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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Sunday, January 25, 2015

The Raven (1963)

Starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess
Directed by Roger Corman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A wizard tormented by the death of his wife is lured into a confrontation with his father's rival when her spirit is sighted in his castle.

Despite the subject matter of the grim tale of Edgar Allan Poe, screenwriter Richard Matheson uses that poem as a springboard to launch a comedic adventure featuring memorable roles for Price and horror icons Lorre and Karloff, perhaps inspired by Price & Lorre's lighthearted version of Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado in Corman's Tales Of Terror the previous year.   The film suffers from weak special effects and Corman again pulls the stock footage of a burning castle from his earlier Poe pictures, but it's still a fun picture, particularly in the interplay between Price and Lorre, and affords a young Jack Nicholson one of his early credits.

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