The Raven (1963 film)

Roger Corman and Richard Matheson had both enjoyed making the comic "The Black Cat" episode of Tales of Terror and wanted to try an entirely comic Poe feature.[2]

"After I heard they wanted to make a movie out of a poem, I felt that was an utter joke, so comedy was really the only way to go with it", said Matheson.[2]

The film was shot in 15 days.

Roger Corman said that although they kept closely to the structure and story script, "We did more improvisation on that film than any of the others."[2] The improvisation was in terms of dialogue and bits of business from the actors.

During shooting, Peter Lorre ad-libbed a number of famous lines in the film including:[2]

• "How the hell should I know?", after Vincent Price asks "shall I ever see the rare and radiant Lenore again?"
• "Where else?" after Vincent Price says "I keep her here." (referring to the body of his lost love Lenore, kept in a coffin in the hall)
• "Hard place to keep clean."

Roger Corman says that Lorre's improvisations confused both Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, but Price adapted to it well while Karloff struggled. Corman:

Overall I would say we had as good a spirit on The Raven as any film I've ever worked on, except for a couple of moments with Boris. There was a slight edge to it, because Boris came in with a carefully worked out preparation, so when Peter started improvising lines, it really threw Boris off from his preparation.[2]

Corman says the tension between Jack Nicholson and Peter Lorre as father and son came from the actors rather than the script; the two did not get along well.[2]

Vincent Price later recalled about the final duel:

Boris hated being strung up in the air on those chairs. He was terribly crippled, and we were both floating in the air on these wires. It wasn't a pleasant feeling! And I hated having that snake wrapped around my neck for two hours... I hate snakes.[2]

Boris Karloff later said he was annoyed at having to wear the heavy cape.

The scene of the burning interior of the castle was reused film from Corman's 1960 film House of Usher.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film as "comic-book nonsense ... Strickly (sic) a picture for the kiddies and the bird-brained, quote the critic."[7] Variety wrote that while Poe "might turn over in his crypt at this nonsensical adaptation of his immortal poem", Corman nevertheless "takes this premise and develops it expertly as a horror-comedy."[8] The Chicago Tribune called it "fairly thin fare, made up mostly of camera tricks, and some very obviously false scenery, but Peter Lorre's performance is mildly entertaining. Youngsters may find it fun."[9] A generally positive review in The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the film "starts off with the inestimable advantage of a script which not only makes it amply clear from the outset that [Corman] is cheerfully and wholeheartedly sending himself up, but manages to do it wittily." Its main criticism was a "long central section" of the film that drags until things pick up again for the final duel.[10] Peter John Dyer of Sight & Sound wrote, "Richard Matheson's script, a good deal more tenuous than its predecessors in the Corman-Poe canon, at least treats its actors generously to props, incantations and quotable lines ... A pity the equation doesn't always add up; there's too much slack, due perhaps to an imbalance between the comedy, which runs riot, and the horror, which trails behind in the wake of previous Corman films."[11]

Colin Greenland reviewed The Raven for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Not so much a raven, more a bit of a lark."[12]

The film presently holds a score of 92% with an average rating of 6.6 out of 10 on the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews.[13]

The film was popular at the box office.[2]

In France it had admissions of 106,292.[14]

A novelization of the film was written by Eunice Sudak adapted from Richard Matheson's screenplay and published by Lancer Books in paperback. This novel was republished by Bear Manor Media in 2012.