It's the runup to Halloween, my busy season at work... I think it's time to post about another classic 'horror' movie. Cheap movie maestro Roger Corman produced a bunch of movies purported to be inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's body of work. One of the oddest of these 'adaptations' was 1963's The Raven, an off-the-wall comedy masquerading as a horror movie. While the movie was ostensibly inspired by Poe's poem, it was written by modern horror great Richard Matheson, and centered around three very naughty warlocks who Dumbledore should have put in detention for their entire Hogwarts careers.
The cast of the film was impeccable, with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre playing the three squabbling wizards. Hazel Court added a certain campy sex appeal to the proceedings, and a newcomer named Jack Nicolson played the son of Peter Lorre's hapless character, who spends much of the film transformed into the titular bird. The main plot involves the rivalry between Price's and Karloff's characters, and the climax of the film is a magical duel between the two... hilarity ensues:
The entire movie is a goofy classic, full of bad puns and cheesy visual gags, but everyone seems to be having a blast in it. It's a fun flick, not too scary for kids... Poe might not have been too happy with it, though.
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2 comments:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but poor Edgar didn't seem to be happy with anything.
Too right, old chum!
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