I've read some Edgar Allan Poe in my time and nothing about "The Raven," a 1935 chamber-horror-flick-of-sorts from the Universal Pictures venue, bears any resemblance except in the author's namesake. Sure, you've got the iconic torture device known as the swinging, razor-sharp Pendulum and there is a room involving walls coming together to crush someone to death. Still, what about the bedroom that is an actually an elevator? Or those steel shutters at every window? Or how about any actual ravens in this movie, other than a statue of one?
I used to watch "The Raven" religiously in my pre-teen years every Halloween on PBS (they used to have an all-night marathon showing of just about every Universal Horror picture from the 1930's through the 1940's). There is nothing grander than seeing Bela Lugosi as the insanely mad doctor, Dr. Vollin, who relishes the opportunity to torture people to death - his rationalization is that it gives him power. It sure does and you can feel every moment of Lugosi's crazed, maniacal laugh and his unruly obsession (this also means that the author Poe has been avenged! Say what? Well, the mad doctor is insane after all).
Vollin's cryptic duties in his secret dungeon is interrupted by an escaped killer named Bateman (Boris Karloff), who consults the doctor and wishes to have his facial features surgically changed. This, of course, comes at a price - the doctor changes Bateman's face and makes him look hideously ugly with an immobile eye and scar tissue on one side of his face. Meanwhile, Dr. Vollin wants the concerned Judge Thatcher (Samuel S. Hinds) killed because Thatcher will not permit the doctor to have his daughter in marriage (Irene Ware). The girl is already spoken for - a dancer whose life was saved by Vollin after a horrible car accident is promised to her beau (a cheerless Lester Matthews) whom Vollin wishes to murder as well. Thus, Vollin pretends to not be interested in her and settles his differences with the judge by inviting him and everyone else to a dinner party to talk about mostly about Poe, of course. Bateman has to commit the dirty deeds and pretends to be the house servant, but will he or not? The plot gets sillier and melodramatic, especially towards the end when most of the dinner guests are already in the secret quarters of the underground dungeon where the torture devices are on full display.
Most chilling is Bela Lugosi who hams it up with unsubtly expressive eyes yet there is also a curious elegance to his mannerisms and his diction - Lugosi was one of the few in horror films who dominated the screen front and center (his final moment in a room where the walls close in is creepy beyond belief). Your eye is always drawn to him, his slicked back hair, his laughter, his poised renditions of Poe's poetry. A class act in every way.
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