Better Late Then Never

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Old dark house mystery from poverty row studio PRC starring George Zucco as a guy who runs a hotel on the American side of the Canadian border, where he helps criminals flee the country. One dark and stormy night a group of strangers stop at the hotel to wait out the bad weather. Then a crooked politician with connections to several people in the group shows up and promptly gets himself murdered.You had me at George Zucco, PRC. This is an enjoyable little B movie with a decent cast. In addition to the always terrific George Zucco, the cast includes Byron Foulger, Noel Madison, Wanda McKay, Charles Middleton, and Glenn Strange as Zucco's simpleminded sidekick. It's cheaply made and the story isn't particularly original, but it's just an hour so it won't kill you to give it a shot.

The Black Raven is both the name of an Inn near the Canadian border and it is the underworld nickname of its owner George Zucco. At one time a kingpin racketeer Zucco now is retired and owns this rural hideaway which some of his associates use when they're fleeing the country.On one dark and stormy night when a local bridge washes out, several unexpected guests arrive including political boss Robert Middlemass hot on the heels of his daughter Wanda McKay who is eloping with Robert Livingston in one of his few non-western roles. Middlemass is the first of several murders that night before Sheriff Charles Middleton gets it all solved by a dying confession and the elimination of a few cast members.Although this is a typical PRC poverty row product as always George Zucco exudes menace and keeps this film moving along nicely. Might be worth a look.

I got to see this film last night on my local access channel, and I had such a good time with it. It reminded me so clearly of the classic early Warner Brothers cartoons about the fiends in the old houses on stormy nights and when you watch a movie like this, you can see the influences that inspired the great Chuck Jones. Though I agree with the other reviewer that this movie is a bit muddled, I cannot watch a movie like this from the perspective of its own time. It is so much a period piece. And that is the source of delight. The quality of the sound...the pops and crackles, the staged storm sound effects, the clothes, the lighting, the bumbling sheriff, the damsel in distress - all come together to present a little gem out of time. I recommend this film as a charming visit with our history of movie making.

***SPOILERS*** Fate brings six people together one night at the Black Raven Inn thats on the Canadian USA border. The first person who shows up is escaped convict Whitey Cole, I. Stanford Jolly, who has a score to settle with the Inn's owner Bradford, George Zucco. Having been double-crossed by Bradford and losing his half of the Black Raven Inn Cole wants him to pay for his backstabbing but is subdued by Bradford and his handyman at the Inn Andy, Glen Strange, and tied up and held captive in the basement until the police come to arrest him.Soon another customer arrives Mike Bardoni, Noel Madison, a wanted hood who's trying to make it across the border to Canada to escape the law. The next four persons who arrive at the Inn is Horace Weatherby, Bryon Foulger, a bank clerk who just embezzled $50,000.00 from his bank and the couple of Allen Bently, Bob Randell, and his fiancé Lee Winfield, Wanda McCay, who are also trying to elope to Canada to escape Lee's domineering and gangster father Tim Winfield, Robert Middleass. Winfield also arrives at the Inn in order to stop his daughter from going through with her marriage to Allen. Winfield is also the man who brought Bardoni down as a top gang leader in the world of organized crime and you just can imagine what happened when the two men end up in the same room together.Cole unties himself and escapes into the woods as Winfield recognizes Weatherby from his picture in the newspapers as the bank embezzler and gets him to give him the $50,000.00 so, as he tells Weatherby, he'll return it to the police and nothing would happen to him. Earlier in the movie Brdoni noticed the money Weatherby was carrying in a satchel and wanted to take and keep the loot for himself but as it turns out both Winfield & Bardoni end up getting murdered, who did it?"The Black Raven" isn't one of George Zucco's best but it would be watchable only if the lighting in the movie was better. It looked like the movie was filmed in a mineshaft with some scenes so dark that it was impossible to make out who was in them. There was also an attempt of having some humor in the film with a bumbling sheriff, Charlie Middleton, and a cowardly Inn worker Andy. Glen Strange who played Andy is almost twice as big, at six foot seven inches, as anyone in the movie and him being scared to death of every little sound and shadow came across as phony as a three dollar bill. It was left up to Bradford as well the audience, the dopey Sheriff was no help at all, to figure out who the killer or killers were and the ending when he was discovered by Bradford did surprise me.