The Comedy of Terrors / The Raven

Starring:Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Joyce Jameson, Joe E. Brown, Beverly Powers, Basil Rathbone, Alan DeWitt, Buddy Mason, Douglas Williams (II), Linda Rogers, Luree Holmes, Orangey, Paul Barselou, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess, Jack Nicholson
Director: Jacques Tourneur, Roger Corman
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

The Good, the Bad, and the Horrible
Great fun to watch.
Shakespeare and Poe,
Die Laughing
Quoth The Big Budget...Nevermore!

The Comedy of Terrors/The Raven
Starring: Vincent Price , Peter Lorre , Boris Karloff , Joyce Jameson , and Joe E. Brown
Director: Jacques Tourneur , and Roger Corman
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial
The Fall of the House of Usher /The Pit and the Pendulum
The Tomb of Ligeia / An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe
The Haunted Palace / The Tower of London
Tales of Terror/Twice Told Tales (Midnite Movies Double Feature)

ASIN: B00009PY45
Release Date: 2003-08-26

Customer Reviews:

The Good, the Bad, and the Horrible.......2007-04-18

These two movies belong together. Not because of the plots, which are actually dissimilar, but because of the great cast, headed the three great figures in mystery, Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. With only a passing bow to Edgar Allen Poe, these three lead us on a merry chase across the landscape of fantasy on slippery slope of comedy with the brakelines cut. Jack Nicholson is left hopelessly upstaged while Basil Rathbone valiantly struggles to keep up(not to mention stay alive). Keep your eye on Boris Karloff. sick and barely able to walk in the first movie and not walking at all in the second, he dominates both movies with the expressions on his face and the sound of his voice.
Watch them in the order they were made. The Raven is a great movie, but The Comedy Of Terrors is a classic.

Great fun to watch........2007-01-16

This is my third time buying these two movies. The Comedy of terrors and the Raven. I gave the other two to my friends.These are just full of laughs from start to end.

Shakespeare and Poe,.......2006-07-19

Who could ask for anything more. All I can add to the reviews that preceeded me is this: If you want to hear a great recital of some of Macbeth then you will get it from Rathbone in Comedy of Terrors. In the Raven revel in listening to Price and Lorre recite portions of Poe's poem. An interesting note: Jameson and Lorre again appear together in Tales of Terror.

Die Laughing.......2006-03-18

One might not think of the likes of Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre as being among the great slapstick comedians or the era, but the truth is, there is nothing these guys did not know about comedy. "The Comedy of Terrors" is one of the most hysterically funny films of the Sixties, and chiefly because one does not expect it. Price and Lorre play down-on-their-heels undertakers (Price is a drunk; Lorre just a loser) who drum up business by killing people themselves. Karloff is a riot as Price's senile father-in-law, but it is Rathbone who comes close to stealing the film as their penurious landlord, a would-be victim, who has a passion for Shakespeare and the constitution of a battleship. Amidst all this madness is the underrated Joyce Jameson as Price's wife, a bombshell with the most attrocious singing voice imaginable. Those who know the sinister stars only from legit horror films are in for both a shock and a treat. Price and Lorre are a terrific comedy team, while Karloff's and Rathbone's performances are texbooks of comic timing. This isn't a great film, by any means, but boy, is it a load of laughs!

"The Raven," which came earlier, is much more contained and controlled that "Comedy of Terrors," but still offers a lot of fun as Price, Karloff and Lorre send up the genre that made them stars. Price and Karloff are competing wizards who, in classic pseudo-western fashion, are destined for a shoot-out, while Lorre plays yet another loser, only this time he turns into a bird. This film has as much to do with Edgar Allan Poe as does "Teletubbies," but who cares? The stars are delightful, as is Hazel Court, who was never more va-voom as she is here. Jack Nicholson, in one of his early roles as Lorre's son, is in a little bit over his head, but still manages to contribute a few funny moments.

They just don't make 'em like these anymore!

Quoth The Big Budget...Nevermore!.......2005-11-21

I love Vincent Price and Peter Lorre, not to mention Poe, so I was certainly looking forward to watching these.

The first movie is The Comedy of Terrors and it really is quite funny. Since you've read the plot a million times on these reviews, I'll cut to the chase. Vincent Price and Peter Lorre try to drum up more business for a funeral home through murder, hence more customers.
Vincent Price is laugh out loud funny, and really does have a talent for comedy, as does Peter Lorre. The facial expressions of Price are fantastic, as they were in Tales of Terror and it's an enjoyable film to watch. Watch for the actress called "Beverly Hills" in this one. (You'll recognize her by her, uh, name.) On a last note with this movie, Joyce Jameson, sexy as always, plays the wife of Vincent Price in this, and it's just so nice to watch a film where you know that all the women involved have natural figures from the waist up. No guessing here. This era has passed.

The second film was pretty good, which is The Raven. Based on Poe's poem, The Raven, is named as a "comedy" and has its moments, but I enjoyed it more as a fun drama than a straight ahead gag reel. Price and Lorre are good as always and Jack Nicholson even pops up here as the son of Peter Lorre, which is odd enough. The movie is basically about a couple of powerful wizards (Price and Boris Karloff) who end up fighting each other for supremecy. A big budget film this is not, which is funny, considering that Corman says in one of the special features that this is one of the highest budget films in the Poe line. The ending battle between Price and Karloff is hysterically bad (in a good way). It is so utterly cheesy, you just have to laugh. I believe a Godzilla sound effect even makes itself known somewhere in the sequence.

Both of these movies are brilliant....brilliantly bizarre, especially Comedy of Terrors.
You really have to have a certain type of black humor to enjoy these, which I do, so it worked out well. I would recommend buying this. Also, the transfers are very good, in widescreen, anamorphic format, which is cool.

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