Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
BORIS KARLOFF: THE MAN BEHIND THE MONSTER
“Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch. The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote – stink, stank, stunk!” If you know that line from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, then good for you. It may also, unfortunately, be the most you know about Boris Karloff. While he may be best known for giving the great narration to this famous cartoon, he did a lot more. I also hope you know him as the famous monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein. If not, there is a great doc for you to watch.
I was lucky to get an invite to review the documentary Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster recently and really enjoyed the opportunity. As mentioned most people know Karloff as the Grinch narrator and Frankenstein. While that’s perfectly acceptable, here is your chance to learn a lot more about him. Thomas Hamilton and Ron MacCloskey spent quite a bit of time on this piece to go into detail about Karloff’s life and include great old photos and videos, not to mention all the people who are interviewed. The short list includes John Landis, Peter Bogdanovich, Guillermo Del Toro, Roger Corman, and his daughter Sara. While there is nothing fancy about this doc – it follows a pretty standard documentary format – it’s nice to learn a lot more about an iconic actor. I don’t love the look of all the green screen interviews but it’s great to hear from pros in the industry who really look up to and give Karloff so much respect.
Born William Henry Pratt in England in 1887, Karloff made his way to Canada working as a miner, truck driver, ditch digger, and more to make a living while trying his hand at acting. He eventually toured the country stage acting until his Hollywood career began. He appeared in almost 80 films before playing the monster in Frankenstein. After that role, he went on to appear in most of the Frankenstein sequels, The Old Dark House, The Mummy, The Black Cat, and SO many more. Of course, this is just a list of his movies. Karloff went on to be active in television and radio. He was seen on Thriller, the Dinah Shore Show and This is Your Life to name a few.
He was instrumental in the formation of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) after being influential to an industry that needed regulations. There is a nice story told that even near the end of his life, he was still at it. Literally needing oxygen on set, he still had the energy to go out and perform on live TV. There are two sides to what you should do at the end of your career. Retire the day you can or keep doing what you love. Karloff kept doing what he loved even though his health was failing him. I have a lot of respect for that. He believed what he was doing was more important than self.
I think retrospective documentaries are important since we may never really get to know an actor, or they never really show us who they are. Karloff was amazing at his craft and was a thoughtful and kind person. And of course, you know you have made it when The Simpsons reference you! This doc really gets into the details on some of his roles and that’s always great to see. At just over 90 minutes, it’s a nice runtime. No real downtime and a nice pace. I think any horror fan should appreciate getting to see every aspect of one of the greatest of the genre so thanks, Ilmar for giving me the chance to review this! You can watch this doc on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu, and most other streaming platforms. It’s also available on DVD/Blu Ray.
Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjNPEw8KKhU