A Bigger Show- with Big Names- and a Big Bird-It’s “The Raven”-Tonight!

It’s a new year- it’s a new expanded time slot- and it’s a new movie! What a great way to begin 2023- with a Roger Corman feature that stars a gaggle of great stars- Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and even Jack Nicholson! It’s a combination of Gothic horror and hilarity, inspired by the poem by Edgar Allan Poe- the 1963 film titled “The Raven”!

NOTE: As we had expected, there are people who saw the title and began to protest “You just showed this last month!”- not realizing that this is NOT the 1935 film with Bela Lugosi and Karloff that we ran in early December. Especially puzzling was that comments like that came for a few people who actually SAW our “next week” promo- couldn’t they tell it wasn’t the same movie just from that ( even if only from the fact that this movie’s footage was in color, not in black and white)?

Let’s dismiss that- as we head to the mid-1500s, to the abode of a master sorcerer, one Dr. Craven ( hmmm- what does that rhyme with?)-played by Price- who broods over the loss of his wife Lenore. His retrospection is interrupted by the arrival of a raven! Yet, this is not a basic black bird- it is actually the wizard Dr. Bedlo ( Lorre), who has been transformed into this feathery state by the powerful magician Dr. Scarabus (Karloff). Craven (eventually) mixes up a potion to restore Bedlo to human form- but is surprised to hear that Bedlo actually saw his supposedly dead wife Lenore in Scarabus’ castle! They prepare to head to the castle, joined by Craven’s daughter ( Olive Sturgiss) and Bedlo’s goofy son (Nicholson)- but Sacrabus’ influence is already present, as he controls Craven’s coachman into attacking his master!

The group survives this fiendish assault and makes it to the castle-where they are greeted by Scarabus, acting suspiciously congenial. Bedlo’s attempt at getting revenge on Scarabus does not go well- and we learn that Craven’s beautiful wife Lenore ( Hazel Court) IS in the castle, aligned with its owner! No longer friendly, Scarabus works to imprison and defeat the visitors- leading to a deadly duel between the two powerful magicians that neither might survive!

This is a tremendously entertaining film, featuring some fun effects -with the master of mixing horror with comedy Vincent Price paired with the irascible character of Peter Lorre, whose ad-libbing tended to irritate the old school pro Karloff! We’ll talk about that and more, and present a variety of new and old Sven bits, plus a new song- as well as an interview with our amazing friend Rob Paulsen, the great voice actor from “Pinky and the Brain”, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and so much more! That more includes more of the movie than we could previously show, thanks to our new extended time of 2 and a half hours. This will also allow us to present some bonus features from the past.

“The Raven” flutters onto your TV screen tonight on MeTV at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. We know many viewers will be returning to live-Tweeting during the show on Twitter now that the holidays have ended-please feel free to join in, using the hashtag #svengoolie on all your Tweets. This morning on the local Chicago channel CW 26, viewers get an encore of “Earth VS the Spider” at 11 am.

We want to thank all the viewers who kindly sent us holiday greetings, and spent some of their holiday time with us. We’re ready to give you more of our show every week in this new year!

Help us kick off a new era of Sven tonight with feathered fright and murderous magic!