The Raven (1935 film)

The Raven
File:The Raven 1935 movie poster.jpg movie poster
Directed by	Lew Landers
Written by	Edgar Allan Poe (poem) David Boehm (screenplay)
Starring	KARLOFF Bela Lugosi Lester Matthews Samuel S. Hinds
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	July 8, 1935 U.S. release
Running time	61 min
Language	English

The Raven (1935) is a horror film revolving around Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem, featuring Bela Lugosi as a Poe-obsessed mad surgeon with a torture chamber in his basement and Boris Karloff as a fugitive murderer desperately on the run from the police. The film disturbed many viewers of the time, and many critics currently agree that it displays Lugosi's finest non-Dracula performance. Lugosi had the larger role, but Boris Karloff received top billing in huge letters as "KARLOFF," with his first name dropped in the fashion that Universal Pictures adopted while Karloff's career was at its height. Too strong for 1935 tastes, with its themes of torture, disfigurement and grisly revenge, the film did not do particularly well at the box office during its initial release (much like another 1935 horror movie, MGM's Mad Love, starring Peter Lorre), and indirectly led to a temporary ban on horror films in England. With the genre no longer economically viable, horror went out of vogue. This proved a devastating development at the time for Lugosi, who found himself losing work and struggling to support his family. Universal Pictures changed hands in 1936, and the new management was less interested in the box office novelty of the macabre.

Almost three decades later, Karloff also appeared in another film with the same title, Roger Corman's 1963 comedy The Raven with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. Aside from the title, the two films bear no resemblance to one another.

Marketing

Universal's pressbook heavily focused on Karloff, calling him "the uncanny master of make-up," as well as the connection to Poe. "Was Edgar Allan Poe a mental derelict?" it asks. The pressbook suggests that Poe's characters were "but a reflection of himself." Universal also suggested that cinema owners write letters to local high schools and colleges, urging their teachers to suggest the film to students.

Cast

• KARLOFF as Edmund Bateman
• Bela Lugosi as Richard Vollin
• Lester Matthews as Jerry Halden
• Irene Ware as Jean Thatcher
• Samuel S. Hinds as Judge Thatcher
• Spencer Charters as Bertram Grant
• Inez Courtney as Mary Burns
• Ian Wolfe as Geoffrey
• Maidel Turner as Mrs. Harriet Grant