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Sometimes you will see a film that should be bad. For instance, take a movie based on a literary work - not a short story, not a novel, not a trilogy - but a poem. Not only a poem but a poem where the only similarity with the movie is that both have a bird.

But when you see the movie you say, hey, this is good! And even the experts agreed. When the movie was released it received good reviews and recovered its costs by more than a factor of forty.

And one movie that fits this description was The Raven which was released in 1963. As to why the movie fared so well, it did star Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Vincent Price. All three men were among the most famous actors of the 20th Century and all had appeared in movies that are now considered classics.

There was, though, a surprise to the theatergoers. The trailers of the film had played up that Vincent, Boris, and Peter were all specialists in suspense, mystery, and horror. From the promos you would conclude that when you watched The Raven you could barely sit on the edge of your seat without running screaming into the lobby. Splashed on the screen were messages like:

Starring the Screen's
Titans of Terror

Vincent Price
Peter Lorre
Boris Karloff

A Tempest of
Thrilling Terror

... and viewers are assured the movie will be:

The Supreme Adventure in Terror

And so some people thought when they bought their tickets.

But they loudly and teemingly expressed surprise when they found The Raven was a comedy. That's evident from the first scene where Vincent playing a magician named Dr. Erasmus Craven indulges in a bit of physical comedy and the Raven's first words - clearly voiced by Peter Lorre - are not "Nevermore", but "How the [!] do I know?"

The raven, it seems, is actually Dr. Adolphus Bedlo, a bibulous and rather unskilled magician. He was turned into a raven by Dr. Scarabus, an evil magician who in years past was the mortal enemy of Dr. Craven's father.

The movie was touted as being "based on" Edgar Allan Poe's hit poem of the same name, and admittedly the first scene had a verbatim extract from the poem. In the opening we hear Vincent's voiceover:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"’Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -

Only this, and nothing more."

 

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -

Nameless here for evermore.

 

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

"’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -

This it is and nothing more."

As in the poem, the narrator - here it's Dr. Craven (Vincent) - is mourning the death of the lost Lenore. Lenore it turns out, was his second wife and the stepmother to Dr. Craven's daughter, Estelle. And as in the poem, a raven shows up, tapping, tapping, at the window. But after Vincent lets the raven in, there the similarity between Poe's poem ends. That is, at least until the final scene. There Dr. Craven is back in his study where he looks at the camera and says, "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'"

The Raven was produced and directed by Roger Corman as part of what is called Roger's Poe Cycle. Starting off with The House of Usher in 1960, the series continued with The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), and the Premature Burial (1963). After The Raven there were three more Poe films, The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and the Tomb of Ligeia (1964).

The first of Roger's Poe films, The House of Usher, was based on Poe's short story The Fall of the House of Usher and it follows the plot as well as could be expected. The other films though let the mind of scriptwriter Richard Matheson roam free.

Roger was known for shooting fast and shooting cheap and so the question arises how did Roger get megastars like Boris, Peter, and Vincent to appear in his films. Well, it turns out he did pay them well. In fact, Roger said most of the budget for The House of Usher went for Vincent's salary.

One of Roger's films which was in the spirit of the Poe tales but was not from Poe's pen was The Terror. The movie was filmed immediately after The Raven (and we mean immediately, and Boris starred in the picture because Roger promised him only a two-day shooting schedule for which he was paid $30,000. That was then almost five times the yearly median salary for a family in the United States. In today's moolah that would be almost $300,000 - and remember that was only for two days work.¹

Even though Boris was only on the set of The Terror for two days, the movie itself wasn't complete until nearly a year later. That's because all the other scenes that didn't feature Boris had to be shot as time and budget would permit. Fortunately that was something the other stars of the show - including a young up-and-coming actor named Jack Nicholson - agreed to readily.

Jack, in fact, had appeared in The Raven as Rexford Bedlo, the son of Dr. Bedlo. Jack had also been in other films including one of Roger's most famous quick shoot films The Little Shop of Horrors. Jack's memory of making The Raven were not that fond as he appeared in a number of scenes with the Raven perching on his shoulder. As anyone knows who has kept birds for pets, they - ah - "attend to business" - quite frequently and Jack found his scenes with the bird not particularly pleasant.

That Jack would appear early in his career in some of Roger's movies is not surprising as Roger gave many young actors their first roles in mainstream cinema. Roger even gave Ron Howard his first directing job and among the then unknown actors he picked for his movies were Cindy Williams, Charles Bronson, Sandra Bullock, David Carradine, and Bruce Dern.

Roger did point out, though, that the title of his autobiography, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, was picked out by his publisher. For one thing, Roger said, he made closer to 200 movies. And sometimes he did lose a dime.²

It was watching Rogers' films that prompted a lot of kids to actually start reading the stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Although they may have been surprised to see how much the movies departed from the original plots, movie that gets kids reading books has to be a good movie. So it's only fitting to wind up with some appropriate pleasantries.

What game did Edgar Allan Poe like to play as a kid?

Hop Frog.

What was Edgar's favorite entree?

Meat and Poe-tatoes.

What did Edgar Allan Poe do when he went back to visit Richmond?

Visited his old haunts.

How did Edgar order his meat from his butcher?

He wrote him The Sirloined Letter.

And finally there's:

What time of the year and in what place did Edgar Allan Poe like to play cards?

Fall in the House of Flushes.

References and Further Reading

How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, Roger Corman with Jim Jerome, Random House, 1990.

"Income of Families and Persons in the United States: 1963", Report Number P60-43, United States Census Bureau, September 29, 1964.

The Raven, Roger Corman (director and producer), Edgar Allan Poe (writer, poem), Richard Matheson (writer, screenplay), Vincent Price (actor), Peter Lorre (actor), Boris Karloff (actor), Hazel Court (actor), Olive Sturgess (actor), Jack Nicholson (actor), William Baskin (actor), Samuel Arkoff (producer), James H. Nicholson (executive producer), American International Pictures, 1963.

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