Peter Lorre

'The Raven' (1963)

The good: Horror icon Vincent Price usually played bad guys, but here he was on the side of the angels as Dr. Esramus Craven, a widowed (he thinks) magician who must team up with the cowardly Dr. Bedlo (Peter Lorre) -- but only after Craven turns Bedlo ... moreback from a raven into human form. How a young Jack Nicholson ends up playing Lorre's son is anyone's guess.

The bad: Their enemy? The treacherous Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff), who aims to destroy both wizards and their children, while stealing Craven's wife in the process. You can tell that these three greats -- Karloff, Price and Lorre -- had a blast making this picture, a Roger Corman special based loosely (and we mean very loosely) on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

('The Raven'/Courtesy Everett Collection)