The Raven

The Raven is a 1963 American fantasy comedy with elements of horror and drama, directed by Roger Corman from a screenplay by Richard Matheson. It centres on Erasmus Craven, a magician who has withdrawn from the world to mourn his late wife, Lenore. His quiet life with his daughter Estelle is disturbed when a talking raven arrives at his home and turns out to be a fellow sorcerer, Adolphus Bedlo, transformed into a bird by an enemy. After Craven restores him to human form, Bedlo claims that Lenore is still alive and living in the castle of a rival magician, Scarabus. Craven sets out for that castle, hoping the story is untrue.

Vincent Price plays Erasmus Craven, with Peter Lorre as Bedlo and Boris Karloff as Scarabus. Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess and Jack Nicholson appear as Lenore Craven, Estelle Craven and Rexford Bedlo. The film was produced by Corman for American International Pictures and Alta Vista Productions, and runs 86 minutes. Its worldwide box office came to about one million dollars.

The Raven was the twelfth of the nineteen films Corman directed in chronological order, following X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes and preceding The Haunted Palace, both released the same year. Ratings are modest but consistent: 6.5 out of 10 on IMDb from more than thirteen thousand votes, 6.3 out of 10 on TMDB, and a critics' rating of 6.6 out of 10 from eighteen reviews, which places critical and audience responses close together.