Poe has for a long time been a source for Hollywood to mine in search of new horror properties. 1935 the year the production code went into full effect Universal released The Raven very loosely adapted from Poe’s poem and starring the two biggest stars at the time in horror, Lugosi, and Karloff.

Lugosi plays Dr Vollin a brilliant but vain and arrogant surgeon. After saving the life of a daughter of a local judge Vollin becomes infatuated with the young woman and then mad when his ‘affections’ are not returned. In a plot contrivance of convenience Edmond Bateman, played by Karloff, an escaped convict under a death sentence attempts to force Vollin to perform plastic surgery so that he might escape the law. Vollin turns the tables on Bateman and intends to use him as part of his revenge on all who have denied him his true happiness.

The Raven (1935) is not very good but with a runtime of just one minute over an hour it doesn’t take up much if your life either. Karloff delivers a surprisingly nuanced performance that has echoes of his portrayal of the creature in 31’s Frankenstein. Lugosi, in the calmer more deliberate moments of his character is quite good however when the final act rolls around and he goes big his performance turns comical and appears even more so in contrast to Karloff’s in the same scenes where his understated delivery steals the moment. The movie may be unique for its second act interpretive dance of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, but that itself is not enough to save this picture.

The Raven is currently stream in on The Criterion Channel as part of their Universal Monsters Collection.

My SF/Noir Vulcan’s Forge is available from Amazon and all booksellers. The novel is dark, cynical, and packed with movie references,