The Raven (1935)

Directed by: Louis Friedlander

The good thing about these old horror movies from the 30's is their length... "The Raven" is just 61 minutes long and it's perfect if you want to have your very own double feature (like I did with this flick and "The Black Cat", which is just 65 minutes long), you get two great movies for the length of one! As was the case with "The Black Cat" this is again a Lugosi/Karloff movie and even though I know that Karloff was the bigger name of the two (even though Lugosi became a star first with "Dracula") I do feel that Lugosi should have had top billing as he is without a doubt the star of this movie. Hell, Karloff's character should be considered a supporting character and nothing else here...

Again it's a movie "adaption" of an Edgar Allan Poe story and as usual the movie has nothing to do with the story (or in this case: poem) itself. To justify the use of Poe and the title Lugosi's character is obsessed by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and we even get a dance number set to a reading of the poem... um, come to think of it, this movie has a lot more to do with Poe than the usual "adaptions"!


When a pretty ballerina, Jean (Irene Ware), gets into a serious car accident Doctor Richard Vollin (Bela Lugosi) is on the case to save her (even though it took some real coaxing from the girl's father for Dr Vollin to even care about it). Vollin, not caring so much about morals, takes one look at the patient on the operating table and quickly wants to play doctor with her... um, not like in saving her life through surgery, rather the hanky panky kinda way. As he's a brilliant surgeon (albeit a bit reluctant to show it) he saves Jean's life and at a follow up visit a month later (these people heal quickly as there is absolutely no sign whatsoever that Jean ever had surgery or took some time to heal) his obsession with her becomes apparent. She won't have anything of that though, but she tells him that she has a surprise for him at her upcoming ballet performance (see? she's doing that this soon after that life saving head surgery... they sure healed fast back in the day...).

At the ballet performance Jean is strutting around on the stage (if that's ballet I'm not sure I ever could be into it) while a Poe look-a-like sits on the side of the stage reading the poem "The Raven". All this while Vollin (who has a serious Poe obsession) sits and drools over Jean, something Jean's father doesn't appreciate (Sure, tell Dr Vollin anything to save his daughter, but don't let him get close to her afterwards!). Vollin doesn't like this little bump in the road, so when a criminal on the run from the police, Bateman (Karloff), comes to Vollin for help to change his face surgically our sweet (and very insane) Dr Vollin agrees to help Bateman only if he will torture and kill some people first.

Not being a very nice guy, Dr Vollin disfigures Bateman to force him to help doing those dirty deeds (as an "ugly person will be able to do ugly things") with a promise to fix Bateman's looks after it's all done. I'm not sure why Vollin needs Bateman really, as when things starts getting done it's mostly him doing it anyway... Jean, her father and her fiancé (yep, she got one of those and Vollin STILL plans to move in on her) and some other people are invited to Vollin's house for a weekend and that's when things start to happen. Trap doors, torture equipment straight out of Poe's stories, moving rooms, crushing walls... hell, being a surgeon must pay damn good as Vollin sure has a sweet set up in his house... I'm not gonna tell you how the movie ends, but Poe is finally "avenged" at least (whatever that has to do with anything, but Vollin isn't very sane and that probably made sense to him).

While not being as good as "The Black Cat", this movie again delivers the macabre we're expecting from Lugosi and Karloff. With his theatrical and over the top performance as the totally batshit insane Doctor Vollin, Lugosi again really shines here. Karloff is great as always, but Lugosi is better... Even though this is a Universal picture it does feel a lot more like those low budget movies Lugosi made for Monogram Pictures and other poverty row film companies instead (with the grisly torture and disfigurement of Karloff's character it feels more exploitative than the usual Universal movies of the time), which it could have been if it weren't for the lavish sets and the fact that Lugosi was teamed up with Karloff. I doubt Monogram Pictures could ever have afforded both of them in the same movie...

There's a DVD set (well, it's one flipper DVD with 5 movies on it) called "The Bela Lugosi Collection" where you'll find 4 of the Lugosi/Karloff movies (this one, "The Black Cat", "The Invisible Ray" and "Black Friday") as well as the 1932 version of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and it's well worth a buy if you want some real old school entertainment with the masters of the genre.

The Black Cat (1934)

Directed by: Edgar G. Ulmer

Ok, now we're talking! Both Lugosi and Karloff in the same movie and what a movie it is! This was the first of seven movies starring both Lugosi and Karloff (the others were "The Raven" (1935), "The Invisible Ray" (1936), "Son of Frankenstein" (1939), "Black Friday" (1940), "You'll Find Out" (1940) & "The Body Snatcher" (1945)), and even though there are some really great movies among those other six no one comes even close to this one. This is, to me, one of the best movies from the 30's and it's of course an Universal Picture... but, unlike most of the Universal horror movies from this era this one features no supernatural monsters, here we're talking about human "monsters".

Even though the title of the movie is taken from Poe nothing else is... During the opening credits it says "suggested by the immortal Edgar Allan Poe classic" and apparently no one really bothered reading that short story... Lugosi's character (Dr. Vitus Werdegast) is deathly afraid of black cats and that's it, really. So, if you came looking for a great Poe adaption you might wanna look elsewhere, but if you want a great psychological horror flick filled with satanism, necrophilia, sadistic torture, incest, brutal revenge and the two masters of early horror cinema you're right where you should be.

The film opens on the Orient Express and an american couple on their honeymoon, Joan and Peter Alison (Jacqueline Wells & David Manners), who ends up having to share their compartment with Doctor Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi), who's on his way to meet an "old friend". As luck have it they all get off the train at the same station and end up sharing a (very raggedy looking) tourist bus. The weather is shit and the bus driver manages to slide off the road and crash the bus. Good thing Doctor Werdegast's "friend" lives close to the scene of the accident...

The gang (minus the bus driver, who was killed in the accident) ends up at the front door of the noted architect Hjalmar Poelzig's (Karloff) very futuristic looking house (looks more like something a Bond villain would build for himself, but works very well here), and they're quickly set up in guest rooms. Here we get to learn that Werdegast and Poelzig fought together in WWI at a fort that Poelzig's house is built on the ruins of, Poelzig being the commander of the fort sold the rest of the soldiers out when giving it up to the Russians and then fled like a rat into the night. Werdegast went to prisoner of war camp while Poelzig told Werdegast's wife Vitus had died in the camps and married her... Yeah, a real bastard thing to do, but that's by far not the worst he did to poor Dr Werdegast, Vitus had a daughter as well... and yeah, after the new Mrs Poelzig died the daughter became the even newer Mrs Poelzig. How's that for evil? First marrying the poor bastard's wife and then his daughter!

Poelzig isn't just a great architect, he's also an Aleister Crowley wannabe with his very own satanic cult in the basement. And now he's eyeing Joan as he plans to sacrifice her at their next black mass. That should teach you not to go galavanting around the Hungarian country side at night! Poelzig and Werdegast decides to play a game of chess to decide if she will get sacrificed or not... and Werdegast isn't really the great chess player he thought he was. There's a lot more happening, but what the hell? I shouldn't sit here and let you know the entire movie when you could watch it for yourself!

If I were to have a ratings system on this blog that went to 10 I would give this movie a whopping 20, it really IS that good. At least if you, like me, love these old horror movies from the 30's & 40's... it has everything and more that you expect from these flicks and of course the immortal double team of Lugosi and Karloff. Karloff really is the embodiment of pure evil here (and he's clearly inspired by Aleister Crowley) and Lugosi gets to play the good guy (something I wish he could have done more as he really shines here) who at the end gets his revenge.

Crap, it's hard to say something else than just WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!!! Shouldn't that be enough, really?