StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

atinder What to say about this movie The movie dose not take long to get going as it was so want short , the movie flows really wellSurgeon wax one hell of crazy person, Some of the scenes for back then would have being shocked few people ,These days it might look a bit out dated for new horror fans and I liked how the plot came to end Even thought I found it a bit predicable but still Really good7 out of 10

Scott LeBrun This wonderful teaming of horror greats Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is an incredible amount of fun. The stars play off each other beautifully, and are well supported by a strong group of actors. Director Lew Landers gives the story great pacing and a gleefully macabre flair. The scenario comes complete with torture devices, secret chambers, rooms that elevate, and some pretty good makeup for Karloff.Lugosi plays Richard Vollin, an esteemed surgeon with an Edgar Allan Poe obsession. When lovely young Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) gets into a bad car accident, he agrees to save her life, albeit very reluctantly. The bad doctor soon develops another fixation, this time on Jean. When her father, a judge (Samuel S. Hinds), warns Vollin to stay away from her, Vollin goes mad. He shanghais escaped criminal Edmond Bateman (Karloff) and disfigures him, promising to restore Batemans' face only if he will help Vollin with his evil schemes.This is very much essential viewing for lovers of Karloff and Lugosi. Karloff is good as always, playing a basically sympathetic character despite his past. Ware and Hinds are both fine, as are Lester Matthews, Spencer Charters, Inez Courtney, Ian Wolfe, and Maidel Turner. But this is pretty much Lugosis' show. He gets a chance to really tear into the scenery, and looks like he's having a whale of a time. Vollins' Poe obsession also allows him to do some recitals of lines from the Poe poem.There's some potentially strong stuff here for some viewers, but "The Raven" has lots of energy and clocks in at just over 61 minutes. The second half is the best part.Eight out of 10.

Roman James Hoffman "The Raven" sees horror legends Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, who had both achieved star-status four years earlier as Dracula and Frankenstein's monster respectively, sharing a billing for the second time after the previous year's classic "The Black Cat". However, while on paper "The Raven" and "The Black Cat" share key similarities (both star Lugosi and Karloff, both are inspired by the morbid works of American writer Edgar Allen Poe, and both films even share a similar trapped-in-house-of-death plot) the latter feature has none of the eccentricities, suspense, or depth which characterized the earlier film and, as a result, I found "The Raven" uninspired, uninspiring, and really un-scary.The final part of a trilogy of (really loosely) Poe-based films, beginning with "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1932), "The Raven" has Lugosi playing Dr. Richard Vollin, a brilliant ex-surgeon who is lured out of his research to save the life of beautiful dancer Jean (Irene Ware) who he then falls madly in love with. However, she is already engaged and his desire turns to obsession and then to insanity as he hatches a plan involving Bateman (Karloff), a wanted criminal that literally knocks at Vollin's door who he facially disfigures and enlists to help him deal with those that got in the way of his love for Jean with the help of a dungeon full of Poe-inspired torture devices.The film's main problem is the total lack of suspense which, despite its 60 minute run time, seems to drag. I put this down to the characterizations which have the charismatic Vollin dominating the broadly ineffectual and pitiable Bateman (harking back to Karloff's role in Whale's "The Old, Dark, House" (1932)) in contrast to "The Black Cat" where the characters were equally matched in a bitter game of death. In addition, Lugosi's performance starts off as creepy and menacing in the Dracula mould but as the film goes on his hysterical madman's laughter is exaggerated and campy like Kenneth Williams in horror-spoof "Carry on Screaming". Add to this the dull sets (apart from the mirror room reveal scene) which, again, seem woefully dull compared to the cold, futurist masterpiece set design of "The Black Cat", and we have a movie struggling to keep its head above water.Maybe it's unfair to keep referring to "The Black Cat" in a review of "The Raven", but I think that, considering all the elements that the films share, the comparison is unavoidable. And as a result, with the first film being a classic, it was always going to be hard to come out from its shadow. Saying this, I still think that even without the comparisons to "The Black Cat" running through my head the whole film, "The Raven" still wouldn't quite cut it.

utgard14 Third and final movie in the trilogy of Edgar Allan Poe-themed horror films Bela Lugosi did for Universal in the 1930s. Also the second movie in which Lugosi and Karloff appear together. Lugosi plays a Poe-obsessed surgeon named Dr. Vollin, who is begged by a judge (Samuel S. Hinds) to save the life of the judge's daughter (Irene Ware), a dancer who suffered brain damage in a car accident. Vollin agrees and manages to perform the surgery successfully. Then he becomes fixated with the girl but her father steps in and tells him that's not going to happen. Vollin crafts a vicious revenge plan on the father, daughter, and her fiancé (Lester Matthews). To this end he forces wanted criminal Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff) to help him, by disfiguring his face and refusing to fix it unless he assists in helping Vollin torture his victims! Tour-de-force performance from Bela Lugosi in this one. A rare case of Lugosi outperforming Karloff. Lugosi's wild, over-the-top Dr. Vollin is so much fun to watch. Karloff is good, too, but Lugosi's part is much juicier. He's just off-the-rails here, laughing like a lunatic over the thought of torturing people! The highlight in all of the insanity is seeing Lugosi shout "Poe, you are avenged!" What exactly Poe is avenged of, I'm not sure, but I was loving every minute of it! I actually found myself rooting for this madman to win. That's how good Lugosi is in this. The rest of the cast is fine, with no one hitting a false note. But it's really a one-man show. Boris does good with what screen time he has, his face partially obscured by first a beard then some Jack Pierce makeup to show his disfigurement. He lets out a Frankenstein grunt at one point that I found amusing.If you're a Lugosi fan, this is for you. He's clearly having a great time with the role, especially the parts where he gets to taunt Karloff. You just know Bela loved that. For everybody else, don't go into this expecting something like The Black Cat. That film was more artistic. This is just sheer popcorn fun with one of the greatest personalities in horror films showing off in grand style.