The Raven (1963)

[BijouMan]

Kino Lorber will release on Blu-ray The Raven (1963), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), and The Last Man on Earth (1964). The two releases will be available for purchase on August 31.

[ponderingtheuniverse]

I noticed that there isn't any discussion on this thread, which is a shame because I find it to be one of the best films from the Poe Cycle. It was nice for it to have more of a comedic tone compared to the rest of the cycle, and pairing Price, Karloff, and Lorre couldn't have been a more perfect trio for this.

I do have one question though, since DVDBeaver and caps-a-holic haven't helped that much, but is there really that noticeable of a difference in quality of this between the Shout!, Arrow, and Kino releases of this? DVDBeaver said that this release has slightly better colors and looks to have a bit of a higher bitrate than Arrow, but it was hard to tell from the screencaps they provided. I'm hoping to get the Six Tales Arrow set for Christmas but got this release to use until I get a region free player (which I also hope to get for Christmas.)

[Dragon78]

I agree, best of the Poe Cycle films.

[ponderingtheuniverse]

Originally Posted by Dragon78

I agree, best of the Poe Cycle films.

I know I'm listing like half of the cycle, but this, Tales of Terror, The Haunted Palace, and The Masque of the Red Death are my favorites of the cycle. It was The Haunted Palace that really got me into Price (after watching The Pit and the Pendulum.) Prime Video had this and Tales of Terror up to watch for free too, so I took advantage of it. I had to watch the rest elsewhere (from the first Price collection from Shout! and archive.org)

But anyways, even though the cycle is considered to be B-movies, I actually find them to be better than that and not just made to be made fun of. Its crazy how they were all made in four years and in short amounts of time. I was shocked when I read how quickly they filmed them because they don't look or seem like they were at all. I love them so much that its hard to shut up about them

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by ponderingtheuniverse

I know I'm listing like half of the cycle, but this, Tales of Terror, The Haunted Palace, and The Masque of the Red Death are my favorites of the cycle. It was The Haunted Palace that really got me into Price (after watching The Pit and the Pendulum.) Prime Video had this and Tales of Terror up to watch for free too, so I took advantage of it. I had to watch the rest elsewhere (from the first Price collection from Shout! and archive.org)

But anyways, even though the cycle is considered to be B-movies, I actually find them to be better than that and not just made to be made fun of. Its crazy how they were all made in four years and in short amounts of time. I was shocked when I read how quickly they filmed them because they don't look or seem like they were at all. I love them so much that its hard to shut up about them

Edgar Allan Poe on Blu-ray

The Corman / AIP, Price / Poe films are a lot of fun.
The Raven is the most fun of all of them.
The cycle also includes Master of the World (1961), Tower of London
(1962) and the H.P. Lovecraft films like Die Monster Die! (1965).
The cycle was produced on the same scale as the major studio's
backlot westerns of the time, meaning efficiently and inexpensively.
That means shot on 1 central location, in this case in a soundstage,
with a few days outdoors at some nearby location. Like the backlot
westerns, the cycle perfected a visual stylization that defines the
genre and totally sells it. The films are also well-written mostly by
horror maestro Richard Matheson, one of the most popular and
influential genre writers of all time.

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by ponderingtheuniverse

I do have one question though, since DVDBeaver and caps-a-holic haven't helped that much, but is there really that noticeable of a difference in quality of this between the Shout!, Arrow, and Kino releases of this? DVDBeaver said that this release has slightly better colors and looks to have a bit of a higher bitrate than Arrow, but it was hard to tell from the screencaps they provided. I'm hoping to get the Six Tales Arrow set for Christmas but got this release to use until I get a region free player (which I also hope to get for Christmas.)

While Tales of Terror is at the top of my list for Corman/Poe films, I do wish that both The Raven (Karloff/Lorre/Price) and Tales of Terror (Lorre/Rathbone/Price) would get new scans and the kind of restoration afforded to Masque of the Red Death.

[ponderingtheuniverse]

Originally Posted by SMOOT

While Tales of Terror is at the top of my list for Corman/Poe films, I do wish that both The Raven (Karloff/Lorre/Price) and Tales of Terror (Lorre/Rathbone/Price) would get new scans and the kind of restoration afforded to Masque of the Red Death.

Its a shame they didn't just release Masque in 4K since the new restoration was a 4K restoration. But yeah, given how old the most recent scans are of the rest of the cycle (given the dates of the original releases from Shout! and Arrow), a fresh scan would probably do them all good. They do all look good now, but given the technology we have today, they can of course always look better. Or I guess almost always. It seems like it depends on the which distributor and studio its coming from nowadays if a new scan will look good or not.

(Kino re-released The Oblong Box and Twice Told Tales this year and while I don't think they're 100% new scans, they ended up having better encoding and colors than the original releases.)

[DavidRoylance]

It's poor unloved The Premature Burial I feel for, the only Corman/Poe that has a less than stellar iteration on blu.

[ponderingtheuniverse]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

Edgar Allan Poe on Blu-ray

The Corman / AIP, Price / Poe films are a lot of fun.
The Raven is the most fun of all of them.
The cycle also includes Master of the World (1961), Tower of London
(1962) and the H.P. Lovecraft films like Die Monster Die! (1965).
The cycle was produced on the same scale as the major studio's
backlot westerns of the time, meaning efficiently and inexpensively.
That means shot on 1 central location, in this case in a soundstage,
with a few days outdoors at some nearby location. Like the backlot
westerns, the cycle perfected a visual stylization that defines the
genre and totally sells it. The films are also well-written mostly by
horror maestro Richard Matheson, one of the most popular and
influential genre writers of all time.

I didn't know those were a part of the cycle too. I have yet to watch those three you mentioned but I plan to sometime.

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by ponderingtheuniverse

I didn't know those were a part of the cycle too. I have yet to watch those three you mentioned but I plan to sometime.

Roger Corman is one of my heroes and his Poe / Price
films for AIP are lifelong favorites. I agree there is a
lot going on in the films and they are much better than
B movies. Corman wrote a terrific autobiography called
"How I Made a Hundred Movies In Hollywood and Never
Lost a Dime." amazon link:

How I Made A Hundred Movies Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime

[ponderingtheuniverse]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

Roger Corman is one of my heroes and his Poe / Price
films for AIP are lifelong favorites. I agree there is a
lot going on in the films and they are much better than
B movies. Corman wrote a terrific autobiography called
"How I Made a Hundred Movies In Hollywood and Never
Lost a Dime." amazon link:

How I Made A Hundred Movies Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime

I added that book to my reading list.

I ended up finishing the cycle last night with The Premature Burial (I had been meaning to watching it for a while and only just got to it) and man was it the opposite of The Raven! In fact, I think its the most disturbing of the cycle, with Masque right there next to it (

[Show spoiler]the burning of Alfredo in Masque is the most disturbing moment of the cycle for me

, but Burial was disturbing as a whole.) And every single jump scare got to me. It is a bit crazy how the cycle could go from complete, funny camp to full-blown disturbing. Its a shame Vincent wasn't in it, but Ray Milland did a pretty great job in it.

I wish I had seen all these films much earlier than I did, but I'm glad to have seen them all now. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been able to ease myself enough to watch Halloween (1978) and other horror films I never though I'd touch or heard of. Not only are they great and essential films in general, but they are perfect to watch if you're wanting to take some time getting into the horror genre. I owe them a lot.

[russweiss1]

I grew up watching this film on TV and remember enjoying it. That said, it's been 40 years since my last viewing so I'm not sure how the magic duel will hold up.

[SeanJoyce]

It's fun, but both Tales of Terror and Comedy of Terrors are better.

[ponderingtheuniverse]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

I grew up watching this film on TV and remember enjoying it. That said, it's been 40 years since my last viewing so I'm not sure how the magic duel will hold up.

I only just watched it this year (at twenty-five, though I'm twenty-six now) and found the duel to be hilarious. I wouldn't mind if the film had just been Karloff and Price dueling for an hour with how much I enjoyed it. Its a shame we didn't have more Karloff/Price/Lorre team-up films. They were, pun unintended magical together.

[ponderingtheuniverse]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

It's fun, but both Tales of Terror and Comedy of Terrors are better.

I consider The Raven and Tales of Terror to be equally great, but just didn't click as much with Comedy. I probably need a rewatch of Comedy because its possible I wasn't in the right mood for it (it happens and usually takes a rewatch or two to really enjoy it.)

The

"how the h*ll should I know?" scene

from The Raven and

wine tasting scene

from Tales of Terror are the funniest scenes from the cycle, in my opinion.

Edit: Added the links to the scenes in case anyone wants a sample of them to see why they're so funny.

[koberulz]

So Tales of Terror is a comedy?

[RFK]

Originally Posted by koberulz

So Tales of Terror is a comedy?

The middle episode, the Black Cat shows what great comic performers Price and Lorre could be.

[SMOOT]

Originally Posted by koberulz

So Tales of Terror is a comedy?

Only "The Black Cat" (the middle) episode, and it is played straight, but has a dark comedy feel. I think that episode is the best thing Corman ever directed.

[SeanJoyce]

"Can you spare a coin for a moral cripple?" is one of my all-time favorite lines in any medium.

[CinemaScope]

It been years since I've seen The Raven, a sort of slow burn comedy as I remember, but lots of fun (& featuring a very young Jack Nicholson). My two favourites are, The Pit and the Pendulum & Tales Of Terror. The Blu-rays look okay, but a brand new spotless & good-looking release would be very welcome. I have a Vincent Price box set, & I think I'll have a little Roger Corman festival over Christmas (& happily Mr. Corman is still with us, 96 years old).