The Raven (1935)

 

'The Raven' is probably Edgar Allan Poe's most well known work. It is also one heck of a thing to try and adapt for the big screen, as this poem of a lonely man slowly succumbing to madness whilst a raven morosely comments on his longings isn't exactly something that contains many a visual accomplishment. Nevertheless, of course they did try something with it as this one attests to, even if the link with Poe is threadbare, to say the least.

Bela Lugosi plays doctor Vollin, a brilliant surgeon with a fascination for the works of Poe. He will quote 'The Raven' on a few occasions throughout this short film. It gets even more bizarre, as it turns out he has a variety of torture instruments and setups in his basement which he also attributes to his love for Poe. 

Okay then.

He is called out of retirement by a wealthy judge in order to save the judge's young daughter. Eventually Vollin agrees, but afterwards he becomes smitten with the young lady even though she is already engaged to be married to a hot young doctor. This won't deter Vollin and he hatches a scheme. 

In the meantime, an escaped bank robber comes to Vollin asking him to change his face so he can live free. Vollin agrees but disfigures the man so this person will do the legwork for Vollin in the promise that Vollin will eventually fix the misshapen man again. 

Yes, it is rather contrived. Yes, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but still: Karloff gives a soft and human performance.

Vollin then lures several people to his home in order to finally kill the judge and the young woman and her lover for reasons, I guess. You'd think he'd still want the girl for himself, but that is thrown out of the window at the end anyway. 

If you enjoy this one, will greatly depend on your love for Lugosi, as Karloff is fairly subdued and silent for the most part and even only comes in about halfway through. True, there never was an actor who could stare better than Lugosi and he uses this to his maximum, but Lugosi also always hams it up to eleven and his thick accent can detract from the overall enjoyment. The script is rather flimsy as well and most things that happen make little to no sense, especially when Lugosi eventually cries out that Poe is avenged.

I don't think anyone has an idea why on Earth Poe needed to be avenged, as nothing that happens here has anything to do with the author anyway. 

But for an atmospheric and traditional horrortale, this works. There's lightning, a storm, torture devices, some tension and a mad scientist with a deformed assistant, so most of the tropes are here. Are there better ones from this period out there? Absolutely. But if you like to see two greats of the genre together, this one is a nice timewaster.