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The doctor and the judge

The Raven (1935)

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The Raven (1935), starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff

Synopsis of The Raven

A wealthy judge coaxes the brilliant but eccentric neurological surgeon Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi), who also has an obsessive penchant for Edgar Allen Poe, out of retirement to save the life of his daughter. She’s a dancer , crippled and brain-damaged in an auto wreck. Vollin restores her completely. But he also envisions her as his “Lenore”. He then cooks up a scheme to kidnap the woman and torture and kill her fiancee and father in his Poe-inspired dungeon. To do his dirty work, Vollin recruits a wanted criminal (Boris Karloff). He turns him into a hideous monster to guarantee his subservience.

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The Mummy’s Hand

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The Mummy’s Hand  (1940) starring Dick Foran, Wallace Ford, Peggy Moran

If there’s one deadly sin committed by  The Mummy’s Hand, it’s that it’s too slow–and I’m not talking about the shambling movement of Kharis the living mummy.   The titular mummy doesn’t make his first appearance until an hour into the movie, which has spent far too long in setting the scene.   For instance, handsome, young archaeologist Steve Banning (Dick Foran) is stuck in Egypt. Without the funds to pursue his archeological dig.   And his friend Babe Jensen (Wallace Ford) is along as comic relief.

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Bedlam

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Bedlam (1946)

written by: The Masked Reviewer

After a friend of the portly aristocrat Lord Mortimer (Billy House) dies in an attempted escape from Bedlam. In order to appease the angered aristocrat, Master George Sims (Boris Karloff)  throws a party for Lord Mortimer and his friends at the asylum with the inmates as entertainment.

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Dracula’s Daughter

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Dracula’s Daughter  (1936) starring Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, Edward Van Sloan, Marguerite Churchill

I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by  Dracula’s Daughter–the first sequel to the classic 1931  Dracula starring Bela Lugosi.   Unlike so many of the later Universal Dracula movies,  Dracula’s Daughter does not attempt to revive Dracula.  Rather it looks at the aftermath of his destruction, through the eyes of his daughter, Contessa Marya Zeleska. She is a very reluctant vampire, played wonderfully by Gloria Holden.

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The Revenge of Frankenstein

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The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) starring Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Michael Gwynn, Eunice Gayson

In Hammer Studios’ Frankenstein films, the focus of the films was not on the monster, but rather on Dr. Frankenstein — an excellent choice. The Revenge of Frankenstein continues where The Curse of Frankenstein left off. The amoral, murderous Dr. Frankenstein (played excellently by Peter Cushing) is about to be executed by guillotine, for his crimes. He is accompanied by a priest and taken to his execution, where the camera focuses on the guillotine — except for a knowing smile between the executioner and a prison worker …

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She

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She (1965) starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Ursula Andres

Set in Palestine in 1918 “She“, relates the story of three wartime buddies — Major Horace Holly (Peter Cushing), Leo Vincy (John Richardson) and Job (Bernard Cribbons), who at the end of the war find themselves in the Middle East with no real desire to return home to England. Encountering a beautiful and mysterious woman called Ustane (Rosenda Monteros), one evening in a nightclub Leo is lured away and then knocked out. When he comes to, he discovers himself in a strange house where he encounters another beautiful woman, who calls herself Ayesha (Ursula Andress) — She who must be obeyed.

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The Black Room (1935)

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Synopsis of  The Black Room (1935)

Boris Karloff is superb in a dual role as twin brothers (one evil, one good), born to the ruling family in the early 1800’s in Czechoslovakia. The bad twin inherits the castle and becomes infamous for his sadistic behavior and murders the good twin, assuming his identity so that he might continue his heinous acts.

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Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

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Synopsis of  Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Larry Talbot, the unwilling Wolf Man, is returned to life with the unwitting help of grave robbers.  He wishes only to die, in order to avoid hurting anyone else as the Wolf Man.   So, he gets the help of the old gypsy from the original Wolf Man film. He is striving to get the assistance of the reviled Dr. Frankenstein … A man who supposedly discovered the secrets of life and death.   The doctor isn’t available, but Talbot uncovers his monster (played by Bela Lugosi).  With a confrontation between the two monsters being inevitable.

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The Raven

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The Raven (1963) starring Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson, Hazel Court

In short,  The Raven is one of the funniest movies that I’ve ever seen, in any genre. It has some truly scary moments as well, and gives some of the best horror actors of all time — Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre — room to work, and they do so wonderfully.

The movie is ever-so-loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe’s classic poem, The Raven. And, in fact, Vincent Price plays the part of Dr. Erasmus Craven, the previously-unnamed narrator of the poem, who is mourning for his lost wife, Lanore (played by the beautiful and talented Hazel Court) — although his daughter Estelle (played by Olive Sturgess) tries to comfort him, he turns inward, and away from the world, a virtual recluse — until he gets a visit from the titular raven. A talking raven …

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