Word: karloff
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...Raven (Universal). Bela ("Dracula") Lugosi and Boris ("Frankenstein") Karloff, foremost U. S. cinemonsters, first played together in The Black Cat, "suggested" by Edgar Allan Poe's story (TIME, May 28, 1934). The Raven "suggested" by that frail, pathetic poet's best-known poem, suffers chiefly from the obligation its producers felt to give it more bloodcurdling situations and paraphernalia than The Black Cat. Consequently the picture is stuffed with horrors to the point of absurdity. One imposing piece of equipment is a bedroom which descends to the basement like an elevator when its owner wishes to harass...
With a vitality that makes their efforts fully the equal of the original picture Writers William Hurlbut and John L. Balderston lift their monster (Boris Karloff) out of the water-filled cellar of the mill and send him out to terrify the countryside, break out of a dungeon, and make friends with a blind hermit who teaches him to smoke cigars and speak. Meanwhile one Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), as convincingly lunatic a scientist as ever reached the screen, shows Baron Henry Frankenstein, the monster's creator, the Tom-Thumb King, Queen, Archbishop and Satan he has cultured from...
...appeal to all chronic admirers of juvenile pictures. For making Peck's Bad Boy enjoyable also to less susceptible cinemaddicts, small Jackie Searl deserves the credit. A brat whose thin, disdainful, pasty face has made him villain in so many films that he has been called the Boris Karloff of his generation, he acts with his customary blood curdling restraint. When Bill Peck returns after running away, Horace merely cocks one eyebrow and says "You back?" He does it so offensively that audiences cheer when Bill Peck blacks his eyes...
...whom the story was written, takes full advantage of his opportunities and gives the best performance of his motion picture career. For the first time since "Disraeli," he ceases to be Arliss, and becomes the character he is depicting. His support: Robert Young, Loretta Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Boris Karloff, Helen Westley, et el., together with the able directing and technical assistance add to the worth of this excellent picture...
Even the climax, when Lugoal skins Karloff alive with a scalpel, has little effect on the audience. In fact the only people who are bothered at all are the innocent bystanders in the play...