What do you get when a prison escapee, a thief, a gangster, and a crime boss meet one stormy night at an out-of-the-way inn? The Black Raven which is the name of not only this movie but this inn and also the pseudonym by which George Zucco is evidently known in more nefarious circles. There's no plot to this movie. The rain has washed out the bridge to Canada and is forcing these folks, plus a couple trying to elope, to stay at the Black Raven Inn. They've all got separate agendas until it's known that there's $50,000 floating around and that changes everything. There is some terrific atmosphere and a semi-eerie old dark house setting. There is also some unwelcome comic relief, which is a staple of these 1940s mysteries, this time mainly from handyman Glenn Strange. It's nothing too special but enjoyable B fare.

Many people have found that most DVD editions of "The Black Raven" to be too dark in places and of overall poor quality. I've found a nice, bright restored version of it on a triple feature DVD called Black & Blue Collection which is available through the Roan Group.com. It's compiled with "Black Dragons" and the most perfect copy of "Bluebeard" that I've ever seen (other DVD's of "Bluebeard" on the market are too grainy, edited or have bad sound). Anyway, "The Black Raven" focuses on a group of people who are trying to get over the Canadian border for different reasons but are forced by a rainstorm and washed-out bridges to spend the night at the shadowy Black Raven Inn. The film has plenty of old dark house atmosphere plus the effective relentless howling of the wind and the pounding of the rain. George Zucco and Wanda McKay give good performances in this intriguing murder mystery. Enjoy it in its most perfect DVD edition. It really makes a difference!

***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.

A menagerie of persons converge at the Black Raven hotel, run by a man who makes a second living helping criminals escape over the US/Canadian border. When one of the guests is killed, and $50,000 is stolen from his posession, who did it? This done to death premise should have worked, even by PRC standards, but the second half of the film just consists of the characters running all over the hotel and basically by the film's end, the audience has to feel disinterested. However, with all the rain, it does make for a average movie, and Byron Foulger as usual, is fun to watch as the meekish bank teller on the run from the law. Strange & Middleton seem to be miscast, respectively, as the comic relief & sheriff, and Zucco just seems to be wooden as the hotel owner. Rating- 4.