As a kid, I enjoyed watching Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and Basil Rathbone in different incarnations of the triple-threat cast of actors. Roger Corman exhumed the dead careers of most of these actors. These tongue-in-cheek movies were meant to be fun. Get ready for Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors, and Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Terror. Kino Lorber Home Video is your hook-up for 60-year-old treats from the past. They have great deals for Shocktober!
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven: 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 fowl!
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!
The Comedy of Terrors: 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).
Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Terror: This triple treat of terror is a three-episode blood-dripping package that includes murder, necrophilia, dementia, live burials, open tombs, exhumation, resurrection, zombies and feline vengeance, resulting in nothing less than juicy entertainment and spine-chilling cinema. Mix in three horror legends, Vincent Price (The Oblong Box), Peter Lorre (The Raven) and Basil Rathbone (Queen of Blood), and you’ve got a shocker you dare not to watch alone! Mr. Price stars in all three Edgar Allan Poe (Premature Burial) episodes, Morella, The Black Cat and The Case Of M. Valdemar. Produced and directed by cult great, Roger Corman (X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes) with a great supporting cast that includes Leona Gage, Joyce Jameson, Debra Paget and David Frankham.