I just picked up the "Comedy of Terrors/The Raven" double DVD and was horrified when I got home to see the words "musically edited version" stamped on the back for "The Raven!". What the hell? I thought MGM had gotten past this. They went through the trouble to correct the musical scores for the "Phibes" films, "Planet of the Vampires" and "Scream and Scream Again" for their DVD releases, so what's up? I haven't watched it yet, but does anyone know exactly what is missing/replaced on the soundtrack for this print? I'm really bummed about this, since "The Raven" is one of my favorite Price/Poe/AIPs. Thoughts, anyone?
All I can say right now is - That sucks!!
Maybe they added some Alan Parsons Project music to it?
I did notice one or two changes in one of the small music cues. However, this doesn't really intrude on the film at all. Now if the entire music soundtrack was removed, then I would be pretty mad about it. But then, when confronted by music copyright issues it's quite hard to strike a good deal.
But rest assured, I'm sure the music in MGM's release of THE RAVEN is the definative score. In the old Goodtimes Home Video release of THE RAVEN, the two small music cues that are not in the MGM release were basiclly in the film, just repeated.
Also, MGM does have a problem on relying on the original theatrical posters and old video covers in order to list the film's credits on the back. My old Goodtimes Home Video release also states that the film is "Musically Edited Version", so this could be a misprint on MGM's behalf. If you want another example of MGM misprinting credits, read my review of the TROLL/TROLL 2 release.