her boring fiancé and Lugosi wants to kill them both. The wealthy fools who gather at Lugosi's mansion on a dark, stormy night are very funny, and Karloff is sympathetic as the strong-arm who doesn't want to kill anymore, but the story quickly stops paralleling Poe and instead becomes a routine house of horrors (although the elevated bedroom is a nice touch). ** from ****

From Universal Studio in 1935 we have: The Raven, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (and several lesser players) is an extremely brisk running horror film, clocking in at right around exactly one hour and what an hour it is.This is probably Lugosi's most entertaining and unhinged performance, as he really seems to be enjoying himself and relishing the role of the insane Dr. Vollin - blackmail and torture is his game. Karloff is low key and far less spectacular in his role as the escaped convict Edmond Bateman and plays second fiddle to Lugosi, definitely a subservient role.PLot SHakedown: Dr. Vollin (Lugosi) is a retired surgeon who's hung-up on Poe, torture devises and above all death "death is the only certain thing, in an uncertain universe" as he say's to a guest. The doc is called upon by a judge who's young beautiful daughter (Irene Ware), has been gravely injured in a car accident and the doctors attending to her simply aren't good enough to fix her injured neck, they suggest Dr. Vollin after a little stubbornness he relents and operates on her and saves her life. After doing so he quickly becomes intensely infatuated with his young beautiful patient, however she's already engaged to a younger doctor, a colleague of Vollins. Her dad quickly catches on to Vollins infatuations through series of fixated stares and confronts him about it, which really sets him off, only furthering Vollins burning lust for her. Now he's mad with love, a love that can never be. So the only sane thing to do, is to invite them over to his posh home (filled with secret passageways, trapdoors, a fully equipped torture dungeon, and lots of other fun stuff) for a party over the weekend (and this is where the plot thickens). Which everyone eagerly excepts the doctors invitation (Mr. Judge is deeply suspicious all along of Vollins intentions) and so they all party it up a bit, then it gets late and they turn in for the night - and here's where the fun begins. Vollins deformed butler, Bateman (Karloff) is blackmailed into helping the mad doctor deal with his guests. You see Bateman is a convict who's on the run and desperate for some kind of disguise, who foolishly trusts Vollin to "fix his face" and basically Vollin does a hatchet job on him, severing some vital nerves which paralyses the entire right side of his face. He'll fix his face, but ONLY if he'll help him torture his guests to death. Breezing over the second half of this very short film - Vollin has all his guests right where he wants them, but Bateman has a change of mind, stops the torturing and attacks Vollin, knocks him out cold and drags him into one of his own torture devises, which Doctor Vollin finds to be a real -pressing- situation. The evil doctor is vanquished and ...........well it's a happy ending.This movie is a lot of fun, great acting from Lugosi, some terrific dialog (Lugosi can say just about anything and it's prime entertainment) great looking sets (i.e. the torture devices in his stonewalled torture dungeon). Lugosi is a real full-blown psychopath in this film and most of his scenes exude exactly that, up until the very end he's in complete control of the proceedings. Karloff was fresh off the success of -Bride of Frankenstein- just three months earlier, so it's likely this is the very next film he did; while certainly not as good as Frankenstein or any of James Whale's godly horror classic's - The Raven still has a hell of a lot going for it and should keep most fans of vintage horror happy for a solid hours worth of entertainment. A most charming horror flick and Lugosi proves quite capable as the devilishly deceitful host. "Doctor Vollins House of Horror's" could fittingly be an alternate title.Early in the film, when Lugosi's reciting Poe's poem The Raven, is that not a perversely picturesque shot, when he's sitting next to that raven statuette. Sure it's a simple shot, but perfectly composed.The Raven is no masterpiece, but it's still very good.

This wonderful teaming of horror greats Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is an incredible amount of fun. The stars play off each other beautifully, and are well supported by a strong group of actors. Director Lew Landers gives the story great pacing and a gleefully macabre flair. The scenario comes complete with torture devices, secret chambers, rooms that elevate, and some pretty good makeup for Karloff.Lugosi plays Richard Vollin, an esteemed surgeon with an Edgar Allan Poe obsession. When lovely young Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) gets into a bad car accident, he agrees to save her life, albeit very reluctantly. The bad doctor soon develops another fixation, this time on Jean. When her father, a judge (Samuel S. Hinds), warns Vollin to stay away from her, Vollin goes mad. He shanghais escaped criminal Edmond Bateman (Karloff) and disfigures him, promising to restore Batemans' face only if he will help Vollin with his evil schemes.This is very much essential viewing for lovers of Karloff and Lugosi. Karloff is good as always, playing a basically sympathetic character despite his past. Ware and Hinds are both fine, as are Lester Matthews, Spencer Charters, Inez Courtney, Ian Wolfe, and Maidel Turner. But this is pretty much Lugosis' show. He gets a chance to really tear into the scenery, and looks like he's having a whale of a time. Vollins' Poe obsession also allows him to do some recitals of lines from the Poe poem.There's some potentially strong stuff here for some viewers, but "The Raven" has lots of energy and clocks in at just over 61 minutes. The second half is the best part.Eight out of 10.

In "The Black Cat", Boris Karloff (billed only as "Karloff") and Bela Lugosi were equals in the cat and mouse game. Now the former "Dracula" has gotten the same privilege to be billed just with his last name in the film where he has the upper hand over Karloff until the very end, and oh, what an end it is. Lugosi is an Edgar Allan Poe obsessed doctor, a man whose ego is so large that he compares himself to God and in one sequence, screams "Poe, you are avenged!". The opening scene is the car accident of a young dancer (Irene Ware) who is treated by the reluctant Lugosi, able to remove her scars with little effort. But Lugosi is so vain he feels that this entitles him to more with her, making her judge father (Samuel S. Hinds) filled with suspicion and certainty that Lugosi is a nut case. "Send her to me!" Lugosi orders Hinds as if she were a waitress, not caring that she's engaged to another man. Of course, Ms. Ware didn't help matters by dancing in public to a ballet of Poe's poem "The Raven" which Lugosi is first seen dramatically reciting. A knock on Lugosi's door puts his evil plan in motion. It is Karloff as an escaped convict who demands plastic surgery, and Lugosi uses this as his method for revenge against his self-created enemies. Karloff is filled with hate, realizing that great ugliness breeds great hate, something Lugosi himself finds profound. He agrees to give Karloff the surgery he demands but turns him into something even more hideous. But there is something in Karloff's soul which will not let him be used for the vicious revenge Lugosi seeks and this leads to the evil doctor's downfall in one of the most frightening of ways that will leave you in chills as it does every time I see this masterpiece.This is my favorite of the Lugosi/Karloff pairings because it really shows the depths of one man's downfall. Lugosi is obviously deranged, but his madness increases as the film goes on, laughing evilly as Karloff shoots out mirrors of his own image. He is initially somewhat gentle, very touched by the ballet which Ware performs in his honor, and that makes the decent into depravity all the more horrifying. There's a bit of comedy thrown in as is used in most of these films, here surrounding two of Lugosi's guests who can't sleep, but the overall atmosphere is absolutely frightening. Lugosi would go on to repeat this style of character in many films, but never would it be as well developed as this man, gifted with genius but one who turns it into a method of revenge that can only mean his eternal damnation.