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Old 19th October 2022, 09:40 PM
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Default October 19th

The Raven (1963)

Following Nordy's review of Ghost Ship (I've seen it a few times now by the way, it's not bad if you just fancy a quick film) more of the gorgeous Hazel Court is seen in this classic Corman comedy.

When i say more it's because the voluptuous Court can barely stay in her stunning blue dress when she finally turns up playing Lenore the lost love Vincent Price pines for when a raven (Peter Lorre) comes a tapping at his chamber door.

When your source material is a wonderful but not especially lengthy piece of poetry it's difficult to make a feature length movie so screen writer and producer director Roger Corman do what they always do and make some shit up.

Unlike The Pit and the Pendulum from a couple of years previous this is quite wonderful. It's essentially a battle of wits and magic between Price and Boris Karloff with Peter Lorre and Court lending strong support. All the players get to shine, Lorre is a lot of miserable fun, with Karloff and Price are as charming as ever whilst throwing magical daggers at one another, perhaps inspiring the Harry Potter series of stories with all their magical duels.

After what seemed like a few minutes i wondered to myself how they could make a feature film based on such slender viewings and there was no chance it would be able to sustain my interest...then i noticed the clock said fifty minutes of the film had ticked by.

Although i've had this film on an MGM Midnite Movies dvd for years i reckon i must have only watched it once when i first bought it because i had no memory of it whatsoever when the Arrow Blu-ray started playing. Tonight's viewing will definitely be the first of many now.
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