THE RAVEN (Corman, 1963) - I’m afraid I wasn’t drunk enough for this one. In fact, I was completely sober. The opening I liked: it starts out as an earnest representation of the poem, and right at the moment where you expect the most famous line, it throws a curveball. The rest just gets progressively sillier and sillier, though, and even a bit sad: this is what greats like Karloff and Lorre were reduced to in the 60s? There are nice aspects - the final duel is amusing, and it’s pretty cool to see Nicholson with a full head of hair - but there’s too much air between the jokes, and Vincent Price’s line readings (“some sort of diabolical mind control”) aren’t quite enough to save it.
Posted on Sunday, 18 September 2011
