The raven (1935)

Movie
German title	The Raven
Original title	The Raven
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1935
length	61 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Lew Landers
script	David Boehm
production	Carl Laemmle
music	Gilbert Courland
camera	Charles Stumar
cut	Albert Akst
occupation
Bela Lugosi : Dr. Richard Vollin Boris Karloff : Edmond Bateman Lester Matthews : Jerry Holden Irene Ware : Jean Thatcher Samuel S. Hinds : Judge Thatcher Spencer Charters : Col. Bertram Grant Inez Courtney : Mary Burns Ian Wolfe : Geoffrey 'Pinky' Maidel Turner : Harriet Grant Raine Bennett : Poe Al Ferguson : crook Nina Golden : dancer Jonathan Hale : Doctor Arthur Hoyt : Chapman Walter Miller : Doctor Bud Osborne : Policeman Madeline Talcott : nurse Cyril Thornton : Dr. Vollin's butler

The Raven (Original title: The Raven ) is an American horror film from the production of Universal Studios from 1935 . The film, directed by Lew Landers , was made with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the lead roles.

action

Dr. Vollin, a successful but now retired surgeon, is asked by Judge Thatcher to operate on his daughter Jean, who was in a serious car accident. After an initial reluctance, Vollin agrees to do so. He saves her life and falls in love with his young patient. Geoffrey, Jean's fiancé, and their father stand in the way of Vollin's intentions. Jean himself is initially taken with the ostensibly charming doctor.

Vollin deals intensively with the works of the writer Edgar Allan Poe . He still manages to hide his creeping madness from his surroundings.

Edmond Bateman, a wanted criminal, turns to Vollin and asks him to give him a makeover through an operation. Vollin, however, disfigured Bateman's face and now forces him, since only he, Vollin, is able to undo the operation, to move Jean's father out of the way.

In order to get hold of his adversaries, Vollin invites Jean, her father, Geoffrey and other acquaintances to a party in his house. In the basement of his house, Vollin Jean's father shows torture chambers, which he set up based on the example of Poe's works. Vollin overpowers him and straps him under a huge swinging pendulum, which is equipped with a sharp edge. The pendulum descends continuously until it cuts through the body. Geoffrey and Jean penetrate the torture chamber, but are also rendered harmless by Vollin and Bateman and locked in a room whose walls are pushed together inward. But at the last moment the disfigured Bateman realizes that Vollin has no intention of giving him back his old face and he stops the equipment. However, Bateman is shot by Vollin. During the argument, Vollin ends up between the walls, which are pushing together, and comes to a terrible end. Bateman also died from his gunshot wound.

backgrounds

The title was chosen based on Edgar Allan Poe's poem, although the film has little to do with it in terms of content. There are only a few allusions to Poe, such as a pendulum as an instrument of torture or a stuffed raven in Dr. Vollin's office, which even gives the film its name, although it has nothing to do with the plot. At the beginning of the film, Lugosi recites a stanza from Poe's poem and reveals himself to be an admirer of Poe in a short monologue, from which Vollin's predilection for torture should be understood in the further course of the film. However, Der Rabe is not an adaptation of the poem or any other Poe material .

reception

The film, which was considered brutal, was rather unpopular at the box office of the time, but today it is received very positively. The lexicon of international films wrote: "Horror film, very loosely based on Poe: classic cinema fun."

Web links

• The Raven in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The raven in the online film database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The raven. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 13, 2018 .