The Raven [Blu-ray]

Lately, I’ve been in an Edgar Allan Poe mood. The Raven is perhaps the best-known poem from the gothic author. Roger Corman’s cinematic adaption with scare meisters Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre brings out the best of the seasoned actors. This an excellent Blu-ray edition for any collection from KL Studio Classics. The best time to view The Raven is around Halloween. You will Raven so much that you will have to buy The Comedy of Terrors on Blu-ray also. These are two excellent buys for comedy-horror fans.

The legendary “Triumvirate of Terror”—Vincent Price (Scream and Scream Again), Peter Lorre (The Comedy of Terrors) and Boris Karloff (The Crimson Cult)—star in this twisted tale of sorcery most foul! Director Roger Corman (The Tomb of Ligeia) and screenwriter Richard Matheson (The Last Man on Earth) deliver a tongue-in-cheek take on Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous poem. Dr. Craven (Price), the son of a great sorcerer (now dead), was once himself quite skilled at that profession but has since abandoned it. One evening, a cowardly fool of a magician named Bedlo (Lorre) comes to Craven for help—the evil Scarabus (Karloff) has turned him into a raven and he needs someone to change him back. He also tells the reluctant wizard that Craven’s long-lost wife Lenore (Hazel Court, The Premature Burial), whom he loved greatly and thought dead, is living with the despised Scarabus. Featuring Jack Nicholson (Prizzi’s Honor) in an early screen role, this Corman-Poe classic about two wizards dueling for magical supremacy is utterly bewitching!

Your Favorite Creeps Together Again! Four masters of the macabre star in this sinister and screamingly funny scare-fest! Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price, The Raven) is running his father-in-law’s (Boris Karloff, Black Sabbath) funeral home business… straight into the ground! Hounded by his landlord (Basil Rathbone, The Magic Sword), Trumbull and his assistant (Peter Lorre, Tales of Terror) devise a way to make death pay: by increasing their customer base through murder and burying the secrets of their success… body by body! Jacques Tourneur, the diabolical director of Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, Out of the Past and War-Gods of the Deep, blended humor and horror for The Comedy of Terrors, written by Richard Matheson (The Last Man on Earth) and co-starring Joyce Jameson (The Apartment) with special guest star Joe E. Brown (Some Like It Hot).

Tony M.

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