The Raven (1935)

     1935’s The Raven was one of, I believe, four movies Universal made starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the mid-30’s.  Excluding any of the Universal Monster films.  The title “The Raven” is a bit of a stretch as the only connection between Edgar Allan Poe’s poem and the movie’s story is the use of the poem a couple of times and Lugosi’s character being a fan of Poe’s who owns a stuffed raven.  This is a Universal horror film that really wants to be good, but has a few issues getting over the finish line.  None of those issues being the performance of Lugosi.  He is just how you want him to be, only kind of crazy.

     The film begins with a young woman, the daughter of a well-known Judge, being involved in a car accident.  At the hospital the doctors tell the Judge that there isn’t anything they can do, but there is a retired neurosurgeon who may be able to.  So, the Judge visits Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi) who, after some convincing, agrees to operate on the young woman.  After the surgery Dr. Vollin and the girl form a friendship, only Vollin has actually grown very fond of her.  Well…more than fond, but she is already engaged to a successful young man and rebuffs his advance.  About this time a man knocks on Vollin’s door.  It’s a criminal on the lamb, Edmond Bateman (Karloff) who was told the Doctor could alter his appearance with surgery.  Seeing an opportunity Vollin agrees but only makes Bateman uglier than he already was and blackmails him into doing his bidding.  Then he'll make “good looking”.  At this point Doctor Vollin is obviously going mad.  He invites a few people over to his home for an overnight stay, including the young woman, her fiancé, and the judge.  The whole thing culminates with Bateman snatching the Judge so he can be placed in Edgar Allan Poe fan, Vollin’s recreation of the swinging blade on a pendulum ala The Pit and the Pendulum.  As death slowly threatens the judge, Bateman captures the girl and her fiancé and they get placed in a room with walls that close in to crush the pair.  Bateman finally has enough and turns on the doctor, striking down Vollin.  Then saving the judge, the girl, and her fiancé.

     Bela Lugosi’s performance is just a lot of fun to watch.  He’s “off the leash” and chewing up his dialogue and steeling every scene he’s in.  The other actors in the film really don’t stand a chance.  Karloff tries but is tied to a character who ends up behaving very much like Frankenstein’s Monster.  Even the groans he makes sound like “The Monster”.  Dr. Vollin’s fall into madness happens pretty quickly.  Once he realizes that the girl has zero interest in him and her father comes by to tell him to stop thinking of his daughter that way, he becomes the “mad scientist”.  The thing is, the only mad scientist thing he does is make Bateman look hideous.  The “monster” make-up on Karloff is underwhelming.  Especially after Jack Pierce’s amazing Frankenstein’s Monster make-up.  Supposedly the make-up was designed by Peirce and applied by Otto Lederer.  I’m not sure who’s idea it was for one of Karloff’s eyes to be a static, basically a drawing of the eye on an appliance, but it looks pretty goofy.  It does look ok in stills, but with Karloff performing it just comes off as laughable.  Luckily the running time of the movie is just an hour.  So, by the time you get tired of the film's shenanigans, it’s over.      

     Production was fast, completed in 15 days.  There was a little friction between the two stars.  Lugosi is definitely the star of the picture and was paid $5000 for his role, while Karloff, most definitely a supporting player, was paid $10,000 and gets top billing.  Lugosi was not happy and you really can’t blame him.  Prior to its release the script had to be reviewed by the new Production Code Administration (PCA) and they thought it sounded too violent and risked having “excessive horror”.  Can you imagine that?  In a horror movie?  So, director Louis Friedlander (AKA Lew Landers) was told to tone down any use of blood and Karloff’s horror make-up.  When the movie was released it received mixed reviews at best, but was financially successful enough to encourage Universal to pair the two stars up again in The Invisible Ray.  Even with the adjustments made by the production it still ended up being banned in places like China, the Netherlands, and parts of Canada.  So the subsequent films with Lugosi and Karloff were decidedly tamer.  Karloff went on to star in another movie called "The Raven" in 1963 with Vincent Price and Peter Lore.  

      I watched The Raven on the streaming service Peocock.  It is available on home video as part of the Universal Vault Series for around $12 and in a blu-ray collection called Universal Collection Volume 1, with The Black Cat, The Invisible Ray, and Black Friday for around $40.  All starring Lugosi and Karloff.