The Black Raven

Rating:
Summary: Dark Stormy Night
Review: George Zucco plays Bradford the owner of a country inn and Glen Strange playing as a bumbling oaf. On a stormy night "The Black Raven" is visited by a convict with a grudge against Bradford, a bank teller who has stolen $50k, and a couple that are eloping.

The atmosphere is excellent i.e., an old dark house on a stormy night!

Glen Strange is the one that played Frankenstein the last three "Frankenstein" movies House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, and of course he played Sam on Gunsmoke.

Rating:
Summary: It was a very dark and stormy night
Review: I'm a fan of George Zucco, but I found this movie exceedingly tedious. For one thing, I couldn't see what was going on half of the time; a significant part of the action takes place either in darkened rooms or outside in the pitch black rainy night. This also contributes to a problem I had of keeping a couple of characters straight, especially the criminal types who spend most of their time hiding or stomping around huddled in rain gear. There was also very little character development-we just get one-shot glances at some of the individuals, and this lack of depth gave me little with which to distinguish some of them in my mind. One guy's a criminal who has broken out of jail in order to get revenge on Zucco's character "the Raven," (whose shadiness of character is never quite clear, particularly in terms of the past and the present). Another guy is apparently on the run after having been sold out by his own crooked boss. Then you have the stereotypical little guy who is sick of being treated like the cowardly runt he is and has embezzled fifty thousand dollars. The only half way normal people we meet are a man and woman whose plan of eloping to Canada has been delayed by the storm outside. Her father, some kind of criminally inclined businessman himself, tracks his daughter to the Raven's hotel, thus setting the stage for the night's drama. He is murdered, the embezzled money disappears, and the incompetent sheriff doesn't have the time or desire to actually investigate a crime, especially since it's so much easier to just pick somebody out and pin everything on him. The plethora of killings that follow each of his arrests greatly annoys him. The second half of the film basically consists of different people, often unidentifiable to me because of the darkness on screen, running around the house hiding from, ridiculing, and basically annoying each other. Perhaps if I had been able to actually see what was going on, I would have enjoyed this movie. Even George Zucco didn't seem to have his heart in this film. His cinematic get-togethers of either invited or unplanned guests are usually interesting, but this is an exception.

Rating:
Summary: It was a very dark and stormy night
Review: I'm a fan of George Zucco, but I found this movie exceedingly tedious. For one thing, I couldn't see what was going on half of the time; a significant part of the action takes place either in darkened rooms or outside in the pitch black rainy night. This also contributes to a problem I had of keeping a couple of characters straight, especially the criminal types who spend most of their time hiding or stomping around huddled in rain gear. There was also very little character development-we just get one-shot glances at some of the individuals, and this lack of depth gave me little with which to distinguish some of them in my mind. One guy's a criminal who has broken out of jail in order to get revenge on Zucco's character "the Raven," (whose shadiness of character is never quite clear, particularly in terms of the past and the present). Another guy is apparently on the run after having been sold out by his own crooked boss. Then you have the stereotypical little guy who is sick of being treated like the cowardly runt he is and has embezzled fifty thousand dollars. The only half way normal people we meet are a man and woman whose plan of eloping to Canada has been delayed by the storm outside. Her father, some kind of criminally inclined businessman himself, tracks his daughter to the Raven's hotel, thus setting the stage for the night's drama. He is murdered, the embezzled money disappears, and the incompetent sheriff doesn't have the time or desire to actually investigate a crime, especially since it's so much easier to just pick somebody out and pin everything on him. The plethora of killings that follow each of his arrests greatly annoys him. The second half of the film basically consists of different people, often unidentifiable to me because of the darkness on screen, running around the house hiding from, ridiculing, and basically annoying each other. Perhaps if I had been able to actually see what was going on, I would have enjoyed this movie. Even George Zucco didn't seem to have his heart in this film. His cinematic get-togethers of either invited or unplanned guests are usually interesting, but this is an exception.

Rating:
Summary: GROWING APPRECIATION FOR ZUCCO
Review: Only recently I've found a growing appreicating for George Zucco. So many times I had seen the face but never really knew the name. But lately I've been picking up some of his films (since I'm a huge old horror movie fan) and really been enjoying his work.

The Black Raven is one of those low budget PRC films. Several varied travelers are forced to stay at an inn by a thunderstorm that has washed out the roads and bridges. One of the guests has $50,000 that he stole from the bank where he worked. When one of the guests is murdered, it seems that everybody had a motive. And to complicate matters, the $50,000 is missing. Who did it? You'll have to watch to find out.

Zucco stars as Amos Bradford who runs the inn accompanied by his assistant Andy played by another veteran horror star, Glenn Strange.

This compact little mystery is an entertaining little film noire. Director Sam Newfeld keeps the story moving and the audience guessing. The film is bolstered by its veteran "B" movie cast. Zucco, always under rated, was a staple of such films in the 40s and gives a excellent performance as Bradford. Glenn Strange is also good in a Lon Chaney Jr. type role as the simple-minded Andy. Foulger made a career out of playing meek little bank tellers. And Charles Middleton (Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials) gets to play a good guy for a change.


Rating:
Summary: Better than average offering from PRC...
Review: The 1943 PRC effort "The Black Raven" is an interesting mix of "old dark house" stories and a slight dash of film noir.

George Zucco is great as Amos Bradford, the owner of The Black Raven Inn, a stopover on the edge of the Canadian border. Bradford is also known to the underworld as a contact man who can help crooks escape across the border to safety. Add a thunderstorm, several crooks, a pair of young lovers, a timid banker, and a bumbling handyman to the mix, and the stage is set for murder, mystery, and mayhem.

Serial fans will want to keep and eye out for the Sheriff, played by Charles Middleton. Middleton is probably best known to fans as Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials.

Rating:
Summary: Better than average offering from PRC...
Review: The 1943 PRC effort "The Black Raven" is an interesting mix of "old dark house" stories and a slight dash of film noir.

George Zucco is great as Amos Bradford, the owner of The Black Raven Inn, a stopover on the edge of the Canadian border. Bradford is also known to the underworld as a contact man who can help crooks escape across the border to safety. Add a thunderstorm, several crooks, a pair of young lovers, a timid banker, and a bumbling handyman to the mix, and the stage is set for murder, mystery, and mayhem.

Serial fans will want to keep and eye out for the Sheriff, played by Charles Middleton. Middleton is probably best known to fans as Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials.