"The Raven" (1963) Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson...

[Ed Augusts]

The Raven (1963)
S T A R R I N G
Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson
Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess
Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's tale



This movie purports to take place in the 1500's in an undisclosed but
undoubtedly European location, in a world of castles and mansions in
which spell-casting, when done by a powerful sorcerer is a danger to
transportation and to master-servant relations, and in which the use
of magic is a common practice, in which magicians turn upstart rivals
into feathery black birds as punishment, and also steal each other's
lovers. There is nothing much here to remind us of "The Raven", Poe's
classic poem, except the wonderful recital of the poem at the start of
the film with a psychedelic background image accompaniment.

I read the autobiography of movie director Roger Corman last year.
What persistence! What nerve! What a character! (And what a cheap-
skate!) His personal series of ultra-low-budget films proved that if
you throw enough crap at a wall enough times, some of it is bound to
be acclaimed an act of genius. Also, if you make a movie cheaply
enough, of course it will make money, no matter how many cut corners
and amateur antics it has. By the time this classic came out, however,
Corman was doing the “Poe” series and he had the script, the sets, the
costumes, and, of course, the actors to outdo all his previous
efforts. But there is no doubt he was cheap! I wonder if the actors
in The Raven made anything on this movie or not?

Samuel Z. Arkoff and his partner, by the name of Nicholson, footed the
bill for Corman's musings, and somehow the youngster named Jack
Nicholson, aiming to do his third movie, got aboard. I sense Jack
Nicholson is related somehow to the Nicholson partner because he would
not have passed my screen test! He is as young as Huckleberry Finn,
and hokey and churlish and dumb. I've seen Little Shop of Horrors
(1960) with an even younger Nicholson. Nobody I know has ever seen
the Cry Baby Killer, (1958), his very first movie, in which Nicholson
gets second billing. It seems like his career dawdled for a few years
before anything else came up. When he opens his mouth in this pic, you
get the impression of a large rodent. He strains the lines to death,
the closest thing to a real murder in the whole movie. He would not
have had much appeal here to any female between 12 and 42, maybe even
a wider range than that. All the more amazing that later he often
played a dark and strangely sexy character. This is NOT the Jack we
know and love from just a few years later. This is Jack's “baby
picture”, even more than “Cry Baby Killer”. He must never have ever
smoked grass when he appeared in this flick! Where is the wise young
lawyer that we met in Easy Rider? Where's the confident actor nearly
getting his nose sliced in half in Chinatown?

This features a great Richard Matheson script! We've seen other
screenplays of his on Twilight Zone (16 of them, 1959—1964) and in the
other Poe projects for American International Films, the Alfred
Hitchcock Hour, etc. He provided the script for Burn, Witch Burn! -
a 'hot' movie if there ever was one!

Great “winging it” no pun intended, outside the perimeters of said
script by the 3 major actors. Nicholson is still so wet behind the
ears in this piece that he drips... The two females add surprisingly
little excitement, especially the one playing Price's daughter. The
other pairing – Hazel Court and Boris Karloff – is vaguely unsettling,
as there must be 30 to 40 years in difference between their ages. But
Price, Lorre, and Karloff are terrific. The more we see of these
characters, the better! Fortunately one or more of them are on-stage
here, 98% of the time!

Peter Lorre is a gem. What on earth did they do with his eyes to make
them 'bug out' like that? Horrors! He seems to have the most
lines of anybody in this movie, and he has the distinction of having
lines as a bird, as a half-bird, and as a man, and then as a bird
again. How often do you see that?

But it is Vincent who is the Van Gogh among the dabblers here,
definitely at the top of his form, with an infinity of expressions to
draw upon, and, of course, that million dollar voice! I bet none of
the other actors in this flick have come out with their own 500-page
cook book like he did in the mid-1960's. Price's subtlety and skill
had the noble heavyweight Boris Karloff just barely keeping up. The
older Karloff, who nonetheless had a few good years left in him here,
seems eager for this role. What could be more fun for actors of the
sublime and the horrific than to play a pair of medieval madcap
magicians?

Just a few problems, but they are offset by the good stuff. There is
a green tinge to one reel of this film. It goes away after awhile.
Price responds well to the gold lame' he wears. His residence, and
Karloff's castle, are appointed just well-enough to make us feel they
might be real. The central fireplace in the castle, a towering fire
in the center of a large room, must have led to real architects
trying to build real fireplaces like that. The worst problem is what
seems to be an overly-slow plodding, plodding, plodding pace, as
characters tromp down what seems an endless hallway or rattle around
in a carriage. I think this impression of slowness is caused by the
fact the film was handled much like a stage play. We've had 45 years
of faster and faster movies to watch, AFTER this movie was filmed.
This is not exactly Star Wars, after all.

There is peril and pleasure enough for anybody, here! The witty
script allows everyone in the cast to be threatened with death at
least once or twice, but there is also a wise undercurrent of love...
The Price-character's love for his “lost Lenore”, even though she
doesn't deserve any such love... Nicholson for Price's daughter,
“Lenore” for the venerable Karloff!

One character undergoes several transformations, which allow him to
perfect a great bird imitation. Sesame Street should've picked-up his
contract.

But nobody dies, not even the bad guys. No wonder this movie is
loved by both children and their parents. Three kids and two adults
successfully watched this movie together on VHS on Thanksgiving's
Night. That's a good sign!

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