Black Raven

Sam Newfield's The Black Raven (1944) is available in a handful of public domain DVD editions, of which Alpha Video's is about par for the course, made from a worn but serviceable print with some mild blemishes -- missing frames and the like -- but no crippling flaws, apart from somewhat muted sound. The volume pumps up fairly well, although between the flaws in the audio and the ubiquitous storm noises, the dialogue is never as distinct as it ideally should be. It does clean up as the movie progresses, and so it's difficult to complain too much. The night scenes are clear enough to reveal useful picture information even in the unlit sequences, and there's not much to miss in terms of plot -- there's an old dark house called the Black Raven Inn, there's some missing money hidden there, and a group of people with several axes to grind against each other gathered uneasily together. The requisite six chapters in any Alpha release are more than adequate to the task of breaking down a pretty much by-the-numbers thriller like this.