In honor of the anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death and funeral, the Poe Museum held the third annual Poe Film Festival Saturday and Sunday. Prior festivals had been held at the Byrd Theatre, but the museum opted to hold it at home this year. About 15 people came to the showing of “Murder in the Rue Morgure” on Saturday, and more than double came Sunday – likely because of the better weather.
“Child’s Play” creator Don Mancini lectured about the film “The Raven” on Sunday. He described it as a light-hearted mixture of comedy and horror including dueling magicians. It was made in the 1960s, and the only horror was the unexpected attack by a servant with a hatchet.
There were slight problems with the B-movie, “The Raven.” The location of the beach and geography of the castle was unbelievable, and the special effects sometimes were laughable. The heroic magician zapped his faithful servant with a light burst that looked fake, and when the mages fought, the lighting looked ridiculous.
Still, the cinematography of “The Raven” was praiseworthy. In a scene where two wizards appear to fly in a chair, the filmmakers put a chair on one side of a camera beam to make it seem like it was floating, Mancini said. He also disclosed the reason for using flying chairs was because one actor, Boris Karloff, was ill and needed to be filmed sitting down.
Mancini also commented on how thrifty the producer was and how he finished the film three days in advance. He then used those three days to make another movie, “The Terror,” in which he reused much of the footage from “The Raven.” Karloff and co-star Jack Nicholson appeared in roles in both movies using the same set.
The camera work in “The Terror,” however, was much more noteworthy. It had a good use of close-ups and views walking into the camera. In one scene, the heroine was riding on a swing. The filming of the scene, accomplished by mounting the camera onto the swing, was so realistic it made one visitor dizzy. Ironically, that was Hal Poe, a great-grandson of Poe’s cousin.
Chris Semtner, VCU alumnus and an artist whose works are inspired by Poe, talked a bit about horror movies and Poe’s funeral. He said Poe had eight people at his funeral, which was on a rainy day. A clergyman walking by who observed the funeral regarded it as the least Christian burial he’d ever seen.
Ben Wartner, another visitor, was amazed what people thought was scary in 1845, while his wife commented that “Murders in the Rue Morgue” had an effect on many movie directors. Semtner commented that Bela Lugosi, who starred in the film, was offered the role of Frankenstein’s monster in another film version of the book, which he did not accept.