Tonight on MeTV- it’s certainly no partridge in a pear tree-but a pair of masters of magic will be facing off in a deadly duel-in a Roger Corman feature headlined by Vincent Price and Boris Karloff-plus, Peter Lorre, Hazel Court, and even Jack Nicholson! It’s a combination of Gothic fright and fun, very loosely inspired by the poem by Edgar Allan Poe- it’s the 1963 film titled “The Raven”!
The story opens in the mid-1500s, to the abode of master sorcerer Dr. Craven (played by Price) who broods endlessly over the loss of his wife Lenore. His tragic remembrances are interrupted by the arrival of -a raven!? Well, actually, it’s much or than a basic black bird- it is actually fellow wizard Dr. Bedlo ( Lorre), who has been transformed into this feathery state by the powerful magician Dr. Scarabus (Karloff). Bedlo begs Craven for help, and , with a lot of preparation, he mixes up a potion to restore Bedlo to human form. However, he is surprised when Bedlo insists that he actually saw Craven’s supposedly dead wife Lenore in Scarabus’ castle! They prepare to head to the castle, joined by Craven’s young daughter ( Olive Sturgiss) and Bedlo’s goofy son (Nicholson)- but Sacrabus must have a premonition of what is to come- and he remotely controls Craven’s coachman in an attack on his master!
The group luckily survives this fiendish assault and arrives at the castle-where they are greeted by Scarabus, who is acting uncharacteristically congenial. Bedlo makes an attempt at getting revenge on Scarabus, but it does not go well- and we learn that Craven’s beautiful wife Lenore ( Hazel Court) IS in the castle, but has sided with Scarabus! Scarabus drops his pretense of friendship and works to imprison and defeat the visitors- leading to a final mystical confrontation between the two powerful magicians that neither might survive!
This is truly entertaining film, mixing the scary with the silly and featuring some fun special effects -with Vincent Price, being the master of mixing horror with comedy paired with the irascible character of Peter Lorre, whose ad-libbing- in real life- tended to irritate the old school pro Karloff! We’ll talk about that and more, and present a variety of new and old Sven bits, plus a song- and bring back an interview with our amazing friend Rob Paulsen, the great voice actor from “Pinky and the Brain”, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and so much more!
“The Raven” flutters onto your TV screen tonight on MeTV at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. We know many viewers will be live-Tweeting during the show -please feel free to join in, using the hashtag #svengoolie on all your Tweets. This morning on the local Chicago channel CW 26, viewers get an encore of “Mystery of the Wax Museum” at 11 am.
Let me remind you again that it’s a good time to order Sven merchandise from the MeTV Mall- with holiday themed items, and other new inventory perfect to be gifts for your favorite Sven fans. Order now to make sure you will get things in time to play Sventa Claus yourself!
Tonight, you won’t find reindeer flying on MeTV- but one funny feathered fiend- bringing on the mayhem of murderous magic! Don’t miss it!
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Turning 29 for the 40th time…was she a Viking?
As we prepare to leave the 14th-century era of THE RAVEN and time warp into the twentieth century for THE NIGHT WALKER, let us acknowledge the contributions of two behind-the-scenes talents whose names were included in the credits of last Saturday's movie: cinematographer Floyd Crosby and art director Daniel Haller.
Crosby was the father of musicians David and Ethan Crosby. The elder Crosby worked on many notable films, including TABU: A STORY OF THE SOUTH SEAS, for which he had won an Oscar, and HIGH NOON, for which he had won a Golden Globe. By the 1950s, and for basically for the remainder of his career, he began working almost exclusively on low-budget films, primarily for AIP and Allied Artists, with many for Roger Corman. He passed on in 1985.
Haller, who is still with us, also worked frequently for Coman and AIP, most notably on the Poe films. His abilities as an art director made the Poe movies look more lavish than they actually were. He was also a producer and director, having helmed, among other projects, AIP's Lovecraft adaptations DIE, MONSTER, DIE and THE DUNWICH HORROR. According to Wikipedia, he later also produced and directed episides of quite a few popular TV series, such as NIGHT GALLERY, KOJAK, BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA, BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, and KNIGHT RIDER.
