Have I mentioned before my adoration of Boris Karloff? What? That creeps you out? Psh. Fine. Still gonna talk about him.
The 1930s were a big decade for horror especially for Universal Studios. They slapped together many films that featured their star monsters like Karloff and Bela Lugosi. This one is one of the better ones where Lugosi plays Dr. Vollin, a celebrated neurosurgeon called upon to save a judge’s adult daughter after a car accident. Jean, the daughter, survives and Dr. Vollin become friends with her and her fiancee Jerry. All of his care and attention is a thin mask of his true intentions - an obsession with Jean. Meanwhile, Vollin is begged for help from a murderer and bank robber, Bateman (Karloff), who wants a new face and a second chance without violence.
What no one is taking into account is that Vollin is a Poe fanatic - attempting to fill a home collection with all sorts of artifacts. He fills his basement with the torture devices from Poe’s most notable horror tales. This is not a man who wants to help Bateman and give up a woman he wants. Vollin partially destroys Bateman’s face, stating that he will only fix it if the criminal will do his evil bidding (this is a really cool scene where Karloff shoots a series of mirrors while Lugosi laughs).
The doctor tells the story of Poe through the fiction not the true man. To him, Poe was an genius driven mad by a love he could never have - the love of Lenore. And this lost love tortured the author until he wrote about torture. Boy. This doctor gives Poe more credit than I would.
Poe is never actually in the movie, but he is central to the plot and there is an actor playing him in a dance sequence. The actor recites the raven as Jean dances in flowing veils. The scene is meant to capture the grief and more notably the obsessive behavior of both Poe and Dr. Villon. The dance is called “the Spirit of Poe”.
I’m not going to give away the ending, but I’ll just tell you that there’s a pit, there’s a pendulum, and a lot more crazy laughing. And the doctor declares that he is getting revenge on behalf of Poe!
