The opening sequence is unintentionally funny and really takes me out of the rest of the movie: A woman is driving at night, probably faster than conditions call for. All of a sudden, a Detour sign pops up, and so she immediately freaks out and drives over a cliff.
Miraculously, she doesn't die, but the only doctor in the entire world that can save her is Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi). At first, he refuses to help. Why? Is he retired? Just too evil to help? Did he get his feelings hurt by the other doctors?Whatever the case, when he learns that the other doctors say he's the only one good enough for the job, and he helps.
From there, the movie seems to shift. Bateman (Karloff) enters Dr. Vollin's office, demanding at gunpoint that Vollin change his face. At this point, we don't know Vollin to be an evil man. But Bateman says something that attracts Vollin's attention: Ugly people may be more prone to acting in ugly ways. Vollin calls the idea "profound" and agrees to change Bateman's face.
What he does it give him a shave and then maybe slightly burn or damage the right side of his face. He removes his right eyeball too. Bateman is supposed to be hideous looking now, a slave to whatever evils Vollin directs him to do. But Bateman isn't actually evil. He simply wants Vollin to fix his face back to the way it was. He's being blackmailed into helping the real evil.
Vollin has all sorts of devices set up -- a room with walls that close in, a swinging blade that lowers until it finally slices its victim in two. Where did these things come from? Who built them? And how long had Vollin been planning his evil deeds? (By the way, does the swinging blade ever work as designed? It never seems to go any lower.)
Karloff received a $1000 and top billing, but to me, Lugosi -- who received $500 -- is the star of the movie. It makes me wonder why Karloff got paid more and received top billing. I also wonder why they wanted to tie the title to Poe's "The Raven." Vollin does recite part of the poem, and he has a cool stuffed raven. Maybe the producers simply assume the audience will know Poe's name and that that will be an easy enough way to add another cheap level of creepy to the movie?
I don't particularly like this film. It seems to get a lot of positive user reviewers simply because Karloff and Lugosi are in it together. And yes, I like the pairing. I always like the pairing, but that's never enough. The movie still needs to actually be good, no matter who happens to star in it.
Rating: 1/5 stars
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