Thomas Hamilton's portrait of cinematic/Halloween icon Boris Karloff may lack a little of the polish of an A&E Biography installment or vintage David Wolper look behind the scenes of moviedom—but for consumers of Famous Monsters of Filmland and similar learned journals, it's a real treat.
The narrative begins with Karloff's screen breakthrough, of course, playing Frankenstein's monster in the Universal Pictures classic 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, with the addition that Karloff made as strong an impression for director Howard Hawks as a homicidal convict that same year in a drama, The Criminal Code (home-viewers will be checking off Karloff must-see titles throughout).
Boris had actually been born William Pratt in India—his part-Indian ethnicity never acknowledged in official biographies, but a contributor to his swarthy features and striking bone structure that could convey otherworldly menace in such productions as The Black Cat, The Invisible Ray, The Body Snatcher (all opposite Bela Lugosi), The Mummy, The Mask of Fu Manchu, Black Sabbath and many others.
Karloff learned his acting craft on the Canadian stage and silent cinema. It is claimed he never developed much of a star actor's ego or especially regretted being typecast in horror, though he did sometimes wish for more substantial parts than the endless parade of mad doctors. Thanks to the Broadway stage in the 1940s and 50s, he did have that opportunity in Arsenic and Old Lace, Peter Pan, and The Lark (precious footage shows Karloff in his Captain Hook costume in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade). Unlike other luminaries of Hollywood marquee value, Boris had no issues working on television, and near the end of his life was especially proud of his voiceover in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Admirers and co-workers are interviewed, including filmmakers Guillermo del Toro, Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, and John Landis; actors Dick Miller, Ron Perlman, Ian Ogilvy, and Christopher Plummer; daughter Sara Karloff; and celluloid historians Leonard Maltin and Cortlandt Hull.
Film-fiend nitpickers will of course find some cherished titles and achievements left out of the chronicle, and only scant attention is paid to a tumultuous offscreen marital history (five wives). But the title will have an irresistible (dare we say, "universal?") appeal to movie lovers. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P.