Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10861 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the most sublimely silly products to emanate from Roger Corman's studio, The Raven has the very loosest of connections with the Edgar Allen Poe poem that gives it its title and which Vincent Price intones sepulchrally at the beginning. A retiring magician, Craven (Price) has opted out of the power struggles of peers such as Dr Scarabus (Boris Karloff) to brood on his dead wife and bring up his daughter. The arrival of Bledlo (Peter Lorre), an incompetent drunk whom Scarabus has turned into the raven of the title, involves him in everything he had renounced--life is complicated further by the arrival of Bledlo's son Rexford, played by a staggeringly young Jack Nicholson. The special effects are almost perfunctory, yet the culminating magical duel between Price and Karloff is inventive and charming; this is one of those films that looks as if the actors enjoyed making it; while the script by Richard Matheson has a blithe awareness of its own shortcomings that makes it hard to dislike.

On the DVD: The Raven comes to DVD with very boxy remastered mono sound, but is presented in its original widescreen 2.35:1 ratio, formatted for 16:9 TVs. The only extra is the original theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney

Special Features

• Original theatrical trailer
  
• Interactive menu screens and chapter selections

DVD Technical Information:

• Audio: Mono
  
• Language options: English, German, French, Italian
  
• Subtitles: French, Italian, Dutch
  
• Hard of Hearing: English, German
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  
• Region Code: 2
  
• PAL
  
• Colour
  
• Widescreen version 16:9
  
• Running time: 1 hour 23 minutes

Synopsis
Not only does this atmospheric AIP horror-comedy feature Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre, but it also stars a young Jack Nicholson. Add a funny script by Richard Matheson and deft direction by Roger Corman and this is unbeatable fun, a perfect Halloween film for the whole family. Price stars as Craven, a sensitive, nonpracticing 16th-century wizard who begins the movie alone in his castle, lamenting for the lost Lenore, via the famed Edgar Allan Poe poem. Naturally, he's soon visited by a raven, which in this case turns out to be a wine-swilling, obnoxious fellow magician, Bedlo (Lorre), who's been enchanted by the evil sorcerer down the road, Dr. Scarabus (Karloff). When it's revealed that Craven's presumed-dead wife, Lenore (Hazel Court), was seen at Scarabus's castle, Craven heads over to investigate, along with Bedlo, Bedlo's son (Nicholson), and Craven's attractive daughter, Estelle (Olive Sturges). Once they arrive at Scarabus's gloomy, cobweb-covered abode, a wild night of horror and hilarity ensues, highlighted by a climactic wizard's duel between Scarabus and Craven, replete with colourful special effects and great comic timing. Hardly a gloomy tale of woe as the title might suggest, THE RAVEN is a hoot, with the chemistry of the leads providing maximum alchemical yield.

Customer Reviews

Comic Relief in a rather bleak film repetoire
I must have seen all the Roger Corman horror films - Pit and the Pendulum, the Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death instantly come to mind. The colour to these films was vivid, I felt that I was watching them in colour on a black and white tv set. These films were classic horror films mostly with the melodramatic leads played skilfully by Vincent Price. They were atmospheric, gothic and quite bleak. Yet in The Raven we have a great deal of comic relief all provided by Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. It was great fun to watch and I thought Boris Karloff was brilliant and indeed I did detect a sparkle in his eye when he was fighting the magical duel with Vincent Price. I particularly liked the part when Boris hurled magical daggers at Vincent Price and Vincent drew magical disks to block the target. So much for CGI, (you can tell when a film has overdosed on this abomination to special effects). Great entertainment for all the family, I first saw this film when I was aged 10.

Utterly bewitching
This film is excellent. It stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and the lovely Hazel Court. The story is slightly silly, but very entertaining. The transfer is nice and crisp with excellent colour. This is one of my best buys this year, highly recommended.

price and corman at their best.
this is without a doubt one of the best collaborations between vincent price and director roger corman.
playing "the raven" for laughs was an inspirational idea and it works wonders. price is very well supported by peter lorre and boris karloff, especially by lorre in their early scenes together. the script is brilliant, price's mugging is very funny, the film sets are great as always and the climax is the best i've seen.