Reviews of movies with Boris Karloff.
Monday, February 25th 2008
Grade: D+
Synopsis: While visiting his girlfriend in England, a young American (Nick Adams) discovers her father’s (Boris Karloff) obsession with a radioactive meteorite.
Die, Monster, Die! is very reminiscent of one of star Boris Karloff’s earlier films, The Invisible Ray (1936). Both center on a radioactive meteorite, both feature a glowing Karloff, and, unfortunately, both are very talky.
Loosely based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, the setup has a lot of potential. Karloff does a great job playing the crippled heir of a corrupt and evil family (a character not too far removed from Poe’s Roderick Usher) who discovers a radioactive meteorite with the power to mutate plants and animals. Unlike The Invisible Ray, which spent half the film getting to this point, Die, Monster, Die! opens with Karloff’s character already knee deep in meteorite obsession, only to go absolutely nowhere. MORE »
Posted at 2:19 PM in Movie Reviews and Boris Karloff.
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Friday, February 22nd 2008
Grade: B
Synopsis: Assorted travelers find themselves stranded in a gloomy old house during a flood.
The Old Dark House is a wonderful light-hearted thriller, packed with atmosphere and great performances.
Granted, the script is a little thin in terms of plot, but director James Whale compensates by packing the film’s 72-minute running time with atmosphere, and stocking the cast full of great performers.
Top-billed Boris Karloff is suitably menacing as the butler Morgan in a performance that would later inspire the creation of Lurch from the Addams Family, and Brember Wills is truly frightening as Karloff’s character’s deranged brother. Rounding out the titular house occupants are Ernest Thesiger and Eva Moore, who manage to seem very creepy without going over the top, and Elspeth Dudgeon who plays the family patriarch and is world of atmosphere unto herself. MORE »
Posted at 6:30 PM in Movie Reviews and Boris Karloff.
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Friday, February 22nd 2008
Grade: D
Synopsis: The discovery of a radioactive meteor by a pair of scientists (Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) leads to deadly consequences.
Considering the studio and star power behind it, The Invisible Ray is a disappointment. Universal Pictures takes their two biggest horror stars, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi and puts them into a talky sci-fi clunker that never gets off the ground.
Karloff and Lugosi both try their best, but the film saddles them with a dull script even their combined presence can’t overcome. Further, while it’s a nice change of pace to see Lugosi as the good guy, the roles should have been reversed, with Lugosi as the crazed Hungarian scientist, and Karloff as his somewhat skeptical rival. Granted, it wouldn’t have helped much, but at least then you’d have an actual Hungarian playing the Hungarian part. MORE »
Posted at 5:09 PM in Movie Reviews, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.
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Friday, February 22nd 2008
Grade: C+
Synopsis: A headstrong woman (Anna Lee) runs afoul of the corrupt master (Boris Karloff) of an insane asylum.
Bedlam is a solid thriller from producer Val Lewton, featuring a great performance from Boris Karloff.
Karloff owns the movie with his portrayal of the corrupt but believable Master Sims. Rather than go over the top, Karloff gives us an ambitious man who’s very much the product of his environment, yet still evil to the core.
Opposite Karloff, Anna Lee is a much harder sell. For a Lord’s protégé, she comes off as very haughty and headstrong, qualities that would likely have seen her cast out of society. This is especially relevant when you contrast her character against Karloff’s, who, in many ways, is a byproduct of that very same society. Karloff’s character exists because it’s the only way a man like him could amass such power and influence, whereas the power and influence afforded Lee’s character hardly seems plausible and flies in the face of the script’s very message. MORE »
Posted at 2:33 PM in Movie Reviews and Boris Karloff.
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Wednesday, January 23rd 2008
Grade: C-
Synopsis: A cold-hearted doctor and his promising protégé find themselves increasingly beholden to the murderous cabman (Boris Karloff) who provides them with cadavers.
The Body Snatcher is a well-produced thriller that, unfortunately, lacks any real edge.
Karloff is great in the titular role, a dark, amoral man whose greatest pleasure is blackmailing a respected surgeon. His performance single-handedly makes the film worth watching.
The rest of the cast is serviceable. Henry Daniell and Russell Wade work well as a heartless doctor and promising student, respectively and Bela Lugosi has a throw-away role in what would be his final on-screen pairing with Karloff. MORE »
Posted at 5:22 PM in Movie Reviews, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.
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