The Raven 1935 Screenplay by David Boehm and directed by Lew Landers. Another one I've seen 3 or 4 times already. It's the second of four films in the first volume of the Shout Factory Blu-ray series Universal Horror Collection. Despite David Boehm's name on the film as writer there were several tries at the screenplay. Both David and Lew had decent careers but nothing really stands out on their IMDb pages.
Boris and Bela are reunited for this loose adaptation of Poe. Bela plays Dr Vollin, a surgeon who's obsessed with Poe and torture. He's a sadist with a giant basement and that basement has a tall ceiling. He needs that space for his fancy pendulum set up. I could probably get my whole house in there. According to the commentaries the set was re-used from The Bride Of Frankenstein.
Bela helps a young woman surgically and falls for her but she's only interested in her fiance. Bela is mad at her rejection and wants some revenge. Boris is a hunted murderous criminal, he wants Bela to make his face more presentable, thinking that if he looked nice and people didn't fear him, he might turn into a nicer person.
Bela takes advantage and screws up Boris's face even more. He'll fix the damage if Boris helps kills the father of the young woman. The father is actively discouraging Bela's romantic leanings. Boris helps reluctantly, while posing as a servant the young woman is nice to Boris, when push comes to shove he saves her and her fiance from a shrinking room. Bela shoots Boris but before he dies he tosses Bela into the shrinking room and sets it to squish. The couple escape the house.
It's rather lurid, especially for the time, and it got banned in China, The Netherlands, Ontario and British Columbia. In the UK it triggered an announcement from the British Board Of Film Censors that said it would be the last horror passed by the board.
Not the best of Bela and Boris but still quite entertaining. It packs a good bit into it's short 61 min runtime. Bela gets the lion share of screen time, Boris doesn't show up until a good third of the film has passed. Despite Boris being a murderous robber he gets some sympathy from the audience because Bela is such a horrible monster. It's not as good as The Black Cat but I still find I'm enjoying it on re-watching.
Extras:
Audio Commentary With Author/Film Historian Gary D. Rhodes. Good commentary with plenty of background material.
Audio Commentary With Author/Film Historian Steve Haberman. Another good commentary with plenty of background info.
A Good Game: Karloff And Lugosi At Universal Part Two: The Raven. Quite short and less interesting than the featurette on The Black Cat.
Bela Lugosi Reads “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Short radio play, kind of interesting.
Still Gallery - didn't even bother to look at it.
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