A film generally unloved despite its pedigree - AIP, Richard Matheson, Floyd Crosby, Dan Haller, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Jacques Tourneur. No Corman but still...
What went wrong?
Well The Raven worked bc it was still creepy. This is all played for laughs. It begings wonkly with silly sped up camera and music and that tone is pleasant all the way through.
The pain and terrors in Raven were real. This is too much of a joke. Vincent Price seems miscast.
It lacks a supernatural element too. It's all explained away. Rathboone comes back from the dead but because it's rigid. The material needed to be played straighter.
I'm glad Rathbone got to play Shakespeare and Lorre got the girl. The Corman Poe films worked this doesn't. Needed genuine scares.
Bug role for Joyce Jameson.
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