This week on SVENGOOLIE...

[Western Guy]

RedRiver, ANY movie featuring Boris Karloff is aces with me. Never even had problems with him issuing his "Baby" dialogue in BEHIND THE MASK.

Heck, I can even buy Bela as a gangster in BLACK FRIDAY.

Bottom line, to me, is entertainment. And these pics never fail to entertain. I've got a complete Borisk Karloff selection lined up for Christmas.

[charliechaplinfan]

Boris Karloff has one of the most distinctive voices in cinema, his accent doesn't bother me in Scarface, he's in another precode, a prison drama The Criminal Code, he's chilling in that and he's great in Five Star Final. I'm going to watch The Grinch before Christmas thanks to Moira

[Western Guy]

Yes indeed, Karloff is especially memorable as the defrocked minister Vernon T. Isopod in FIVE STAR FINAL, to whom EDward G. Robinson at one point directs a disparaging character comment that I can't recall at the moment, but it bodes well for the reptile Karloff portrays. Boris also has a quick bit opposite Eddie and James Cagney as gambler Sport Williams in SMART MONEY.

[charliechaplinfan]

He was able to rise abovie his typecasting and has left enough performances to show us that he was capable of more than Frankenstein's monster. What surprised me most about Boris is that he wasn't the tallest or most imposing man in Hollywood, he just seems that way because he has a big character.

[RedRiver]

I can't believe you've seen THE CRIMINAL CODE, Chaplin Fan. That movie and I never seem to be in the same room. It's one of the movies I most want to see.

[charliechaplinfan]

You've got to make sure you are in the same room one day, it's a date worth keeping.

[Western Guy]

RedRiver, have you seen what most Karloff fans rightfully agree is Boris's swan song: TARGETS? Clips from THE CRIMINAL CODE are shown in this classic in a wonderfully comic scene between Karloff and Peter Bogdonavitch. Karloff was a marvelous actor but IMO this performance as virtually himself deserved him an Oscar.

[intothenitrate]

It's always nice to read others' appreciation of Boris Karloff, and I couldn't agree more with what has already been said.

When TCM aired a birthday tribute to the beloved actor a few years ago, I recorded a number of the films he made at Columbia during the 1939-1940 period. The line-up included The Devil Commands, Before I Hang, The Man with Nine Lives, and The Man They Could Not Hang. The obvious formula-milking by the front office always makes me chuckle. And yet, each film is very worthwhile and engaging, due entirely to Karloff's presence. He brings a tremendous amount of quality and value to these B pictures from a largely B studio.

On the subject of Boris as a pre-code gangster, I recently secured a copy of the 1931 film The Guilty Generation. I should probably write more about it in the "Silents and Pre-Code" section because I liked it a lot. Karloff plays the patriarch of an Italian gang whose son falls in love with the daughter of his rival, played by Leo Carillo. Some of the reviewers on IMDB have politely guffawed at Karloff's crisp, British diction coming out of the mouth of an ostensibly Italian thug. Personally, I don't have a problem with it. Rather than trying to "Chico Marx" the role, he instead concentrates on the psychology of the hoodlum. He shows you an almost animalistic thought process playing across his face. Although his screen time is considerably less that Carillo's -- who is also excellent, by the way -- he serves the film brilliantly, struggling with the conflict between his latent parental instincts and the exacting rigors of jungle law.

[Western Guy]

The reason Karloff's role in THE GUILTY GENERATION seems abbreviated is because he was allowed an early release from the production when James Whale contracted him to play the Monster in FRANKENSTEIN. Harry Cohn must have been in an extremely generous mood to allow this.

I agree about the later Columbia Karloff "Mad Scientist" package. A story that Boris himself told was one day when he wearily approached the producer of these movies about either changing the format or perhaps even spending a little more money on the budget, only to be told, bluntly, that the studio knew exactly how much these movies were going to gross (apparently the producer also pulled out a chart to illustrate his point) so even if Columbia spent an extra dime on these pictures they weren't going to earn an extra cent in revenue.

[intothenitrate]

What great information, WG! Can you recommend a good biography on Karloff?

[RedRiver]

TARGETS is the movie that made me aware of the Hawks film. Seeing that, and reading about it, intrigued me. As for making a date, I assure you I've tried. I know of no available copy.

[Western Guy]

There have been several Karloff bios, intothenitrate. Cynthia Lindsay wrote a good one some years back "Dear Boris": she was the widow of Russell Gleason, who was the son of Boris's good friend James Gleason. But if you really want to go in-depth with Boris, two I would recommend are "Boris Karloff: More Than A Monster" by Stephen Jacobs, and Greg Mank's "Lugosi and Karloff: A Haunting Collaboration". Both are exhaustively researched and give lots of insight into the actor and the man.

[charliechaplinfan]

I read Karloff More than a Monster last year, it's a very good biography, very detailed, it's one of the best film biographies out there and the biographer both knows his subject and loves his subject. I watched Targets after reading the biography, this is a man who never stopped working and Targets is such a swansong for him.

Is this the right thread to mention William Castle? I've just discovered him, he seems to give a nod to those old Universal films, I watched Sardonicus today, wonderfully silly, makeup reminiscient of Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughed, none of the characters very believable and we get to vote for which ending we want (or we were made to think we were). The wonderful Oscar Homolka plays Krull the heavy for his master Sardonicus, someone who has been blinded in one eye by his master but shows undying loyalty. Ronald Lewis is the young knighted English doctor who abondons all his work and patients to flee to the rescue of his old love Maude, played by Audrey Dalton. It conjures up Transylvania and Dracula, Frankenstein's castle, Dr Jekyll, of course the costumes or of the romantic gothic type, plenty of frills and long tight fitted jackets for sardonicus played by Guy Rolfe, in another nod to Eyes Without a Face he wears a mask to shield a face that was frozen in horror. As a work of horror it doesn't chill but it sure does entertain. The very handsome Ronald Lewis, didn't really have the career this role promised and Guy Rolfe, I shall have to look out for him in other movies.

I've also seen Homicidal which I loved and gave to my mother to watch, I reviewed it on the Lately thread and I also watched Macabre, not quite as strong but what a character the director is, my films include clips of him speaking to the audience, particularly in Sardonicus when he takes a vote, counting the audience, of course an alternate ending was never filmed and the ending was just, Krull being hard to understand with his loyatlies. Oh and don't mention leeches.

[Western Guy]

William Castle is a whole different kind of animal (respectfully intended). When I spoke with Vincent Price many years back when he was in Winnipeg on a Sears art tour he mentioned that he was grateful to Castle for the boost the two films in which Castle featured him (a kind of dicey period in Vincent's career), yet Castle apparently went bolder by saying that THE TINGLER and THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL virtually saved Price's movie career. Price regarded Castle as a great showman. Although Vincent did not particularly care for the various gimmicks Castle employed, he said that those were probably necessary in the films' first week or so of release to tempt audiences into the theaters. Price himself said that the storylines were lacking.

As for Boris and the magnificent TARGETS, one wishes Boris (wealthy and unhealthy) had never signed for those Mexican abominations. Even he had said there comes a time when one no longer wishes to become a nuisance to himself or others. Yes, ANY Karloff footage is gold, but TARGETS truly was the film for a legend such as Boris Karloff to go out on. The ultimate cinematic legacy!

[charliechaplinfan]

I hadn't known of William Castle which after seeing him on screen and seeing what a character he was, I'm surprised because he comes across as larger than life and perhaps modelling himself a little on Hitchock's legend. I'm interested enough to watch some more. I don't like it when people take credit for others careers, however well intended it might be it never comes across well.

Targets is the only one of Boris's later films that I've watched, I realise he made some rubbish and why? Whilst one is still working, whatever it is they are acting in they're still part of the comeraderie of film making and their name is still out there. Once an actor retires it's not always easy to get back in the business, I don't know if this is what spurred Boris on, only my surmising.