54 - The Raven (1963)

Connection To GOD FORGIVES... I DON'T - both released by AIP (American International Pictures).

When Roger Corman passes away, which hopefully is still many years from now. Corman will leave such a legacy behind, giving opportunities to an incredible amount of people in front of and behind the camera - Ron Howard, Francis Ford Coppola, Joe Dante, Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich where just a few of the directors who he gave a chance to show there stuff and of course he was regularly getting Jack Nicholson (who appears here) cast before Hollywood saw the greatness.

I'd known and seen loads of the Corman stuff for years but it seems weird to me that it only feels the last few years that I began to appreciate Roger Corman - the director, I think it started when I watched The Intruder from 1962 and starring William Shatner, it was such a powerful film and I say this without hyperbole deserves to be remembered in the same breath as To Kill A Mockingbird... and then a day or two later I saw The Raven for the first time.

The thing was I'd seen Corman stuff but it was b-movie stuff, I'd enjoyed Bucket Of Blood a lot but how do I put it I kind of didn't think about the direction. One thing that surprised me about The Raven though was how playful it was.

I don't know what I expected - maybe I expected a completely serious attempt at horror, that would fail to me as a watcher after 50ish years, I mean after all it was on the back-end of the careers of Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre, who where less... let's say choosy about the projects they choose to be in at this point there career and with judging Corman was going through these Edgar Allan Poe adaptations so, so quickly - and maybe, just maybe I thought the full effort wouldn't be put in.

For a start it's just a hoot seeing Vincent Price, Karloff and Lorre share the screen. Lorre I've loved ever since since the old black and white movies from the 30s and 40s and Karloff he's was Frankenstein's Monster for fuck sake - the first two Frankenstein are timeless classics! - and Vincent Price, as time goes on I've become more and more of a fan (I think that all probably started with Theatre Of Blood)

I loved the ending magic-off (source-off - I don't know what to call it) just the way each bit of magic is done by Price and Karloff, I think it's Vincent Price's face throughout, there's just a touch of arrogance in there when he shows his stuff.

Overall a delightful horror-comedy, that really goes for a good time rather then the scares, it's simpl;y magic (man I feel like my puns are getting out of control) seeing acting legends on screen together.