Boris Karloff: The Man Remembered
Author: Shriver, Gordon B.
Date: 2004-05-31 22:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Entertainment & Performing Arts; Biography
Description: Since his death in 1969, Boris Karloff remains one of Hollywood’s most famous figures. He is still revered for his talent, his many qualities that earned him admiration and respect, and, of course, his landmark role as the Monster in the 1931 movie classic Frankenstein.This biography, the result of many years of interviews and extensive research, examines Karloff the person, as well as the actor. His work (which lasted more than half a century) in films, radio, television, and the theater is covered in detail, highlighted with accounts by many who knew him and worked with him. Among the contri

BORIS KARLOFF:

THE MAN REMEMBERED

Gordon B. Shriver

PublishAmerica

Baltimore

© 2004 by Gordon B. Shriver.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

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BORIS KARLOFF:

THE MAN REMEMBERED

Introduction

The genesis of this book took place in the early '70s, when I was in high school and spent hours on end in libraries, as I looked for whatever information I could find on a British actor whose work I had seen only on television.

Great thanks and appreciation go out to those who graciously took time to respond to my letters and phone calls over the years and told me how Boris Karloff touched their lives and what he meant to them.

I must single out the late Evelyn Karloff, Boris' widow, with whom I corresponded between 1983
and 1992. Her personal memories and comments as this project came together were of immense help, as was her assistance in contacting her and her husband's friends. Regrettably, she did not live to see this book completed, as she died in 1993.

Similarly, I'm indebted to Sara Jane Karloff, the actor's daughter, for her friendship, remarks, and support. It is my hope that this opus captures the spirit and achievements of her father, and adds something more to the body of work he left behind.

Friends, associates, and others who crossed paths with Karloff and who all contributed in some way are Robert Anderson, Peter Asher, Edward Asner, Orson Bean, the late Douglas Benton, Theodore Bikel, the late Robert Bloch, Paul Bogart, Peter Bogdanovich, Adrian Booth, Tom Bosley, Ray Bradbury, Frank and MaryJo Brink (thank you for the great hospitality!), Himan Brown, Kirk Browning, Frank Cady, Patrick Curtis, the late Melvyn Douglas, the late Frances Drake, Ralph Edwards, the late Denholm Elliott, the late Maurice Evans, Norman Felton, the late Bramwell Fletcher, the late Robert Florey, William Frye, the late Eva Gabor, John Gay, Bruce Gordon, Richard Gordon, Julie Harris, Kristin Helmore, the late Tom Helmore, the late Douglas Heyes, Pat Hingle, Barbara Holdridge, the late Norris Houghton, Norman Jewison, Lamont Johnson, the late Henry Jones, the late Nathan Juran, Arthur Kennard, Yousuf Karsh, the late Walter Kerr, the late Buzz Kulik, Christopher Lee, the late Eva LeGallienne, June Lockhart, the late Roddy MacDowall, Delbert Mann, Martin Manulis, the late Fletcher Markle, Richard Matheson, Mercedes McCambridge, the late Dorothy McGuire, Martin Milner, Paul Monash, Robert Mulligan, the late Mildred Natwick, the late Ralph Nelson, the late Anthony Newley, William F. Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, the late Gregory Peck, Nehemiah Persoff, Daniel Petrie, Tony Randall, and former President Ronald Reagan.

Also, the late Edward G. Robinson, the late Hubbell Robinson, the late Mark Robson, the late William Ross, Donald Sanford, Alvin Sapinsley, the late Gerald Savory, the late George Schaefer, John Schlesinger, the late Stirling Silliphant, Stewart Stern, the late Roger L. Stevens, the late Dorothy Stickney, the late Susan Strasberg, Herbert L. Strock, Gloria Stuart, Inga Swenson, Phyllis Thaxter, Wendy Toye, the late Shirley Ulmer, Russell Wade, Eli Wallach, Betty White, Jonathan Winters, Robert Wise, Joseph Wiseman, the late Ian Wolfe, Teresa Wright, Jane Wyatt, Dana Wynter, and James Yaffe.

In addition, I thank the staffs of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and its Margaret Herrick Library, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Atlanta Historical Society, the Broadcast Pioneers Library, the California Historical Society, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Museum of the City of New York, the Museum of Television and Radio, the Mystery Writers of America, the Performing Arts Research Center at the New York Public Library, the State

Historical Society of Wisconsin, the U.S. Air Force Band, the University of California at Los Angeles and its Television Archives, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.

And, for their own special efforts, I thank Kenneth Carr, Richard Cooper, Gary Dorst, Lt. Col.

Arnald D. Gabriel, Harry Gleeson, D'Arcy More, Maj. Jack Oswald, Jame Riley, Bradley G. Stanley, and Tom Weaver.

Finally, thanks to my family and friends for their interest and indulgence in hearing about this project, and seeing it come to be after such a long but wonderful journey.

EARLY STAGES

In 1887, Queen Victoria had ruled England for fifty years; "A Study in Scarlet," the first Sherlock Holmes story, was published; and on November 23rd in the London suburb of Camberwell, Boris Karloff entered the world.His birth name was William Henry Pratt, the youngest of nine children born to Edward John Pratt, an employee of the British Indian Civil Service, and Eliza Sara Millard Pratt, his third wife. Mr. Pratt's intention was that all of his eight sons (there was one daughter, Julia) would follow him into the consular service. When Billy, as the newest member of the family was called, had grown up to become Boris Karloff, he recalled that each brother would address him about his reluctance to pursue the family trade.

The elder Pratt, who was about sixty when Billy was born, died in 1892, and Mrs. Pratt, still in her teens when she got married, followed him in death two years later. Childhood was a difficult time for Billy, a shy, stammering boy who had to deal with a father who was rarely home (and very strict when he was), a mother in poor health. Billy was bullied by his brothers, who were frequently gone too, to India or China.

Nevertheless, he sought enjoyment in games and the theater. At the time of his mother's passing, the Pratts had relocated to Middlesex, where Billy was raised by a half-sister, Emma, from his father's second marriage. He was all of nine years when he discovered his life's calling. This came about in 1896, when he was cast as the Demon King in a
church production of "Cinderella."

Having attended the Enfield Grammar School, Billy went on to Merchant Taylors' School in London for four years, and from there to the prestigious Uppingham School, where his pursuits included choir, cricket, playing the piano, and rugby.

During his teens, Billy was more interested in theater than schoolwork. Part of that was due to his brother George, who for a time had acted under the name of George Marlow, but abandoned the craft and eventually went into business. However, he maintained his interest by assisting at the Enfield Amateur Dramatic Society, staging an annual show at the Enfield Cricket Club, and coaching acting.

When Billy was nineteen, he completed his education at King's College in London. Disregarding the strong discipline and tradition of his family, who urged him to abandon acting and follow them into the consular service, he decided to leave England. Based on the flip of a coin, Billy headed for Canada, the other option being Australia. With some money left to him by his half-sister when she died (he was twenty-one now), he sailed from Liverpool in May of 1909.

The ship took him to Montreal, a stop on the way to Toronto, where he planned to work as a farmer.

He was assigned to a farm in Hamilton, Ontario, stayed for a few months, and moved on to Banff and Vancouver, trying to make a living at starvation wages by breaking horses, selling real estate, and working as a laborer.

Billy approached stock theater companies in Vancouver, yet his efforts went unrewarded. Fate stepped in for the better when a letter arrived from Walter Kelly, a Seattle theatrical agent he'd contacted. Kelly referred him to the Jean Russell company in Kamloops, so Billy (who said he was an experienced actor) boarded the train to the small British Columbia town.

Figuring he couldn't be an actor with the name of Pratt, he chose to call himself Boris Karloff. Its origin is still cryptic. Later on, after achieving fame, he said Karloff was from his mother's side of the
family, although her genealogy does not confirm that. Boris was his own conception.

The Jean Russell players saw through his supposed acting background, but took him on anyway, and his first role was that of a sixty-year-old banker in Ferenc Molnar's The Devil. His debut was not an auspicious one, as his salary was cut in half before the curtain rang down. Still, they liked him and he stayed, learning his craft and touring western Canada until 1912. As he would in the years to come, he became popular playing villains.

The company ended up in Regina, Saskatchewan, where a cyclone hit, devastating the town. All of the actors assisted in cleaning up the damage, but the troupe, which had run out of money, dissolved.

Karloff briefly worked as a baggage handler, and moved on to Prince Albert. There, he joined the Harry St. Clair repertory group, which needed a young leading man and responded to a letter of application Karloff sent. Throughout Canada and the northern United States, Karloff played 106 parts and, being a fast learner of lines, got the best casting in plays such as East Lynne, Charley's Aunt, and Way Down East.

After close to two years in Prince Albert and with some money saved, Karloff believed he had enough experience to make a go of it in a larger theater town, so he went to Chicago. When he found work, his finances had dwindled to practically nothing, and he had to go to Virginia for a ten-week run with another stock company, after which he returned to the Windy City. He had tried enlisting in the British army at the start of World War I in 1914 but was rejected for a supposed heart murmur.

On the road then was the Billie Bennett theater company, staging The Virginian . Karloff hooked up with them, playing several states, until they made it to Los Angeles in December 1917. That was temporary, and it was on to three other repertory troupes, playing northern California stops such as San Francisco and Vallejo, eventually coming back to Los Angeles. Amidst all that touring, he spent two months pulling sacks of flour and loading trucks, when a flu epidemic destroyed the theater business, closing venues, and disbanding the players.

Other than what Karloff related years later, little is actually known of this time in his life, particularly from a personal standpoint. It's presumed he married a Canadian actress named Olive de Wilton between October of 1909 and 1913. There is no written verification of that union or subsequent dissolution, according to Cynthia Lindsay's

1975 biography Dear Boris.

Two more marriages followed, the first to Montana Lorena Williams, a musician from New Mexico, in July of 1920, and the second to Helen Vivian Soule, an actress from Maine, on February 23, 1924. Author Lindsay found no records of divorce for these marriages, either.

Hollywood was in its infancy, and silent pictures were taking their hold on America. Karloff's entry into the world of moviemaking, he said, was at Universal Pictures in a crowd scene directed by Frank Borzage, who won Academy Awards for Seventh Heaven (1927) and Bad Girl (1931). The name of the film is unknown.

The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916) with Anna Pavlova and His Majesty, the American (1919) with Douglas Fairbanks have each been said to have been Karloff's first film (the latter by Karloff), further complicating the research process. It may never be known precisely which film was the beginning of his screen career.

Karloff appeared as an extra initially, and went on to bit parts as heavies and such of various ethnic origin (a French-Canadian trapper, a Mexican half-breed, etc.). According to Douglas Benton (associate producer of Karloff's TV series, Thriller), Karloff's first feature role was at Paramount. He said,

They were putting the railroad tracks down Melrose, and he was working as a day laborer laying ties, and one of the assistant directors came out of the front gate at Paramount, and shouted they needed
one hundred actors for a battle scene.

Boris said everybody on the streetcar track laying detail dropped their hammers, rails, ties, and raced for the gate. He said there must have been four hundred people fighting to get in, and the toughest one hundred who were left standing were the ones they hired. In those days, an extra got five dollars a day and a box lunch, which was awfully
good.

Working on the railroad, he was lucky to make five dollars and he didn't get the box lunch. But he got in, somebody liked the look of him, and they put him in a toga and handed him a spear and got a close-up and he was on his way.

Not quite. Yes, there was work, but it was intermittent. To put food on his table, Karloff hauled cement, gravel, and rock at a building material yard. That led to the equally grueling task of driving a truck that he had to load and unload with sacks of cement and lime putty, weighing hundreds of pounds.

Karloff's roles in silent films were not noteworthy, overall The parts grew, more of them as villains, which served to lay out a path of sorts for his career. One of the most significant was in The Bells (1926) with Lionel Barrymore, who would direct him a few years later in The Unholy Night. Karloff played a mesmerist who haunts Barrymore's character, a murderer and thief. Still, he was disappointed at his slow progress, when he encountered none other than one of cinema's most famous performers, Lon Chaney, the legendary Man of a Thousand Faces.

Introduced by another actor, Chaney and Karloff went to watch boxing, Karloff often standing outside the stadium because he couldn't afford the admission. Chaney, who'd greet Karloff by name, gave him a ride home one evening, and advised, "Find something no one else can or will do—and they'll begin to take notice of you. Hollywood is full of competent actors. What the screen needs is individuality!" Karloff certainly had no idea when he heard those words how loud their truth was to ring.

In 1930, Karloff married Dorothy Stine, a librarian for the city of Los Angeles, at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. When they met, he was doing his extra roles, and living in Laurel Canyon, the first of several locations where they resided at as time went by.

"IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!"

By the early '30s, Universal Pictures had been in operation for close to two decades, having been founded by Carl Laemmle in 1912. By producing the classics The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera, both starring Lon Chaney (who was under contract to MGM), Universal had begun to realize the hold that horror pictures were beginning to have on the moviegoing public.

Once the talkies began, Universal released Dracula, which became a hit, simultaneously seducing and thrilling audiences. Bela Lugosi, an emigrant from Lugos, Hungary (his real name was Bela Blasko), had played the vampire to great success on Broadway and on a national tour.

It was not long before the powers that be decided to make a film based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, the incredible story of a dedicated, young scientist named Victor Frankenstein, who dares to go beyond the limit of medical science, and create a human being by using his own, unorthodox methods.

Frankenstein had also been adapted for the stage, and in the spring of 1931, Universal bought the rights to that adaptation by Peggy Webling for $200,000, including one percent of the world gross. A screenplay was the next step, with the inevitable question arising of who would play Frankenstein's monster. Had Lon Chaney not died the year before, he might have been a possiblity, despite his agreement with MGM.

John Carradine, soon to begin his career as one of Hollywood's best character actors, was then a classically trained performer, but still unknown. Universal called him in to see Jack Pierce, the head of their makeup division. When Pierce told the actor all he would have to do to play the Monster was grunt, Carradine turned it down, but he would figure prominently in other Universal horror films.

In 1930, when he and Karloff were beginning stage actors, they appeared together in a production of Window Panes. Karloff was the heavy and Carradine the comic. While all of this was going on, entering the picture was Universal's hot directorial property, James Whale, a 38-year-old Englishman with experience as a cartoonist. He was also experienced in the theater, where his duties included acting, directing, and designing sets.

In England, he had staged the war drama Journey's End, starring Colin Clive and Maurice Evans, to great acclaim, and took it to the United States. Whale directed the subsequent film version (with Clive repeating his role) and it had such an impact on Carl Laemmle, Jr., who was put in charge of general production at Universal when he was just 21, that Laemmle signed him to work for the studio, where his next work was Waterloo Bridge.

Dracula had been such a hit that Universal had Bela Lugosi, who would forever be associated with that role, as Karloff was as Frankenstein's monster, test for Frankenstein. Some accounts have said that director Robert Florey, who met Karloff several years prior during work on Omar the Tentmaker (1924), suggested Lugosi play the Monster. In 1973, I asked Florey about that and this was his response: "I did not suggest Boris for the role. I directed several sequences— about two reels—of the first Frankenstein script with Bela as the Monster. While writing the adaptation of Shelley's story, my idea was to give the role of Dr. Frankenstein to Lugosi. I told Dick Schayer [head of production at Universal] that any tall bit player could play the Monster, but apparently my suggestion was rejected."

James Whale replaced Florey (who brought Frankenstein to Laemmle, and thought he would direct, as well, but Florey's contract didn't say that), revising his script, and went over the play's adaptation
by John L. Balderston, one of the five writers—Florey among them— who received screen credit.

Boris Karloff was still alternating among bit parts in films, the theater, and driving a truck in order to make a living. Hollywood was starting to become aware of him and was using him for such films as Howard Hawks' The Criminal Code, repeating the role he played in a Los Angeles stage version.

Written by Martin Flavin, The Criminal Code was the story of a tough yet fair-minded prison warden whose daughter falls in love with an inmate. It starred Walter Huston and Constance Cummings. Karloff's part as a prison trustee, though small, is significant. In a memorable scene where he kills a fellow inmate, one can see how closely related Karloff's physical stance and movements are to those of the Frankenstein Monster.

There were other notable pictures for Karloff in 1931, which put him opposite several fellow ascending stars. Among these were Smart Money with James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson; Young Donovan's Kid with Jackie Cooper; and The Mad Genius with John Barrymore (Karloff thought Lionel was the better actor).

In Five Star Final, Karloff again appeared with Edward G. Robinson, and Karloff gave a fine performance as a sleazy reporter for a sensationalist newspaper. Robinson considered this film one of his personal favorites, and told me Karloff was one of the most intelligent actors with whom he'd ever been associated. Finally, Karloff was being noticed, and one in particular who noticed him was James Whale.

Whale became aware of Karloff from seeing him in Graft, a gangster picture from Universal. One day, while dining in the studio commissary, Karloff was invited to join Whale at his table. The director expressed the desire that Karloff test for the role of the Monster in his upcoming film, Frankenstein. At first, Karloff was taken aback, but given Whale's high status as Universal, he accepted. Movie history and magic would soon be made.

Later on, Whale told The New York Times why the film appealed to him: "I chose Frankenstein because it was the strongest meat and gave me a chance to dabble in the macabre. I thought it would be an amusing thing to try and make what everybody knows to be a physical impossibility into the almost believable for sixty minutes. A director must be pretty bad if he can't get a thrill out of a war, murder, and robbery. Frankenstein was a sensational story and it had a chance to become a sensational picture. It offered fine pictorial possibilities, had two grand characterizations, and dealt with a subject which might go anywhere, and that is part of the fun of making pictures."

In the same interview, Whale went on to say, "To make this old tale fresh for the screen, modern intriguing and gruesome details were added to the story in the belief that most of the picture goers believe what they see (with their very own eyes). I never intended this picture for children, but would like to make a children's version. It is an adult subject, and I tried to make it seem as real as possible."

His comments take on greater meaning when one considers how many children seeing Frankenstein sympathized with the Monster, largely due to Karloff's unforgettable acting.

Added to the cast of Frankenstein were Colin Clive as Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Leslie Howard was the Laemmles' choice, but Whale rejected him for Clive); Mae Clarke as his fiancée, Elizabeth; Dwight Frye as Fritz, the doctor's hunchbacked assistant (a role created for the film); and Edward Van Sloan (Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula) as Dr. Waldman, Frankenstein's university professor.

In her novel, Mary Shelley described the Monster this way:

His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath. His hair was of lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost as the same color as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion, and straight black lips.

In addition, he had, in the text, beautiful features, so the celluloid version is far more of a monster in the true sense of the word.

Transforming a middle-aged character actor on the threshold of fame into a close approximation of that was entrusted to Jack Pierce. He and Karloff collaborated under a veil of secrecy, as Pierce kept his work to himself, not even trusting his staff.

From a medical reference, Pierce learned there were six methods of cutting open a human skull, and decided to implement the most simple. That would require removing the entire top of the head, by which Dr. Frankenstein could insert a new brain—taken from a corpse—then close it up with metal clamps. To achieve that effect, Pierce constructed a headpiece made of layered cotton, and applied with collodion to make the skin look burned.

Because lightning is what gave the Monster life, metal studs were put on Karloff's neck. His face was covered with blue-green greasepaint (which photographed as gray), his fingernails were blackened with shoe polish, cheesecloth was used to simulate pores of the skin, and (the result of an observation by Karloff that his eyes appeared too normal), his eyelids were veiled with mortician's wax.

Then there was the costume. The sleeves of the Monster's coat were shortened (making his arms look longer). Steel struts were utilized to make Karloff's legs stiffer, he was fitted with an artificial spine, and on his feet were 13-pound asphalt-spreader's boots. The entire procedure took between four to six hours every day. When it was completed, Karloff was over seven feet tall and had taken on 48
pounds.

If being made up wasn't enough of an ordeal for Karloff, there was the weather to deal with.

Frankenstein was filmed in the middle of summer. Karloff was also wearing a double-quilted undersuit and, after just an hour's work, he would be drenched with perspiration.

When the production broke for lunch, Karloff retreated to his dressing room to eat alone, put on fresh underwear, and don the costume again. Jack Pierce was always there on the set with him, for a touch-up if necessary.

Playing the Monster was a very physical task for Karloff. For the film's climax at a windmill, where Frankenstein has been taken by the Monster, Whale had Karloff run uphill, carrying Clive, for numerous takes. Once inside, when Frankenstein tries to escape (before he is thrown off the balcony, and lands in the arms of the vengeful townspeople), Karloff and Clive were forced to wrestle at great length and strain.

Frankenstein shared with its first two sequels many impressive scenes that sear into the viewer's mind. From the bleak and somber opening in which Dr. Frankenstein and Fritz rob a fresh grave in search of a body, to the dramatic finale inside the burning windmill where the Monster struggles with his creator only to have his brief existence snuffed out, Frankenstein is remarkable.

While it seems melodramatic in places (as with many early films, the characters often enter and exit from the side, as if in a play), its visual impact is nonetheless a strong one. Karloff's superb performance reinforces the strength of watching the Monster making his entrance at Henry's request, discovering things like daylight and fire, and tossing flowers into a lake to watch them float.

He accurately termed the Monster "a pathetic, child-like waif who does not understand what is going on around him." That Karloff conveyed the Monster's range of emotions so well and without a word of dialogue is testament to his skill, his personal sensitivity, and James Whale's direction.

Karloff's work does not slight or diminish the performances of the other cast members. Colin Clive and Dwight Frye are equally fine, as a contrasting and unlikely pair of accomplices. Clive, who died just six years after Frankenstein was released, is perfect as Henry, whose bizarre notion of bringing the dead to life becomes an obsession gone horribly wrong.

His near manic reaction, for example, at seeing the Monster's hand move, revealing its first sign of
life, to which he responds, "It's alive! It's alive!" adds a crescendo to the entire creation scene. For his part, Frye makes Fritz a hateful wretch of a person, exemplified by his use of fire and a whip against the Monster, which brings about his own demise. Also adding to the film's impact are Arthur Edeson's photography and Kenneth Strickfaden's electrical effects.

A press showing of the almost-finished film took place in

November, which resulted in some editing. Excised was the shot of the Monster tossing the little girl into the lake; and, early in the film's release, Colin Clive's line: "Oh, in the name of God—now I know what it feels like to be God!" Both of those cuts were restored for home video in 1987. Additionally, a prologue in which Edward Van Sloan addresses the audience about the film it is about to see ("It may shock you…It might even horrify you!" he warns) and a revised ending in which Henry survives the fire became part of the final product.

On December 4, 1931, Frankenstein premiered in New York, and from that day forward, Boris Karloff would become a household name, and synonymous for all time with a particular kind of movie and for the creature developed in the mind of an 18-year-old girl.

Reaction to Frankenstein was overwhelming. The public flocked to see it, making it a blockbuster which grossed more than a million dollars, and among The New York Times' list of the year's ten best pictures. Oddly enough, in his review for that paper, Mordaunt Hall wrote, "Boris Karloff undertakes the Frankenstein creation and his makeup can be said to suit anybody's demands." At the same time noting that it was "an artistically conceived work," The New York Daily News said Frankenstein

"clutches at you icily and holds you until the romantic ending guarantees satisfaction after an hour's worth of gripping, intriguing horrors."

Variety said the film was "handled in production with supreme craftsmanship," adding that Karloff as the Monster was "a fascinating acting bit of mesmerism."

His role, said Film Weekly, was "an astonishing piece of work", although the reviewer felt the movie had "no theme and points no moral, but is simply a shocker beside which the Grand Guignol was a kindergarten."

While Karloff's Monster chilled adult moviegoers and had their children feeling sorry for him, there was a very memorable response on the part of screenwriter Stewart Stern, who vividly recalled for me this story from his childhood, the first of three experiences he had with Karloff.

He was my beloved monster in my growing up years, and my first image of him came from our wonderful black doorman at the apartment house where I used to live in New York, who had just seen Frankenstein. While I would be putting on my roller skates on the bench in the lobby, Eddie would turn around and turn his face into the Monster's face, and turn back and try to scare me to death. He was not very successful, but it was a warning of things to come.

My uncle was Adolph Zukor, the founder of Paramount Pictures, and he had an enormous estate about 30 miles up the Hudson River. His neighbor was Sam Katz, later an executive at MGM. He had brought from Scotland, brickby-brick and stone-by-stone, a great manor house, which had been reassembled on a mountain. It had a huge portcullis, a cobblestone courtyard, and an enormous automatic pipe organ, which churned out music night and day in a very ghostly fashion.

I was taken there one weekend as a little boy, and put to bed in his son's room—his son being away at boarding school—and that room had been built like the hold of a ship, great curved ribs plunged out from the floor and there were leaded windows and the door was a sea door. I was put to bed at a reasonable hour, and it was one of those freak nights when, in the middle of winter, with the snow falling, the moon was out and there was thunder. I woke up, not knowing where I was. Nothing was where it should have been in my room at home and I'd forgotten that I'd come away.

In terror, I got myself out of bed and began treading across this plank floor to a wall where I found the door handle, somehow got this door open, and peered out. Far, far in the distance, down what seemed
to be a long, damp tunnel, I saw a figure lurching away from me. I stepped out on the balcony, fascinated by this apparition, and suddenly I was borne closer and closer to it, not knowing how it was happening until there was only an enormous head which turned and looked at me.

It was the head of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster, and I let out a yell which could have been heard in New York City and, I think, fainted. What had happened was that they had gotten an early print of Frankenstein before its release. Mr. Katz was running it for friends after dinner, and it was not appropriate for a boy my age, so I'd been shipped off and woke up in the middle of the screening.

With the huge success of Frankenstein, Universal had a new star in its company of players, and didn't hesitate to make full use of Karloff (who, then at his greatest popularity, was often billed by just his last name).

Following Frankenstein, Karloff was seen in a few pictures, the best being Howard Hawks' classic gangster saga, Scarface, produced by Howard Hughes. Starring Paul Muni in the title role (based on the infamous Al Capone) and George Raft, Scarface was, for its time, an unflinching and strong portrayal of the underworld, which met with resistance from censors at first because of what they saw as a toosympathetic portrayal of Tony Camonte, Muni's character. Several endings also were shot in a move to appease the censors, but eventually Hawks' final cut was released.

Karloff, working with Hawks for the second time, played Gaffney, a rival hood whom Camonte kills in a bowling alley. Some critics faulted Karloff for his British accent, which to them seemed out of place in such an American setting. However, Karloff's character was based on an actual British gangster named Owney Madden, who played a role in the Chicago crime scene. This same part was played by Bob Hoskins in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club in 1984.

That fall, horror fans whetted by Frankenstein had their chance to see Karloff in the type of role that became his trademark. In James Whale's quirky melodrama, The Old Dark House, adapted from J.B.

Priestley's Benighted, Karloff, decked out in heavy makeup and wearing a padded suit underneath his costume, was Morgan, a hulking, inarticulate brute of a butler in a strange household run by the Femms, an eccentric brother and sister, played by Ernest Thesiger and Eva Moore. In the midst of a thunderstorm one night, they are forced to put up three travelers (Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey, and Gloria Stuart) seeking shelter. A British couple, played by Charles Laughton and Lillian Bond, were also forced to stay there.

As the plot unfolds, the guests have to cope with Morgan's drunken rage, the sister's religious fanaticism, the family's bedridden patriarch (in just one of the film's peculiarities, a woman was cast in the role), and the eldest son, a murderer and firestarter, who's locked away.

Karloff has his moments of menace and sympathy, as did his Frankenstein monster, but The Old Dark House is an ensemble piece, with oddities and tongue-in-cheek humor (Whale inserted it into The Bride of Frankenstein three years later) that suggest the film is not to be taken entirely seriously.

On a point of cinema history, it was their first picture made in America for both Laughton and Massey.

Gloria Stuart, who appeared opposite Claude Rains a year later in The Invisible Man (certainly more than he did) told me, "Everyone in the film was professional, taking their cues from James Whale, a most serious, involved, and particular director. He missed nothing, and all of us were at our best with him. Boris was soft-spoken, a very private person, agreeable, no tricks. Charles was very self-involved, not very communicative. Melvyn and Raymond, charming and earnest.

"Everyone was happy to be in the film and we all worked very hard. Lots of backlot shooting with wind, rain, and mud machines at night, and many, many days in the cobwebby, dusty old house. The imported English actors had tea with James every afternoon. That group was quite apart from the Americans!"

Karloff was loaned out to MGM to star in The Mask of Fu Manchu, the Asian villain created by writer Sax Rohmer, with Myrna Loy as his daughter. Director Charles Vidor began the film and was replaced by Charles Brabin, who scuttled much of Vidor's footage, and altered the script.

Karloff scarcely had an opportunity to study the material he'd been given, which was taken back and overhauled. What emerged was a hokey B picture in which Fu Manchu seeks Genghis Khan's ceremonial mask and sword, and in so doing, to become Khan's descendant, eliminate the Caucasian race, and rule the world.

Both Karloff and Loy, who was often seen in exotic, vampish parts then ( The Thin Man was two years off) played their parts with appropriate relish, and together made The Mask of Fu Manchu more entertaining than it deserved to be.

For Karloff, it was back to the Universal lot for his next assignment, and what an assignment it was.

Cinematographer Karl Freund, who had worked for German directors Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau (as well as shooting Dracula), directed him in The Mummy, with a script by John D. Balderston, one of Frankenstein's screenwriters.

Karloff played Im-ho-tep, a high priest who was buried alive with a magic scroll he intended to use to revive a dead Egyptian princess he had loved. A team from the British Museum discovers the mummy and the scroll 3,700 years later. While reading the scroll's magic text aloud, one of the team (stage actor Bramwell Fletcher) unintentionally revives Im-Ho-Tep and goes mad from the shock.

The mummy and the scroll vanish for a decade, until the mummy assumes the guise of Ardath Bey, an Egyptian archaeologist. During an expedition to the tomb of the princess, he learns she has been reincarnated as the daughter of the British governor of Sudan (Zita Johann). He plans to end her new life in order that they be together again for eternity.

Making Karloff look the part was as involved and detailed a process as it was for Frankenstein's monster. His ears were glued back, and strips of cotton (applied with collodion and spirit gum) were put on his face, and dried. Beauty clay was smeared into his slick-backed hair. When it hardened, rubber cement was put on it.

After that, linen, which had been rotted with acid and oven-baked, was wrapped around him to simulate the mummy's bandages. His face and hands were covered with greasepaint to match the bandages' color. Next, he was coated with Fuller's earth, giving the effect of clay.

For his scenes as Ardath Bey, his skin was stretched, and the cotton strips used again. When the skin was relaxed, deep wrinkles appeared to set in.

Up to eight hours was the length of time it took Jack Pierce to do the procedure. Bramwell Fletcher, whose film career was relatively short (he ceased making pictures in the early '40s), was under contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and farmed out for The Mummy.

About Karloff, he told me, "He came on after being in the makeup room and was popped into the coffin lying against the wall, and he fell face out. Everybody was very concerned and they sent for the studio doctor. He said, 'Well, you damn fools. This fellow, he's not breathing. You've got him all taped up. The man has to breathe through his skin as well as his nose.' They brought him around, and I was able to suggest that they split the back of the surgical bandages they put around him."

Of his scene in which Im-Ho-Tep awakens, Fletcher added:

They said to me, 'When he starts toward you, reaching out his hand, the shadow falls on the old papyrus that you're reading. Then you turn around and you see the mummy.' I said, 'Well, then what do I do?'

The director said, 'You scream like hell and run like mad.'

I thought it over, and said, 'No, I don't think he'd do that. When you see a mummy alive reaching towards you, you're frozen.'

He said, 'Show me what you think ought to be done.' I sat, frozen, staring, and I started that low long laugh which reached finally a scream of hysteria. I went laughing mad was the idea.

Fletcher, who told me he did not regard himself as a film actor, explained, "I got a release out of my contract with Goldwyn and came back to the theater where I started, which was at Stratford-on-Avon.

I like audiences, not just the crowd of technicians."

Later in his career, he was the first actor sanctioned by the estate of George Bernard Shaw to impersonate Shaw, whom he played in a oneman show on Broadway that he took on the road for several years.

Not only was his makeup an ordeal for Karloff, so was working for Karl Freund, who had his cast work up to 18 hours a day. As she and Karloff were shooting one night, Zita Johann collapsed from exhaustion.

It was this form of treatment actors sometimes were subjected to that prompted Karloff, and some of his fellow performers, to lay the groundwork for a union, which became the Screen Actors Guild. The seeds for the Guild were planted, in terms of Karloff's participation, in May of 1933 at a dance put on by the Hollywood Cricket Club, where he was an active member.

Annually, as the cricket season was beginning, a fundraiser of some type was held, and on that particular evening, Karloff was asked whether he'd be interested in an organization for film actors to be affiliated with Actors' Equity, the union for stage performers founded in 1913.

Karloff expressed his interest, and began attending meetings in secret with people such as Frank Morgan, Ralph Morgan, Aubrey Smith, Lyle Talbot, and Richard Tucker. Gradually, more people trickled in to listen. The goal was to form such a group, and the hope was that the producers would attempt something which would make the actors realize they had to start a union.

In time, that happened when the producers tried to cut actors' salaries under the National Recovery Administration Code. As Karloff later recalled, telegrams went out to every major star in Hollywood, and after everyone assembled at Frank Morgan's home, as he put it, "the Guild was off to the races."

Karloff was one of the original founders, and remained a strong voice in Guild matters from then on.

Ian Wolfe, one of his fellow castmates in The Raven and Bedlam told me, "Karloff was a very kind and cooperative big pussycat, and always defended actors in general. I also worked with him in a pilot for a series. The pilot did not sell, and I don't think we would ever have been paid a cent, had Boris not seen to it." Guild leaders during Karloff's involvement (which lasted until the early '50s) included James Cagney, George Murphy, and Robert Montgomery.

With two stars of horror films on its hands, it was only a matter of time until Universal put Karloff and Bela Lugosi opposite each other. The first of their several collaborations was The Black Cat, Edgar G. Ulmer's 1934 tale of modern-day witchcraft (like 1935's The Raven, the only connection it had with Poe was the title).

Karloff played Hjalmar Poelzig, a former Army engineer living in the Hungarian countryside whom Lugosi is coming to visit. Arriving with a young couple he has met en route, Lugosi seeks the location of his wife and daughter whom Poelzig has kidnapped.

As the story unfolds, Poelzig is revealed to be a Satanist, in command of a coven of Devil-worshippers. From the beginning, The Black Cat was a risky venture in many aspects. Karloff's character was inspired by real-life Satanist Aleister Crowley. Intertwined with the macabre plot were such taboos as black magic, necrophilia, and sadism.

It was also one of the first movies to use classical music exclusively. When Carl Laemmle, Sr., learned of this move, shortly before it was released, he hit the roof, and took it up with Carl Jr., but the
younger Laemmle backed up Ulmer, and won out.

Not only did The Black Cat sound different from the garden-variety horror film, it looked different, from the makeup to the sets. Jack Pierce used white pancake and lip rouge on Karloff, who wore a headpiece, giving him a sharp, angular hairstyle (what would be called "new wave" today).

The geometric set design was revolutionary, what with digital clocks, a curved staircase, and glass tables, making Poelzig's home very futuristic. In this regard, it looked like the setting for a science fiction, not horror, picture.

Techniques such as backlighting, dissolves, and offbeat camera angles added greatly to The Black Cat, which was shot in less than three weeks at a total cost of $95,745.

Shirley Ulmer, the director's wife who was script girl on the picture, told me Karloff and Lugosi didn't immediately warm up to each other on this film, the first of their several pairings. But in time they did, although they were never good friends. Still, the two men were alike in both a personal and professional sense. They both came from overseas, started performing in the theater, played some of the same parts, reached stardom in their 40s, married several times, and each had one child.

When The Black Cat was released, it was a hit, grossing $140,000. The New York Times (which appears hard-pressed to have praised any horror film during the genre's heyday, the '30s through the early '40s) called the film "more foolish than horrible," and also said, "The story and dialogue pile the agony on too thick."

Variety's review said, "A certain eerieness has been achieved" and that "Karloff and Lugosi are sufficiently sinister and convincingly demented."

Before he continued work with Lugosi, Karloff changed his style briefly by appearing in two straight pictures, John Ford's desert drama The Lost Patrol (as a religious fanatic) for RKO and in Alfred Werker's The House of Rothschild for United Artists (as an anti-Semitic baron). Both were good films, and the critics responded in like fashion.

Universal called Karloff back for another round as the Monster in what was meant to be The Return of Frankenstein, and became the best of Karloff's outings in the part, The Bride of Frankenstein, with most of the major players, before and behind the camera. With a bigger budget on his hands, James Whale (who, in the time since The Old Dark House, had done The Invisible Man, among his credits) made a more fluid film, with less of a melodramatic air. It was even better than Frankenstein.

The Bride of Frankenstein began with a prologue, in which Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley are gathered in Lake Geneva on a night beset by a thunderstorm. At the urging of Percy, Mary (Elsa Lanchester, who also played the woman just made for the Monster) continues her story from where the novel ended. From there, the film picks up at the burned remains of the windmill, as the villagers cheer
what they believe is the Monster's swan song.

A floor gives way, and one of those remaining falls into the watery cellar. His wife offers a hand to help him out, only to see that the hand extended to hers is that of the Monster, who has survived, and does away with both of them. He then heads off into the darkness.

Colin Clive again played Henry. Henry's wife (Valerie Hobson, who appeared opposite Henry Hull i n The Werewolf of London and Claude Rains in The Mystery of Edwin Drood) had thought he was dead, only to find that he, too, survived the fiery ordeal.

While recovering, Henry is visited by Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), who relates his experience in creating life, and wants to collaborate with him. Frankenstein's first reaction is to refuse the offer, but the film is just getting started.

Karloff again coped with the task of being made up once more as the Monster, with some slight variations, so he appeared visibly burned and further scarred in the sequel. Beginning at 7 a.m., five hours were required to apply Karloff's makeup. When it reached afternoon, he put on a costume
weighing 62 pounds. Shooting started at 2:00. He lost 20 pounds during filming, and also dislocated his hip.

As The Bride of Frankenstein progresses, the Monster is captured in the forest by townspeople, and made prisoner in the local dungeon. He escapes, and then finds refuge in the cottage of a blind hermit, whose violin music has attracted the Monster. In a touching sequence, the man welcomes the injured Monster, to end their mutual loneliness and become friends.

The Monster is taught to speak (a move Karloff always thought was a mistake) and enjoy the simple pleasures of cigars, food, wine, and music. Karloff is no less moving in The Bride of Frankenstein than in the first film, and makes the Monster again a creature worthy of pity and sympathy, alone in a world in which he has little control. Eventually, the Monster meets up with Pretorious and requests a woman be created for him. Elizabeth Frankenstein is kidnapped by the Monster, and Henry is forced to cooperate with Pretorius to make another person from the remains of the dead.

The application of Elsa Lanchester's makeup took three to four hours, and her relatively brief appearance on screen as the hissing, scarred female Monster became one of her most famous roles.

"Friend?" Karloff's Monster asks of what Pretorius dubs as "The Bride of Frankenstein." At the sight of her fellow creature, she screams in horror. The Monster, on the vege of blowing up the laboratory, tells the reunited Henry and Elizabeth to leave, but to Pretorius, says, "You stay. We belong dead!"

The Frankensteins leave, and at the pull of a lever, the Monsters and Pretorius perish as the place explodes.

Once again, the public came in droves to see the Karloff monster, making The Bride of Frankenstein as successful as its predecessor, and the critics' response was warm. The Bride of Frankenstein was "a firstrate horror film," said The New York Times. The paper's view was that Whale had "done another excellent job," and said, "Mr. Karloff is so splendid in the role that all one can say is, 'he is the Monster.'"

In its summation, Variety called the film an "imaginative and outstanding" one, adding that "Karloff is in top form as the Monster." For their work, the other cast members, particularly Ernest Thesiger, and cinematographer John Mescall, received justified high praise, too.

The '30s being the zenith of Karloff's work in films, he stayed busy, and was offered respectable scripts. Karloff starred in a continuing variety of parts, even within the confines of typecasting. He had no qualms about being typed, figuring that all actors were typed in one way or another. The horror roles marked him for life, yet the skill and dimension he brought to them was frequently overlooked.

Roy William Neill, who did many of the Sherlock Holmes pictures with Basil Rathbone, directed Karloff in The Black Room, with the star doing a unique turn as a pair of brothers, one good and the other evil.

The story involved Gregor and Anton de Berghman, who carry with them the curse that twins born into the family will be separated by death. The younger one murders the older one in the black room of their home. As adults, Anton, realizing his tyrannical sibling Gregor has committed a murder, is pushed by Gregor into a pit in the black room, and dies with a knife clutched in his hand.

Gregor proceeds to impersonate Anton and, when his ruse becomes evident, commits another murder. In the end, he is pursued into the black room, only to fall into the pit himself and be impaled by the knife still in Anton's grasp.

Karloff did some of his best work in The Black Room, a good, unpretentious thriller, unworthy of the dismissal from Variety that referred to its "lengthy, dull proceedings" (the picture ran 68 minutes) and thought Karloff was "his usual self."

England's Kinematograph Weekly did see the merit in the actor's virtuoso playing when it said,

"Karloff differentiates well between the two brothers, and gives a sound performance."

Away from the studio, the Karloffs lived comfortably in the Coldwater Canyon section of Beverly Hills, their house one of Mexican-style with two acres of gardens, which Karloff enjoyed working in, and many fruit trees. Boris and Dorothy shared their home with several dogs (Bedlington and Scottish terriers) and a small menagerie that included chickens, ducks, and a pig named Violet. They played tennis and grew their own fruits and vegetables.

Karloff liked rugby and field hockey, and his consuming athletic pursuit for life was cricket. At the Hollywood Cricket Club, Karloff was one of the British Colony (as many of England's actors living and working in America were known) who played there. Joining him were such other stars as Clive Brook, Ronald Colman, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, David Niven, and the two leads of Universal's entire Sherlock Holmes series, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

Karloff also loved literature, and edited two collections of short stories, Tales of Terror (1943) and And the Darkness Falls (1946). The second volume developed while he was touring in Arsenic and Old Lace, and he'd go through books sent to him by the publishers. He personally made the selections, and wrote introductions not only to both books, but for each story and poem, too.

Among the authors represented were Joseph Conrad, Algernon Blackwood, August Derleth, Conan Doyle, William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Jonathan Swift, and Dorothy Sayers. His assessment of Sayers (noted for her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries) in And the Darkness Falls, is evidence of his scholarly side and foresight:

"If I may presume to make a guess, Miss Sayers will have a permanent place in the literature of relaxation, for her sense of humor, her ability to include comedy, love, exciting drama, and enough erudition to excite the sophisticated reader, but never burden him—as well as for her excellent English style, and her genius in creating surprising situations."

This excerpt from his lead-in to Tales of Terror spoke to the telling of the macabre onscreen and in print: "It has always grieved me professionally that the two words 'horror' and 'terror' are used indiscriminately for stories designed to stir the imagination and tingle the spine. The terms are literally poles apart in their true meaning and impact. Horror carries with it a connotation of revulsion, which has nothing to do with clean terror. If we are not careful, we will end by giving simple terror a bad name."

Two more pictures with Bela Lugosi, The Raven and The Invisible Ray, were next on Karloff's schedule at Universal. Lugosi had the main role in The Raven, as a surgeon with an Edgar Allan Poe obsession whose house has been fitted with devices taken from the author's writings, such as a descending pendulum. He saves the life of a young woman, whom he wishes to marry, but she is engaged to another.

Karloff was a bank robber and murderer who comes to Lugosi and asks for plastic surgery so he can evade the law. Lugosi does so, but makes the fugitive's face grossly deformed. In order to have his features restored, Karloff must cooperate with the doctor in his revenge against the woman and her loved ones.

At the end, Karloff and Lugosi perish together in a room where the walls move in and crush them.

Lugosi was over the top, as his character gleefully proclaims, toward the climax, "Poe, you are avenged!" and Karloff in more of a supporting role was restrained by comparison, and billed above Lugosi.

Variety called The Raven "a good horror flicker,"\ but it was overwrought and a lesser film than The Invisible Ray, an early foray into science fiction territory. Karloff was the lead as Janos Rukh, a scientist visiting the site of a meteorite containing an unknown element. He becomes contaminated by its radioactivity, making him phosphorescent and causing anything he touches to die.

Lugosi, a fellow man of science, develops a temporary antidote. Rukh creates a weapon, the title's invisible ray, but with his brain in a poisoned state, he thinks his discovery has been stolen by Lugosi and another man. As in many Karloff films, his character brings death to those he believes have wronged him.

Directed by Lambert Hillyer (who had done many Westerns in the silent era, and also directed Dracula's Daughter) , The Invisible Ray was a good, well-made film in almost all ways. Playing Karloff's wife was Frances Drake, who had played opposite Colin Clive and Peter Lorre in another admirable horror film, Mad Love (1935).

She told me, "Boris was a very intelligent, rather serious man, and a very effective actor. During the making of The Invisible Ray, he was interested in establishing the Screen Actors Guild. Very pleasant to work with, no temperament on the set, and seemed to get on well with Bela Lugosi.

"In fact, the whole picture went very smoothly. We had an extremely efficient cast and director. I think that if Boris had not become an actor, he might have gone into politics, and he would have done well with his good voice and beautiful eyes." The Invisible Ray was panned as Universal's "newest penny dreadful" by The New York Times, and Variety said, "Karloff and Lugosi stand out" in a picture their critic called "fairly entertaining."

Other strong Karloff films followed. The Walking Dead , directed by the versatile Michael Curtiz ( Captain Blood, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and Casablanca, to name a few), The Man Who Lived Again, and Charlie Chan at the Opera. His other association with an Asian detective was as Mr. Wong in a series of pictures done for Monogram, a studio whose low-budget output consisted primarily of Westerns, serials, and action pictures, and which later became Allied Artists. The Mr. Wong films were weak compared to those with Charlie Chan, and Karloff was the only saving grace.

The medium of radio was in its heyday in the '30s and '40s, and Karloff appeared behind the microphone often. In early 1938, he went to Chicago for several episodes of Arch Oboler's mystery show Lights Out. It began as a local broadcast, airing at midnight on account of its often gruesome content, and had such a following, NBC went nationwide with it. At one point, the network dropped Lights Out, bringing forth listeners' demands for it to come back, and it did.

One of the highlights of radio was certainly the use of sound effects, and on Lights Out, a number of techniques were utilized to capture the show's macabre mood. The sound of a body splattering on payment, for example, was made by throwing a wet rag onto a concrete slab. The crushing of human bones was created by breaking spareribs with a pipe wrench. A head being slashed or cut off would be made by slicing a head of cabbage, and flesh being eaten was reproduced by squashing cooked spaghetti, and smacking one's lips. And, the sound of an electrocution required the use of bacon sizzling in a frying pan on a grill, the sparks made by using a telegraph key and a dry-cell battery.

Lights Out was revived in 1947 on ABC, lasting just a month, and was no less horrible in content, as it recycled stories from the original version. On one episode, Karloff was a doctor whose success in bringing a dead woman back to life backfires when her whole nature is altered, and she becomes a murderer.

Reviewing the show, Variety said, "Why anyone without a barely latent thirst for blood would care to inflict these ghoulish goings-on on themselves is hard to understand," but conceded the show and Karloff were fine, "aside from the question whether such grisliness is good entertainment."

While the witty Karloff didn't like the Frankenstein monster being the target of humor, he had no qualms about poking fun at his own image, witnessed by his many appearances on radio and TV doing
so. As a guest on Jack Benny's radio show (Benny was one of his favorite performers), Karloff had this exchange:

BENNY: You look so much like Boris Karloff. KARLOFF: Thanks, and you're looking well yourself.

Universal was not about to let a good thing go, given their smash rerelease of Dracula and Frankenstein as a double feature. Thus, in October of 1938, Son of Frankenstein began shooting, the last of Karloff's three portrayals of the Monster in films.

Rowland V. Lee occupied the director's chair. His previous works included The Guilty Generation with Karloff, The Count of Monte Cristo with Robert Donat, and Cardinal Richelieu with George Arliss.

For the title role, Lee went with Basil Rathbone, and as the brokennecked blacksmith Ygor, Bela Lugosi, in one of his best parts. In support were Lionel Atwill, another fine movie villain, as Krogh, the local chief of police, and Josephine Hutchinson, as Rathbone's wife.

This time around, Wolf von Frankenstein comes to the village, which endured the consequences of his father Henry's experiments with life and death. While staying at Castle Frankenstein, Wolf is visited by Krogh, who tells him about the earlier horrors and of a number of recent murders in the community.

The following day, Ygor leads Wolf to what is left of the Frankenstein laboratory, and then to a catacomb where the Monster lies in a coma.

Wolf is persuaded by Ygor to restore the Monster to life, and tries to, but the creature is revived only fleetingly. Later, acting on his young son's report of seeing a giant, Wolf quickly returns to the lab, to encounter the very much alive Monster, who does Ygor's bidding and continues killing the members of the jury that found Ygor guilty of body snatching.

Karloff has his memorable scenes as the Monster, displaying his childlike quality as he examines Wolf's face during their first meeting, and his heart-rending pain, when he discovers Ygor has been killed. Son of Frankenstein, however, is dominated by Lugosi's rich characterization of Ygor, who plays Wolf and the Monster to his advantage, as though they were chess pieces. Karloff wasn't the only one with time-consuming makeup, as Lugosi's took four hours to complete.

One striking aspect of the film was Jack Otterson's sets, reminiscent of early German films, with sharp angles, high ceilings, and deep shadows. With such strong elements from the cast down to the soundtrack, Son of Frankenstein measured up in its own original way to James Whale's work.

On November 23, 1938, during the production, two happy events occurred for Karloff. Not only did he celebrate his 51st birthday on the set, but that same day, he and his wife Dorothy became parents of a newborn daughter, whom they named Sara Jane.

Son of Frankenstein opened in January of 1939. The reviews were primarily good. The Hollywood Reporter called it "a knockout of its type for production, acting, and effects" and Motion Picture Herald said, from an acting standpoint, "the picture is outstanding, because of the manner in which Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Lionel Atwill, as well as members of the supporting cast, sink their teeth into their roles."

The New York Daily News commented, "Rowland V. Lee has created an eerie atmosphere for the story, and he has put into the working out of the plot enough horror to send the chills and shivers
racing up and down the spectators' backs."

Again, The New York Times took a tongue-in-cheek and dismissive tone. Its review said, "If Son of Frankenstein isn't the silliest picture ever made, it's a sequel to the silliest picture ever made, which is even sillier." Further, it said the film had been "perpetrated by a good director in the best tradition of cinematic horror. so that even while you laugh at its nonsense, perhaps that's as good a way of enjoying oneself at a movie as any."

Rowland V. Lee again directed Rathbone and Karloff in Tower of London, the historical drama of Richard III, the humpbacked Duke of Gloucester (played by Rathbone) ruthlessly seeking the throne of England. Karloff—with his head shaved, ears taped back, and wearing padding to give his character a clubfooted gait—filled the role of Mord,
the king's executioner, who does Richard's bidding.

Cast as the Duke of Clarence, Richard's brother was a young stage actor from St. Louis, making his foray onto the screen after a successful Broadway run opposite Helen Hayes in Victoria Regina. His name was Vincent Price.

All three of them became good friends for life. One scene they shared together was when Richard and Clarence have a drinking match, ending with a drunk Clarence being drowned in a vat of wine by Richard and Mord. Inside the vat to simulate wine was water—no divine intervention here—so Price had to suffer the indignity of being dunked by Rathbone and Karloff. Making it worse was that between takes, Price is co-stars used the vat as a receptacle for cigarette butts and empty Coke bottles (Coke was used to look like wine when photographed). As a gift for his troubles, Rathbone and Karloff rewarded Price with a beautifully wrapped carton of Coke.

Of Tower of London, Variety said, "As a horror picture, it's one of the most broadly etched, but still so strong it may provide disturbing nightmares as aftermath."

Said The New York Daily News: "Although the picture is not without its weaknesses, lack of thrills is not one of them," and added, "Rathbone and Karloff are savage enough to please the most bloodthirsty." The New York Times thought it was "less than thrilling as pageantry, less than thrilling as drama, and less than satisfactory as drama" and said, "Karloff can't be taken seriously."

Around this time, Karloff started a succession of roles as doctors attempting a medical breakthrough of some type, such as curing cancer, developing artificial hearts, or contacting the dead. The Devil Commands, The Man They Could Not Hang, and The Man With Nine Lives were good examples of these, and some of his better pictures.

Adrian Booth, who appeared in The Man They Could Not Hang under the name of Lorna Gray, told me, "Working with Mr. Karloff remains a great memory. We had English tea almost every afternoon.

One day, we unexpectedly had to move from outside the studio to a courtroom scene inside. Mr.

Karloff had nearly two pages of solid dialogue, which he glanced at and said he was ready. They shot it and
printed it in one take!"

Karloff's next big assignment came not out of Hollywood, but from a couple of playwright-producers in New York, and earned him a place in theatrical history, too.

AN ACTOR PROSPERS

In November of 1940, rehearsals began on the East Coast for a new play by a former music teacher and actor named Joseph Kesselring. Originally called Bodies In Our Cellar, the plot dealt with two gentle spinsters, both sisters and living together in Brooklyn, who have spent their twilight years poisoning lonely men and burying them downstairs.

Kesselring had sent the play to actress Dorothy Stickney, in the event she left the Broadway show Life with Father, produced by her husband Howard Lindsay and his partner Russel Crouse. Her reaction to the macabre script was that it was the funniest play she'd ever read, but it needed some overhauling.

He agreed, and after reaching an agreement with Kesselring, began the task of editing the play with Crouse, retitled Arsenic and Old Lace. Figuring it would be either a hit or a massive flop, they deleted sections that were in questionable taste, as when one of the characters opened the cellar door and pointed out the smell. Lindsay and Crouse gave Kesselring full credit for writing the play, and took credit as simply the producers.

Within a few months, the script was complete. As Abby and Martha Brewster, the ladies with a distinctive elderberry wine for their gentleman visitors, Lindsay and Crouse cast stage veterans Josephine Hull (so memorable as James Stewart's sister in Harvey), and Jean Adair, who appeared in Ah, Wilderness! and On Borrowed Time.

Two of three nephews were played by Allyn Joslyn as Mortimer, a

New York theater critic, and John Alexander as Teddy, who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt. Further adding to the outrageous family was the remaining nephew Jonathan, a homicidal maniac who, following plastic surgery, looks like Boris Karloff. In a master stroke of casting, Lindsay and Crouse offered the part to Karloff himself. Persuading him to make his Broadway debut proved difficult.

At the outset, Karloff politely turned it down, saying he wasn't a Broadway actor, adding he wouldn't do it unless there were at least three other roles larger than his. Assured of that, Karloff accepted, but what clinched the deal was the passage when Jonathan is told he shouldn't have killed someone, and he replies, "He said I looked like Boris Karloff."

He went to New York, only to find himself paralyzed with stage fright, and as a result, pronounced stuttering for three days. Karloff considered withdrawing, but told himself he had to go through with it and he did.

Playing one of the policemen in the show was Bruce Gordon, noted for playing Frank Nitti in TV's The Untouchables. He remembers Karloff's first reaction to being onstage after many years: "The first rehearsal was always a reading. Everyone sits on long benches with cigarette buckets around.

Everyone was smoking in those days. I was sitting on a bench, and he was sitting on the other end with people in between, and this bench would be shaking. Quivering. This man was so frightened. He'd light a cigarette and his hand would be shaking. When he got nervous, his stammer would become very pronounced. We would kid about it later, saying, 'This man's a big Hollywood star and he's so nervous. What's he so nervous about?' We were nervous about his being there, and he about not having been on the stage for a long time. He was with New York actors and was scared to death."

Arsenic had 23 investors, among them writer Clare Boothe Luce, actress Nedda Harrigan (Mrs.

Joshua Logan), journalist Frank Sullivan, and Katharine B. Day (whose family inspired Life with

Father), as well as Russel Crouse and Boris Karloff. Each of them put up $500, with the exception of one who pledged $7,500.

When the play opened, the cost was $35,000. (By contrast, the Broadway revival in 1986 cost $700,000.) Lindsay and Crouse took delight in writing letters to the backers and addressing them as

"angels" or "cherubs" when sending checks for the play's returns.

One read, "Enclosed you will find our first statement. We think it is a charming document and we hope that others more charming will follow. If there is anything in this about which you wish to complain, we shall be glad to hear from you. Just address us in care of the Dead Letter office, Washington, D.C."

In part, another one said, "We have received requests for its performance both in Denmark and in Spain, but we are refusing to allow its production in any country controlled by the Nazis or the Fascists on the grounds that it's too good for them."

More than sixty years later, Bruce Gordon still has strong memories of the show and its beginnings.

He says, "Before we got to opening night, we were on tryouts in Baltimore. Howard Lindsay was playing Life with Father and we had a run-through on a Sunday. He came down, and tore us apart, we were so terrible. Oh, it was awful, and he set us on the right path. We came to New York and opening night was unbelievable, just unbelievable. And the notices the next morning— wow! I never read anything like that in my life. I realized I had a job for at least a year."

The critics' response to the premiere at the Fulton Theatre on January 10, 1941, was amazing.

Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times said Arsenic and Old Lace was "so funny that none of us will ever forget it," while the Herald Tribune called it "the most riotously hilarious comedy of the season"

and the Post observed, "just when it is threatening to make you scream with terror, it compels you to scream with laughter."

The cast took ten curtain calls and Arsenic was on its way to become, and still is, one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history (1,444 performances) and an American classic.

Bruce Gordon, who forced director Bretaigne Windust to give him an audition (Windust thought he was too young for the part of Officer Klein), became good friends with Karloff, and both of them were with the national tour. Says Gordon,

In the beginning, we weren't sure what sort of fellow he was. We knew he was an important star, but after all, we were New York actors and weren't going to be too impressed by him. We waited to see what kind of sense of humor he had. When we did, we began a campaign—I got together with the stage manager Walter Wagner, who was Howard Lindsay's nephew, and we devised a long letter with a legal stamp at the end as to why Boris Karloff should not be permitted in the city of New York or in the theater. He was all wrong for the part, and there were other actors who could have played the part.

We posted it on the call board, and this went on for quite some time. He would have an answer to each one of them that he'd put up. Finally, he sent his secretary down to Chinatown, and had an answer written in Chinese red. That, of course, was the clincher because nobody could translate it. That was it.

I was with the show 27 months. Something like that. In light of today's grosses, it's kind of amusing. I remember walking back to the hotel one night some place in the Midwest. We played some big hall, and Boris said, 'You know what the gross was tonight? Five thousand dollars.' We stayed in touch. I was in boot camp in Idaho, and he made it possible for me to come to Los Angeles on my liberty by sending me $50. Not that I had any money. We were only getting about $60 a month maybe. That was something. Bowled me over.

It was during the run of Arsenic that future screenwriter Stewart Stern would encounter Karloff, this time in person (ten years after Stern's unintended look at Frankenstein when he was a child).

Frustrated in his search for a summer job in New York, the 19-year-old Stern decided to go to a matinee and, while perusing the newspaper's theater section, noticed a small ad.

It said the Rollins Studio School of the Theater, located on Long Island, was having public auditions for the Josephine Hull Scholarship. Layton Rollins had named it in her honor because she wanted it to exist and was a member of his board. Stern called Rollins and was told to come in for an interview.

Rollins' school was seeking a boy and girl to be awarded a full scholarship. Says Stern: I applied to be one of those who auditioned and went home and learned Richard's soliloquy from Ah, Wilderness! We each had five minutes and there were 300 contestants. I was so frightened when I walked out on that stage, staring into the faces in front of me, and they all sat in the front row—

Antoinette Perry, Josephine Hull, Boris Karloff, and Layton Rollins. I literally couldn't stand, and asked the stage manager for a chair and I sat.

My knees were still shaking, so I lay down full-length on the floor, and propped my chin up on my fists, did the speech, and left, certain that my career had lasted 30 seconds. Went back up into the balcony to watch the other people, all of whom impressed me enormously. There were so many that the reading had to go on into the next day.

I came back and sat in the balcony again, and then it all came to an end. Mr. Rollins stood and said they would now adjourn to come to their decision. Before he got the words out, Boris Karloff, Antoinette Perry, and Josephine Hull got their heads together.

Mr. Karloff rose, and looked into the vast, grim hall and said, as only as he could, 'Is Mr. Stern there?'

with his great lisp. He announced that I had been selected as the male winner that year of the Josephine Hull Scholarship. I shook his hand and that was the extent of our contact." Seventeen years later, the budding actor and the professional one would work together in television.

Between performances of Arsenic, Karloff found time to appear several times on radio's popular Inner Sanctum Mysteries which opened each week with the sound of a creaking door, followed by the voice of the mysterious host, Raymond. The show was produced by Himan Brown, whose credits included Bulldog Drummond, Dick Tracy, and The Thin Man. Over half a century later, Brown shared these memories with me:

I did many shows with him on Inner Sanctum when it first began. Whenever he was between pictures, he would call me and I'd fit him in. He was very popular with my audience and I didn't always play him 'to type.' One of the most poignant I can remember was a script in which he played the small town's undertaker in a tiny New England community where the citizens kind of shunned him because he was an undertaker. He felt duty bound to bury the dead, and how he managed to bring the townspeople to accept him for himself rather than for the work he felt destined to perform.

He was the easiest actor to work with and he could play anything. Unfortunately, he was always cast as Frankenstein in the casting agent's mind. I trusted him with everything. He was distinctive in voice, accent, and style.

Whenever he was on the show, we would go out for dinner afterwards. In those days, we had no tape and the repeat performance for the Coast, which came three hours later, had to be live. I always looked forward to those dinners before we returned for the repeat performance. He had a rich, full life and I was enjoying the world he had already lived so fully.

I miss his very special talents, his friendship, and his warmth.

When this author, then a college student, first met Brown in 1978, Brown's reaction when I asked him about Karloff was, "The most wonderful man who ever lived."

Arsenic and Old Lace not only took Karloff across the country, but out of it, too. His friend Maurice

Evans, an American citizen since 1941, was given the rank of major and assigned to oversee the Central Pacific Theater of the Army Entertainment Section. In the process, he began working with George Schaefer, a graduate of the Yale Drama School, and now a sergeant directing shows for the troops. Others comprising the section were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and lyricist Hal David (known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach). The productions that were particularly fun were those in which name performers joined an all-soldier cast. Karloff was the first to do so and had a great time doing it.

Schaefer told me, "Boris came out to the Pacific and played his original part in Arsenic, which I directed and in which I played Teddy. We became very close friends and remained such until his death. We worked together on TV in The Lark and Arsenic and Old Lace, both very satisfactory experiences.

"Boris was a fine actor, particularly in films, and had the personality that made him a great star.

There were limitations to his acting talent, but he seemed to know them, and would never reach out and play classics, for example. As a man, he had no limitations, and was one of the great minds and liberal souls of our time."

His production of Arsenic went to such islands as Christmas, Johnson, and Midway. When he was appearing in Schaefer's 1962 TV version of the play, Karloff pointed out that not only did Schaefer direct the wartime show, "he drove the bloody truck." Karloff added, "Which put us on the horns of a dilemma. Schaefer loved Gilbert and Sullivan, and the only way we could keep him awake was to bellow out Gilbert and Sullivan at the top of our lungs.

"Reminds me of the time we played Kwajalein. The Seabees had asked us to play their end of the island and said they'd build us a stage. They were marvels. They built the stage in a couple of hours and erected the set—a Victorian living room. And then the most astounding thing happened on that dreary, wasted island. A cat emerged from the kitchen door of the set. He looked around the living room and, bless me, walked out as if he'd lived there all his life."

In the mid-'40s, when his film output consisted largely of B-pictures such as The Ape and The Boogie Man Will Get You , Karloff teamed with producer Val Lewton, who believed—as Karloff put it

—"the audience is the best actor in the theater, if you give it a chance." By that, Lewton meant it was better to put the suggestion of horror into the audience's minds, instead of showing it outright.

The first of three pictures Karloff did for Lewton was The Body Snatcher, based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson, and directed by a young Robert Wise. Wise, a former editor who had worked on Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, made the picture in 1943, but it wasn't released until 1945, so it wouldn't clash with other Lewton films.

Significantly, The Body Snatcher not only featured Karloff in one of his best performances, but it was his eighth and last film with Bela Lugosi. Wise, who would go on to such fine work as The Set-Up, The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story , and The Sound of Music (as well as The Haunting, which is his tribute to Lewton) told me, "It was a great pleasure working with Mr. Karloff, whom I found to be a thorough professional. He was most intrigued and caught up in the challenge of playing the character of The Body Snatcher for he felt it would give him an opportunity to show his quality as an actor that went far beyond the monster roles he was so associated with.

"He recognized that in coming up against Henry Daniell, he was going to be playing opposite one of the finest character actors Hollywood had at that time, and he was anxious to show that he could hold his own with Daniell. I think the final results in the picture proved that he did just that."

Indeed, Karloff subtly underplays the supplier of bodies for Daniell's medical school classes (a practice Daniell has been concealing for some time) and, although Daniell is actually the lead, walks off with the film in a wonderfully modulated performance. Lugosi has a relatively small part as Daniell's servant, who learns of the grave robbing and, after trying to blackmail Karloff, ends up being
murdered by him.

Wise adds, "As far as I remember, Karloff got along well enough with Bela. Mr. Lugosi was a fairly quiet man and certainly not very outgoing. He had been ill for some time before we made the film and wasn't at his best, either physically or mentally. It was somewhat of a struggle to get the scenes out of Bela, because his memory wasn't strong and he had difficulty remembering his lines. Boris, professional and gentleman that he was, was very patient in all the scenes that he was in with Mr.

Lugosi, and helped him in every way he could to make the scene come off as well as possible."

The Body Snatcher, an RKO production, was followed later that year by Isle of the Dead, which was to have been Karloff's first picture for Lewton, but production was postponed while the actor underwent back surgery and subsequently recuperated. It is a much more moody, atmospheric film than The Body Snatcher, with less action. Karloff plays a general from the Balkan War visiting his wife's grave on a Greek island, which has been quarantined and may have a vampire in its midst.

Mark Robson, like Robert Wise, a former editor (in fact, he and Wise collaborated on Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, but Robson only got screen credit for the latter) was Lewton's choice as director. In addition to several other Lewton pictures, Robson went on to make Champion, Home of the Brave, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, and Earthquake, among others.

In a 1972 letter, he told me, "Working with Mr. Karloff was a great pleasure for me. He had become an institution by that time, a trademark, a unique personality. He was gentle, warm, and a man with a rare sense of humanity. He was a generous man, a quiet man, a liberal man, in every sense of the word.

"As an actor, he had complete control of his instrument—this instrument he had tuned by-and-large to function within the framework of those horrendous characters he was fated to play. Mr. Karloff was very generous to me, who at the time was a young director still in his twenties, and extremely helpful and tolerant. It goes without saying
that he was also a man of extraordinary erudition.

"To the very end, he was a man who loved the simple, earthy, beautiful things in life. He was a courageous man for he performed for the better part of his career under excruciating and severe pain to his back. Yet, at the time of performance and on the stage, he would never complain. It is with great pride that I can say that I had worked with Boris Karloff."

Robson would also write and direct Bedlam with Karloff, who emphasized they were making an historical film, not a horror film. Robson co-wrote the script with Val Lewton, who used the pseudonym Carlos Keith, telling the story of a young woman (played by Anna Lee), who seeks reform in London's famous asylum, St. Mary's of Bethlehem, which is referred to as Bedlam.

She is repelled by the conditions there, and must deal with Master George Sims, the warden, played by Karloff. In the process, Sims has her committed to the asylum, before she can blow the whistle.

Sims is later apprehended by the inmates and supposed to be set free, after they hold a trial and deliver a guilty verdict upon him. He is stabbed, but not killed, by one of them, and then walled up inside Bedlam. In the end, a better situation for the asylum is forthcoming.

Similar to his John Gray in The Body Snatcher, Karloff's Master Sims is seemingly cordial and well-meaning, qualities that mask his cold-bloodedness and sadism. His work for Lewton was some of his best, and timely, following merely adequate performances in films such as The Boogie Man Will Get You, a lame comedy with Peter Lorre, and The Climax, in a too-small role scheduled originally for Charles Boyer.

Of Bedlam, The New York Times merely said, "Karloff is completely at home and is his usual sinister self." Variety called the picture "morbid and depressing, but fascinating at the same time" and said,

"Karloff plays with great finesse." Lewton had planned another Karloff film, Blackbeard, about the infamous pirate, but RKO scuttled the project.

In England, moviegoers were denied the chance to see Bedlam. Although historically accurate, its
depiction of St. Mary's of Bethlehem prompted it to be banned by the British censors.

Offscreen, Karloff's personal life was taking on a new chapter. On April 10, 1946, he divorced Dorothy, who received custody of their daughter, Sara Jane. The following day, in Nevada, he married Evelyn Hope Helmore, an assistant story editor for David O. Selznick. She also assisted Maurice Evans when he was in charge of the Army Entertainment Section for the Central Pacific Theater during World War II. Earlier, she had been married to Broadway and film actor Tom Helmore (who understudied Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, and was the first to succeed him on Broadway).

Evelyn took a great interest in Karloff's career, and had proved herself to be an able businesswoman.

When she and Tom Helmore were married and both were young actors (her work was minor, she said later on), they operated a dry cleaners in London to make some extra money. Called 1980 Cleaners, it was the first of its kind to offer same-day service.

Kristin Helmore, daughter of Helmore and his wife, actress and playwright Mary Drayton, says,

"Back in the '20s, that was meant to sound so futuristic. Their phone number was 1980. They had these dark green delivery vans with gold lettering, and on the side, it said '1980 Cleaners. Our Name's Our Number.' This was all very modern and very chic.

"There was a Scotsman who invented this method of cleaning. This revolutionized everybody's life.

Before this, it would take several weeks to get something cleaned. They guaranteed that you could get your suit back the next day. The incredible part was they sent everything to Scotland. And the trains were so good and so fast that they could still promise it would be back the next day. It went up from London to Edinburgh to be cleaned."

The Helmores and the Karloffs continued to be friends, and when the Helmores first went to California (he had signed a three-year deal with MGM), it was an occasion to be remembered.

Kristin Helmore explains: Daddy's agent met them at the train and said, 'Well, the war's just over, every hotel is booked. The only place I can put you is the Miramar in Santa Monica.' My parents happened to know that the Miramar was where Boris and Evie were staying on their honeymoon. This is my parents' first meeting with Boris and Evie after they were all married to each other, respectively.

So, they knew that Boris and Evie were at the Miramar, too. They said, 'Oh my gosh, well, you know it's bound to happen. We're bound to run into them. We might as well make the best of it.' They went to the hotel, checked in, and settled in their room.

I guess, at that point, Daddy said, 'Let's not run the risk of an awkward meeting in the lobby where they might be taken by surprise or embarrassed or whatever. Let's take the offensive, as it were, and invite them for dinner.' Daddy called up the desk and said, 'Would you give me Mr. and Mrs. Karloff's room?' The room rang, and Evie answered. Daddy said, 'Evie, guess what? Surprise! It's Tom.'

She said, 'Oh, how wonderful! You're here in California. Where are you?' 'Well, as a matter of fact, we're at the Miramar.'

And Evie said, 'Oh, I can hear you through the wall.' They were next door to each other. It was really like Private Lives, the Noel Coward play. Evie said, 'Let me put Boris on.'

Boris got on the phone. He immediately said, 'There's nothing to be done about this but for all of us to go out to dinner.' That was the beginning.

Around that same time, another funny instance took place when the two couples had gone to see tennis and were preparing to leave. Kristin Helmore adds, "They were waiting for their car to be brought around. Daddy happened to be standing by Evie by chance, and my mother happened to be standing with Boris.

"Along comes Rex Harrison, an old friend from England. 'Oh, the Helmores!,' he says, seeing Daddy
and Evie. 'My goodness, I haven't seen you in years. I didn't even know you were out here. How are you? What's been happening?'

"Evie got a little embarrassed and said, 'Well, Rex, a lot has happened.' She said, 'Mary here is now married to Tom, and Boris is married to Mary.' She got it all confused and said my mother was married to both of them. At that moment, Rex's car was brought around and he just sort of said, 'Well, it all sounds very delightful!' and went on and never got it straight."

The Helmores went on to live partly in California and partly in New York, as did the Karloffs, who, Kristin Helmore told me, "were a constant presence in our lives and in our families."

Her parents also rented apartments at the Dakota in New York, which she says was a wonderful place for a child to grow up, with its large apartments, central courtyard, hand-cranked elevators with leather seats, and lots of parties. "I can remember trick-or-treating there on Halloween and not having to wear a coat because you were always in the building."

Later on, her mother wrote a thriller set in the Dakota, entitled The Playroom, starring her husband (as well as then-unknowns Bonnie Bedelia, Karen Black, and Richard Thomas) that ran on Broadway in 1967.

Tom Helmore had met Karloff several years before. He told me, "It was back in 1940. I was in Hollywood with Evie, and I remember going to his home off Coldwater, where Dorothy was sitting by the pool, and Sara Jane was floating in it on a rubber raft. He came later, and there was a Screen Actors Guild meeting, to which Mary Pickford came. I remember thinking that America's Sweetheart was a bit bossy!

"I saw Boris onstage, once in Arsenic and Old Lace, but also in Los Angeles in On Borrowed Time , in which he was very good. Boris and I worked together in a Theater Guild radio show, Great Expectations, and again on television where we were both lawyers in some courtroom drama.

"Mary and I were very fond of Boris. He was the warmest, wisest, most generous, fun-to-be-with man that I have known." The TV show Helmore referred to was a 1962 adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, orginally produced and written for the screen by David O. Selznick.

(Helmore's best-known film role is probably that of Kim Novak's husband in Vertigo.) The production of On Borrowed Time , Paul Osborn's fantasy of an old man turning the tables on death, who has taken on human form as Mr. Brink, and is made prisoner in an apple tree, opened at the El Patio Theater in Los Angeles on November 5, 1946. With Karloff in the lead role as Gramps (Jack Pierce handled his makeup), it was among a series of shows put on by Players Productions, a local group whose goal was to bring first-class theater to the Hollywood community.

Karloff's fellow cast members were Beulah Bondi, Margaret Hamilton, and as Mr. Brink, Ralph Morgan. A review by critic Patterson Greene in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner said in part, "Of the countless plays which have personified death, On Borrowed Time has been one of the few to take a place in the standard repertoire of the stage. It still makes magic, thanks to its skilled counterpoint of fantasy against homely reality; and, at El Patio, thanks also to shining honesty of performance and sensitized taste in direction.

"Boris Karloff brings charm and earthly vigor to the role of Gramps, whose love for his grandson leads him eventually to liberate death from his tree. He plays with never a note of false emotion or calculated comedy." For a number of years afterwards, Karloff said it was his favorite role, and one of his most enjoyable working experiences.

In a minor part was Frank Cady, later a regular on TV's Petticoat Junction. He remembers,

"Nineteen forty-six was my first year in Hollywood, and when I met Karloff at the first rehearsal, it was the first time I had ever seen him without the bolts in his neck. I was quickly impressed by his gentle affability, and shortly thereafter, with his nononsense approach to the job. It was obvious a first-rate performer was at work.

"The real pros in this business have one thing in common, and that is that they really listen to, and thoroughly absorb, everything another actor is saying to them. They are not just remaining silent and waiting for their turn to speak. Karloff had that attribute and, at the end of a scene with him, one would come away with the feeling that a great rapport had been achieved, and that something worthwhile had been given to the audience. At least I certainly felt that way." The show's limited engagement was extended until November 24.

The Screen Actors Guild remained one of Karloff's most important causes, and among those he worked with on it was future Guild president Ronald Reagan. Toward the end of his second term as governor of California, the former President told me, "My friendship with Boris was based on years of association as board members and officers of the Guild. He was public spirited and a stalwart in Guild activities on behalf of our fellow actors.

"As a person, he was one of the finest men I've ever known. He was a quiet man. He had a rich sense of humor and great intelligence. Add to this high standards of morality and you have quite a man."

In 1947, Maurice Evans and George Schaefer, as producer and director respectively, prepared to bring to Broadway The Linden Tree by J.B. Priestley, following the play's successful run in London. It dealt with a college history professor celebrating his 65th birthday who resists his family's and the college authorities' wish that he retire. Professor Robert Linden is of the belief that, despite his work being taken away from him, he will persevere, for those urging him to step down are, in his opinion, running away from life. The play was also a metaphor for postwar England, with Linden's study representing a country short on hope, and struggling to restore itself.

Evans offered the lead to his friend Boris Karloff, yet Priestley was opposed to such casting. In a letter dated November 29 to Harold Freedman, president of Brandt and Brandt (Priestley's agents representing him in New York), Evans wrote, "I feel I ran into a brick wall with the Karloff idea.

Please give it serious consideration and make full inquiries about him. I know the notion is startling at first hearing, but it is really no more revolutionary than my own departure from Shakespeare to Shaw.

I believe that my connection with the production would eliminate any suspicion of its being a stunt, and it is my sincere conviction that Boris would play the part beautifully. It is just a fantastic accident that he has become identified with the horror stuff, and his personality is the exact opposite of the junk he has been doomed to be identified with in Hollywood.

"As Howard Lindsay said to me on the phone today, Boris is really miscast as 'the menace.' He has a solid background of theatre and I know positively from my association with him in the Pacific what his tastes and capabilities are. His inherent warmth and quiet dignity, his English speech, and his own political beliefs all point to his fundamental suitability for Professor Linden."

George Schaefer went to London to try and change Priestley's mind about Karloff. Referring to Cedric Hardwicke, Schaefer sent the following cablegram on December 17 to Evans: Freedman telephoned Priestley protesting Karloff stop Priestley now only approves Karloff providing Hardwicke remain adamant but Priestley disapproves pandering stop suggest you telephone any developments.

That same day, Evans cabled his reply to Schaefer:

Freedman confirming cable Priestley that Hardwicke will not give adequate guarantees play next season we are proceeding definitely Karloff stop we are signing contracts on this basis and want you to proceed urgently.

In response, Harold Freedman sent a cable to Priestley: Evans proceeding definitely with Karloff as Cedric will not concede sufficiently for Evans on guaranteeing to play into next season stop signing your contract tomorrow.

After Schaefer's meeting with Priestley, Karloff, with his wry humor, sent the playwright this message, "I promise you I would not have eaten the baby in the last act." Priestley, who had been hesitant because of Karloff's horror image, relented.

On December 30, Maurice Evans wrote to Howard Lindsay, "You may have seen in the papers that we finally won the Karloff battle. I am most anxious that you should realize how big a contribution you made to the tipping of the scale, and how deeply grateful I am for your assistance. If you don't hear similarly from Boris, it will be because I don't want to embarrass him by making him too anxious of the brick wall which had to be vaulted."

The production of The Linden Tree was one in which Evie Karloff took great interest, from the casting to the set design. In a letter to Walter Williams, who worked for Maurice Evans, she referred to the choice of Una O'Connor (the hysterical screecher in The Bride of Frankenstein) as the Lindens'

Cockney maid. "George Schaefer talked about Una O'Connor this morning and will tell you what we felt. Simply that we were afraid she might be too comic, but no doubt direction will take care of that. I think she has an unpleasantish personality and is not the perfect one perhaps, but I am sure will be all right." Evie said she would have preferred, among others, Gladys Cooper or Mildred Natwick.

O'Connor remained in the show.

Writing from California, Evie had this to say to Williams about the role of one of Professor Linden's daughters (and mentions Mildred Natwick again): "Although she is not English, how about Jane Wyatt for Jean? We saw her as Mrs. Antrobus in The Skin of Our Teeth at a theatre here, and she was excellent. I would say her voice is as English as Millie's and I think she would be interested (she played in Lost Horizon opposite Colman and I think her last picture was Boomerang)."

Williams replied, "I met the Wyatt girl at Malibu with you and have seen her on stage and in pictures. I think that she would probably be very good as Jean, but way beyond our salary budget, and we have already read several girls who could play the part quite decently." He added, "Freedman of Brandt and Brandt thinks that all the human interest stories about Boris we can possibly dream up would be valuable. I told him the story about Boris being mistaken for a minister in the Hawaii hospital ward, which seemed to delight his soul. Will you please make poor Boris dream up some more sugar-coated pills."

The London production of The Linden Tree , starring Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike, was in its sixth month as of January 28, 1948. In America, it opened on February 4 in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved as of February 9 for a two-week run in Philadelphia.

In New Haven, The Linden Tree drew lukewarm reaction and box office returns were just fair. While in Philadelphia, the critics were more appreciative, but business again was poor, dropping off the second week. Another preview took place in Washington, D.C., and then the play opened March 12 at the Music Box Theater in New York.

The Daily News' critic John Chapman, referring to Priestley's earlier work An Inspector Calls, said

"The second Priestley play this season is more quiet and undramatic than the first," but added he enjoyed "an excellent performance by Boris Karloff."

Similar thoughts were expressed by Richard Watts in The New York Post, who termed The Linden Tree "thoughtful, intelligent, and theatrically unexhilirating" and wrote, "Mr. Karloff does a great deal to uphold the play's dramatic phases with his honestly sympathetic playing."

The New York World-Telegram's William Hawkins wrote, "For the most part, it is performed as if it
were the first reading of a script, when none of the actors have any notion of what the author is getting at."

Robert Coleman, writing for The Daily Mirror, dismissed the play as "a pretentious, windy bore,"

but about Karloff, he said the actor "wrings all the emotion possible out of Priestley's surface chatter."

The New York Times' Brooks Atkinson praised Karloff's work, and called him "an extraordinarily winning actor." Interestingly enough, almost all the critics praised the performance of Una O'Connor.

The Linden Tree closed on March 6 after just seven performances. Forty years later, Maurice Evans told me, "The swift withdrawal pained me as much as it did Boris. The theatre owners insisted that the absence of any substantial advance booking proved that his motion picture fame was not the magnet we were relying upon."

George Schaefer also gave me his viewpoint: " The Linden Tree, which I considered a beautiful play and which caught perfectly the various undercurrents running through postwar London, did not succeed in this country simply because the American public was not turned on to their problems. The production and the acting were firstrate, and I am convinced that if the London production (which ran for a couple of seasons) had opened instead in New York, it would have had the same fate. "Moreover, there has always been a strong antipathy on the part of both critics and audiences to J.B. Priestley. I do not share this view, but it accounts for his lack of success on these shores."

Karloff was in just one film that year, George Marshall's Tap Roots, in which he again played an American Indian, and in 1949, instead of being above the title, he was part of it for Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff . Weak in comparison to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (which he had no intention of seeing when it was released the year before, although it was a huge hit for Universal-International), Killer was a moderately amusing outing for the comedy team.

With Abbott as a hotel detective and Costello as a bellboy, they encounter Karloff as one of several suspects following the murder of a guest. Karloff, in the role of a phony hypnotist, contributed little to the plot, and despite the title, wasn't even the guilty party. On some theater marquees, Karloff's name was left off so the title would fit.

Of their films in which they met up with other famous names (the Mummy, the Invisible Man, Captain Kidd, etc.), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was the best.

That year, Broadway beckoned again, when Karloff took the lead in Edward Percy's thriller The Shop at Sly Corner, directed by Margaret Perry, daughter of theater luminary Antoinette Perry (for whom the Tony Awards were named). Under the title Play with Fire, the melodrama played in Boston and Princeton in 1941 starring Henry Hull (who played the title character in The Werewolf of London).

Four years later, renamed The Shop at Sly Corner, it opened in London and ran for two years. Percy's earlier work, Ladies in Retirement, which he co-wrote with Reginald Denham, had been a success and made into a film with Ida Lupino and Louis Hayward.

Karloff played Descius Heiss, a former prisoner of Devil's Island, operating an antique shop in London, where he receives stolen goods. His slimy shop assistant learns what Heiss is up to and blackmails him, only to end up being strangled. Afterward, when a police inspector shows up, Heiss—
thinking that he has been found out—kills himself with a poisoned dart, and dies laughing when he realizes the inspector simply wanted to buy a suit of armor.

The material at the outset appeared to be just made for Karloff, but he was defeated by a weak script and subsequent critical pounding. Of Karloff, Brooks Atkinson said in The New York Times , "He has the shoulders, arms, and hands of an expert at natural homicide. His eyes are baleful. He walks like a panther. An extraordinarily gifted assassin, he deserves steady employment with plenty of work." Of the play, Atkinson said Percy dwelled too much on Heiss' home life, of which he added, "Mr. Karloff is too good an actor to waste on such domestic banality," written "with dreadful composure."

Howard Barnes of The Herald-Tribune said Karloff was persuasive and occasionally terrifying. "It is altogether the best characterization he has achieved since he renounced horror films." He remarked,

"There is very little of the cumulative suspense which distinguished Ladies in Retirement."

The Sun's critic Ward Morehouse termed The Shop at Sly Corner "awkward and labored," but still thought it was well-acted and directed.

John Chapman, reviewer for The Daily News, said, "I do hope that somebody opened several bottles of something at midnight for Karloff and his fellow players, for the play certainly was not their fault and they rated a stimulant after it was over—along with the audience."

As did The Linden Tree, The Shop at Sly Corner closed its doors after seven performances.

In July, it was announced by Charles C. Barry, vice president in charge of television at the ABC
network, that Karloff had signed an exclusive, one-year contract to do a weekly series likely to begin in September. Under terms of the agreement, Karloff would do a radio show for the network, as well.

The half-hour TV show would air live from New York, and feature original plays, adaptations of classics, and some stage and screen material. The working title of Karloff's first television show of his own was Conflict.

When it premiered on September 22, the new name was Starring Boris Karloff, with "Five Golden Guineas" as the kickoff episode. Karloff played a hangman for the Crown, who took great satisfaction in his work, hearing the snap of the neck and seeing the dangling legs of his victims. For each execution, he was paid five golden guineas. His pregnant wife, played by Mildred Natwick, is appalled at her husband's line of work, and leaves him.

Twenty years later, Karloff is given the duty of hanging a young man convicted of killing his sweetheart, whom Karloff learns is innocent. Not wanting to lose work, and refusing to divulge a letter that would free the condemned man, Karloff carries out the punishment. Afterward, his ex-wife returns, gives him payment, and reveals he has just hanged his own son. Consequently, he goes mad and strangles her, for which he is hanged, and another executioner collects his guineas.

Starring Boris Karloff, said Variety, was "an excellent production" (the same adjective was applied to Karloff) and "an exciting newcomer to television." Director Alex Segal was commended for the show's mood and certain visual shots the critic said "were spine-tingling in their realism."

The radio version was faulted by Variety, saying "story was slight and obvious in parts, and motivation was sketchy. Karloff's voice compels attention. His change of pace, his precise diction, and the English setting gave the broadcast interest."

Reaction to the radio and TV shows was just the reverse a few weeks later. Of Starring Boris Karloff's fourth installment, "Mad Illusion," Variety said, "the more imaginative sound medium permitted the illusion" of Karloff's escape from Devil's Island (old territory to Karloff by now) through shark-infested waters, and getting revenge on those who double crossed him, whereas the TV
version was written differently with the final explanation being that the story was just a bad dream.

The star was not faulted though, as the review said "AM or TV, Karloff did a capital job."

Karloff was very comfortable with the young medium of television. He never used cue cards or TelePrompters, not only because he knew his lines perfectly, but, he said in 1958, even if he did, "it wouldn't do me any good. If I took off my glasses, I couldn't see the cards." He added, "I've worked on shows with actors who use cue cards, and it's just plain hell. If you're playing a part, you ought to damn well know it. When these actors should be looking at the other persons in the scene, they're staring in the camera, reading their cards."

Mildred Natwick had met Karloff earlier, when she was appearing in Blithe Spirit for Maurice Evans during the war, and Evelyn Karloff introduced them. She saw them fairly often over the years, and told me about the time, a few months before Starring Boris Karloff, she first worked with Karloff on the Suspense series.

During the live show, a scene called for them to look out a window, when Karloff suddenly grabbed her arm and moved her toward a set door. Not knowing what was going on, she continued with the scene, not breaking the rhythm. What had happened was that the quickthinking Karloff noticed the camera at the window was disabled, so he went to the door where another camera was stationed, and kept on acting.

Starring Boris Karloff was renamed Mystery Playhouse Starring Boris Karloff and was cancelled by ABC after a run of just 13 episodes. Still, it had whetted Karloff's taste for the small screen, with some of his best work yet to come.

HAUNTING THE AIRWAVES

With the advent of the '50s, Karloff entered a period in his career when he would display his range as an actor perhaps more than he ever had before. He began the decade with a trip to Atlanta for another production of On Borrowed Time, directed by playwright Gerald Savory, a fellow Britisher.

Savory told me, "Whatever Karloff's stature was as an actor, he was certainly a most lovable man, liberal in his views, and firm in his friendships. It was in Atlanta that I first met him. I was directing a season at a theater-in-the-round on top of what was then the most noted hotel in the city. It was called Penthouse Theater. A different play was produced each week, and the star player—who had probably originated the particular part in another theater—would arrive on Sunday for a rehearsal with the resident company with the opening night on Monday.

"Boris had already played the part, with Atlanta supplying the other parts. What I mostly remember was our suppers after the show at a nearby eating joint. We talked and talked—Evie Karloff was there, too—until the waiters started stacking the chairs on the tables and sweeping up, upon which we put our feet on the table and went on talking. Of course, one of our abiding interests was our love (and in his case, knowledge) of cricket. I remember him loyally maintaining the actual play of the game was more than in baseball. Who is to say?

"As the years went by, we drifted apart. Boris was always busy, usually in America, and I was busy working in television here [London]. It was always a pleasure to hear his stories and his laugh. I would say he was a simple man in the best sense of the word, intelligent in the extreme, and I imagine, willing to act his monster roles in order to give him security for what he thought was more important—his private life, laughter, comfort, and cricket."

Savory's production received enthusiastic response from the local critics. The Atlanta Constitution hailed it as "the greatest play of the current season" and added, "Many actors have performed before the eyes of thousands of theater regulars here during the past decade, but the tremendous ovation accorded Karloff will ring in his ears as a stirring tribute from a discriminating audience to a great trouper."

Equally impressed was The Atlanta Journal. Noting that Karloff "made some five hundred people forget he had ever been Frankenstein's monster," its critic said the star, and a 10-year-old Atlanta boy as Pud, "were so outstanding that the entire cast soared to new heights along with them."

During what Evie Karloff told me were "two very happy weeks" in the city, her husband was introduced to the Georgia House of Representatives. When asked by a reporter what he thought of Georgia politics, Karloff replied, "I think they've got very comfortable seats here."

In April, Karloff was back before the footlights in a New York revival of Peter Pan, with Jean Arthur as the boy who wouldn't grow up, music and lyrics courtesy of Leonard Bernstein, and joint direction by John Burrell and Wendy Toye. As Captain Hook and Mr. Darling (an interesting comparison to his horror roles and his own personality), Karloff had a grand time, entertaining adults as well as children.

Writing for The New York Times after opening night, Brooks Atkinson said, "This is Mr. Karloff's day of triumph." Karloff's dual roles were described as "captivating" ( The New York Herald Tribune) and "wonderful" ( The Post), while John Chapman in The Daily News remarked, "I'd like to see him in Gilbert and Sullivan."

Much in the minority was The Journal American's Robert Garland, who said, "Mr. Karloff's Captain Hook is no more scary than Mr. Darling who is no more scary than Tinker Bell." Nevertheless, the show was a hit and ran until the following January.

Peter Pan was a great joy for the cast and crew, as well as audiences, yet as Wendy Toye remembers, there were the usual adjustments and hurdles to get over: When we first met for meetings and subsequent rehearsals, I was really worried that there would be the very stereotyped 'starry' with a capital S person. Far from it. He had spent a good deal of time in the theater early in his career and was a very dedicated actor and a super company member. You can imagine what it must have been like for him with a cast full of little boys knowing who he was. He treated them with such patience and good humor and we all adored him.

Captain Hook has to sing, usually 'Avast Belay!' Leonard Bernstein wrote the score and lyrics for our production brilliantly of course, and he was very involved in the whole show, and coached the folk who had any singing to do. I remember how nervous and insecure Boris was about it all, but he had a great untrained voice, and Lenny and all of us were delighted with it. It was a clever song. Some of the pirates were tenors and others were basses, and Hook was the basest of all. Boris sang this with a great twinkle in his eye. His comedy was delicious. I think it's unusual in directors, but I always try and go to early costume fittings with the actors, because then one can see how they must use the costumes, and help them remember about them, so it's not such a shock when it comes to dress rehearsals. I went to an early one of Boris'. Elizabeth Montgomery, the designer from Motley's, was there, and so was Mrs. Karloff.

I was quite surprised and thought 'Oh, dear,' because it's unusual for that to happen, and sometimes when it does it can be quite a problem. You know, a bit of interference here and there doesn't help.

But I learned that Evie looked after every aspect of Boris' career and life, and she was just marvelous.

Always helpful, and if she had any suggestions about anything to do with the production, she would discuss with me first. Boris and she and I became fast friends. They were a dear and wonderful couple.

My life was enriched by knowing and working with them, and they had such a loving relationship and marriage. It was a real pleasure to be with them.

He was a remarkable actor, and his Mr. Darling was just as excellent as his Captain Hook. It was a brilliant piece of casting with Jean as Peter, a great supporting cast, Leonard's music and lyrics, and the guiding hand of Peter Lawrence, the producer.

I'll never forget the first night. The smart first nighters, who came to scoff at the fairy tale, finished by standing and applauding when Peter says 'If you want to save Tinker Bell's life, clap to show you believe in fairies.' The place went mad.

It was a real thrill for me to see the first monster that I really cared for. As a young person, I had found him so sympathetic in all his monster films, he made such wonderful characters of them.

Among the actors comprising Captain Hook's motley crew was Nehemiah Persoff (Barbra Streisand's father in Yentl), who explained what an impression Karloff made upon him, too. "I remember Mr. Karloff as being very serious and hard-working. During the time we were in Peter Pan, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists was first being organized. One of our cast asked the cast to come to a meeting at Malin Studios after the show. I took off my makeup, and after visiting with some friends, found my way to the studios, and only one person was sitting there.

It was Boris. I said, jokingly, something like 'There isn't much of a turnout' and he very seriously said,

'No, there isn't.' Seeing he was not in a friendly mood, I didn't push the conversation, but about half an hour later, I suggested that possibly there was some mistake. He took a circular out of his pocket, checked it, and said no, there was no mistake. This was the time and place. I apologized for leaving him. He said he understood, but would stay on, as this was a very important matter and he wanted to give it his full attention.

The following day, he expressed his disappointment to me. He said he could understand established, successful actors not showing up, but he could not understand the fear or lack of courage that young actors had about standing up for their rights.

Soon after that, I went on a ten-week vacation to Israel, and he wrote to me there three or four times.

When I returned to the show, I was ill, but came to the performance anyway. He approved of that. The following matinee, I came after the show had started (the only time in my life I ever came late to a show). Mr. Karloff was very stern about that and lectured me severely on the matter.

He was a good man. I mean, a rare person indeed. I never met him after leaving Peter Pan, but I've always thought myself fortunate and and a better person for having known him.

When the show was winding up, The New York Times reported, " Peter Pan will have grossed more than one million dollars after it ends its local run after 321 shows on Jan. 27th. It moves on to Boston to begin a coast-to-coast on Feb. 5th. It broke all records for all continuous performances of Peter.

That included a 45-year-old mark of 237 shows set in 1906 in the original American version with Maude Adams. A company of more than 100 people will make the road trip, which will involve transportation of involved flying equipment
imported from England."

Karloff did reprise Captain Hook and Mr. Darling for the national tour (in 1960, he would repeat his Hook characterization for a TV special), and the role of Peter was assumed by Joan McCracken and Veronica Lake.

While still in New York for Peter Pan, Karloff found time to squeeze in broadcast appearances.

Shortly before the play closed, he was Uriah Heep in a Christmas Eve production of David Copperfield for radio's Theater Guild on the Air. Joining him were Cyril Ritchard, Flora Robson, and as the adult David, Richard Burton, who was just beginning his career in The Lady's Not For Burning.

Also starting out was playwright Robert Anderson ( Tea and Sympathy, I Never Sang For My Father), who wrote the adaptation. He told me, "I certainly remember David Copperfield. The writer was present at all rehearsals. The practice was the writer wrote the script some months in advance and reworked it. First rehearsal, a reading, was on Tuesday, rewrite by Thursday for another rehearsal, and a last rehearsal all day Sunday for the Sunday night show, broadcast usually from the Belasco Theater.

It was a great experience working with the likes of that cast. Boris was a charmer. He was great as Uriah Heep, and whenever I saw him after, he would always greet me with a line from that show. I married Teresa Wright in 1959 and she was a great friend of Boris and Evie. We visited them several times in London and in their charming, quaint house in Bramshott. Wasn't it odd that a gentle man like that should have made his mark playing monsters? In those days, I was writing plays in the morning, radio and later TV in the afternoon, and teaching four nights a week. It was rigorous, but gave me a tremendous feeling of being involved in 'show business.' Whenever I talk about my early days, I talk about Theater Guild on the Air. What a great chance for a young playwright to work with master works (usually), to get a sense of shape and form and the essentials, to work with stars, and then to be
put under the pressure of rehearsals with time limitations.

I had some wonderful shows in addition to Copperfield. Trilby with Rex Harrison and Teresa, The Glass Menagerie with Helen Hayes, Monty Clift, and Karl Malden, The Petrified Forest with Bob Montgomery. It was on Theater Guild on the Air that I met Deborah Kerr and that led to my asking her to do Tea and Sympathy.

Variety praised what it called Anderson's "skillful editing job" and particularly the actors, noting that Karloff's Uriah Heep "dripped with sinister hypocrisy."

That same year, Karloff had another radio show of his own, this one for children, titled Boris Karloff's Treasure Chest , airing locally on WNEW in New York. As host, he displayed his great gift for storytelling and reciting poetry, and spun records for an audience he appreciated and respected.

Asked at the time about some protests concerning crime and horror programming on radio and television, Karloff had this response for the Los Angeles Daily News:

"I feel strongly against censorship of all kinds. Parents should be the judge of what their children see and hear in the home. Each child represents a different problem. What affects one won't make the slightest impression on another. Parents who have good taste and know their own children are fully capable of dealing with this matter.

"As a matter of fact, I doubt that, left to themselves, many children would go haywire over so-called horror entertainment. It seems to me that they have a pretty fair amount of common sense and are capable of arranging their own values."

In 1951, at the 15th American Exhibition of Educational Radio Programs, Boris Karloff's Treasure Chest was honored by Ohio State University's Institute for Education by Radio and Television. The show's station, WNEW, received the Institute's first award in the regional classification for a children's program.

Television was the medium Karloff worked in most often during the '50s, playing a wide assortment of characters, which included King Arthur, Don Quixote, Rasputin, and the title role in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, opposite Eva Gabor ("He was a brilliant actor," she told me). He took great joy in live television, because it gave him a sense of being on stage, but with only one chance to get it right. As he put it, "If you make a muck of it, you make a muck of it."

That literally came true when he starred in Mutiny on the Nicolette, a Studio One drama directed by Franklin Schaffner ( Planet of the Apes, Patton). Also cast were Anthony Ross (one of the policemen in Arsenic and Old Lace with Karloff) and Ralph Nelson, later a fine director in his own right of such films as Lilies of the Field and Charly.

Nelson told me:

The melodramatic plot involved a jinxed freighter that was rechartered during World War II. In World War I, it had been involved in some evil incident and Boris had served as a member of the crew at that time. Anthony Ross played the captain and I was the first mate. The climax of the piece came when Mr. Karloff, in order to seek vengeance on the ship itself, aroused the crew to mutiny. This occurred during a storm at sea, with the ship pitching and rolling. Mr. Karloff and the crew were armed with grenades and handguns. At the moment when Mr. Karloff had the captain and first mate at bay on the deck, the ship's boom was supposed to fall and symbolically sweep him overboard, ending the mutiny.

It was an ambitious program for live television.

The art department did a magnificent job in painting the floor of the studio to resemble a ship's deck with rusting steel plates and bolts. Mr. Ross and I had a scene on the bridge when we were forewarned that the mutiny was beginning. Mr. Schaffner had told us there would be 'a little rain' in this scene. On
the telecast, a special effects man stood next to the camera and shot a fire hose at us with full force. In order to yell the dialogue, we had to turn to each other and shout from the corners of our mouths, or else gargle.

That scene concluded, it was my duty to go below decks to ascertain the mood of the crew. I saw immediately that the beautiful paint job on the floor had turned into a slippery quagmire with all the water. As I got to the set which represented the below decks, I just had time to warn the actors comprising the crew of the conditions on deck and to be careful that they did not skid during the action that followed.

I preceded them to the deck and turned with my captain to face the snarling, mutinous crew. Instead of rushing us, as we had rehearsed, they turned into a bunch of careful actors, gingerly tiptoeing across the deck, concerned about the next job rather than this one. Mr. Karloff threw his grenades, but the special effects had been short-circuited by the rain, and nothing happened. When the boom fell, instead of swinging forward to knock him overboard, it dropped dead behind him and he stood awaiting its impact. The boom, of course, was a hollow carton. I had to destroy the symbolism by rushing to him and pushing him overboard.

It was not one of Studio One's superior achievements.

Moviegoers saw little of Karloff during this time, but the few pictures he made were hardly worth the effort. The Strange Door, based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson, reunited him with Charles Laughton, almost twenty years after they met in The Old Dark House. Later on, Laughton and agent Paul Gregory signed Karloff to play the Devil in the stage production of Don Juan in Hell, directed by Laughton. They decided instead to use Vincent Price, and had the stage manager tell Karloff he had been replaced.

The Strange Door, a Gothic story about a mad nobleman (Laughton) seeking revenge upon a young couple after his deceased sweetheart jilted him for his brother, was a feeble attempt to capture the flavor of earlier horror films ( The Black Room, for example). In a supporting role, Karloff contributed little to a picture one critic dismissed as "more ludicrous than chilling." In the same vein a year later, and just as bad, was The Black Castle, which the presence of Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr., could not help.

In January of 1952, Sidney Lumet directed Karloff in Don Quixote for the premiere of CBS

Television Workshop , with Jimmy Savo as Sacho Pinza and then-unknown Grace Kelly as Dulcinea.

Television was still in the experimental phase, and Lumet's show was a valiant failure. Producer Norris Houghton told me Karloff was capable of, in his words, "gentleness and wonderment" which came through in his portrayal, but of the show itself, Houghton added, "the less said, the better." This excerpt from Jack Gould's review in The New York Times reinforces Houghton's assessment: While Mr. Karloff was burdened with cumbersome armor and amateurish makeup, he played the central figure in a very somber and depressed key. Where elements of true inspiration and lofty purpose, coupled with perhaps even an opera bouffe appreciation of the ludicrous, were needed, Mr.

Karloff's interpretation was drawn in terms of an errant Pagliacci.

The production of Norris Houghton and the direction by Sidney Lumet were much too concerned with effect. The awkward use of a series of model windmills, all turning in precise synchronization, was never believable and only distracting. The sight of Mr. Karloff spread out on an arm of a larger windmill, which in contrast, never revolved a whit was just silly, not arty.

The write-up in Variety of the half-hour show had much the same tone. It said, in part, "Pace was
static 'til it hurt, and the few possibilities on which they could have capitalized to project at least partially the flavor of the Cervantes classic were snafued or lost. End result, instead of carrying TV's drama techniques forward, pushed them back a couple of years." Karloff was more successful portraying a scientist who believes he is Don Quixote on the I Spy series in 1966.

Martin Manulis, producer of many of TV's finer dramatic shows, several that showcased Karloff, sums up the actor's efforts to show viewers how versatile he truly was: "Many audiences—and many professionals—think that actors frequently reflect their own personalities in the parts they play.

Karloff was a diametrically opposed case—dignified, warm, affectionate, witty. A true delight as a companion and friend.

"In the roles he played on Climax! and Playhouse 90, he revealed his sensitivity and his very special personal qualities as opposed to the horror side. However, we found that his Frankenstein personality had been so impressed on the audience that they often read into his characters a menace that wasn't there. This was dispelled as his character developed, and they realized they were watching Boris Karloff, a fine actor."

Not long afterward, Karloff returned to England to star in Colonel March of Scotland Yard , a series produced by Hannah Weinstein for British television, and later syndicated in the United States. The role of March, taken from stories by mystery writer John Dickson Carr, fit Karloff perfectly. As the one-eyed, soft-spoken, and sharp-witted detective heading the Yard's Department of Queer Complaints, he was marvelous to watch, solving all sorts of unusual crimes.

Three episodes were strung together and released as a feature film in England as Colonel March Investigates, but it was 1954 when the show reached America. In its usual style, Variety said the character had "socko video potential," while TV Guide remarked, " Colonel March should win Karloff almost as many fans as his grotesque movie roles."

Performers yet to be famous who appeared on the show were Arthur Hill, Christopher Lee (soon to become a horror star for England's Hammer Films, and a good friend of Karloff's), John Schlesinger (director of Billy Liar and Darling; and Midnight Cowboy, for which he won an Oscar), and Dana Wynter, who was still in drama school.

Anthony Newley, another supporting player, remembers, "It was shot in a very small London studio with only one soundstage. Probably a private house or commercial building that had been converted into a studio. I can feel quite clearly the closeness of the soundstage, so it was obviously very small."

While the show was running, its star opened the first exhibition of England's Crime Writers Association at the National Book Gallery in London. The Times reported, "Karloff said all of them, whether crime writers or crime readers, were partners in crime. What struck him as he looked around was the absurdity of the dictum that crime did not pay."

Ninteen-fifty-five would be an especially productive year for Karloff. On CBS' The Best of Broadway, he redid Arsenic and Old Lace, and joining him again from the original cast were John Alexander and Bruce Gordon. Producer Martin Manulis added Helen Hayes and Billie Burke as the Brewster sisters, Peter Lorre as Dr. Einstein, and as Mortimer, Orson Bean.

Time commented, "Few TV revivals of Broadway plays have come off as entertainingly and inventively," while Variety said it was "the best TV comedy of the year," and went on to say, "Karloff and Lorre made the perfect murderous pair, relishing every line and turning them out beautifully."

Of that program, Orson Bean recalled, "Lorre was down in the dumps, and Boris was always saying,

'Cheer up, Peter.' The huge, crane-like apparatus on which a cameraman sits so he can swoop up into the air for an overhead shot is called 'the monster.' A floor manager yelled, 'Get that monster over here!' and Boris, turning in mock umbrage, said, 'I beg your pardon' to great laughter from the crew."

Although it was not in a play, as he would have liked, Karloff appeared onstage in England at the

London Palladium for Night of a

100 Stars, a fund-raiser for the Actors' Orphanage. The event featured a virtual who's who of performers. Among them were Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier, and Michael Redgrave to name a few, and Karloff did a sketch with Hermoine Gingold, who liked him a great deal.

In the '60s, they planned to do a revue together, which Karloff thought should be titled The Monster and I, as Gingold related in her book How to Grow Old Disgracefully. She said, to the contrary, "Never wanting to take second billing, I favored the title I and the Monster." Film commitments for both prevented the show from taking place. Yet in the States, they worked again for ABC's Elgin Hour in The Sting of Death.

Karloff played a retired detective named Mr. Mycroft, who bore a strong resemblance to Sherlock Holmes (whose brother's name was Mycroft). Based on H.F. Heard's novel A Taste For Honey , which Karloff termed "a triumph of horror," the show was directed by Daniel Petrie ( Eleanor and Franklin, for which he won an Emmy; Sybil, and Fort Apache, The Bronx). He told me Karloff "was every bit adept as a light comedian as he was as a merchant of terror." That program received the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America as the best mystery TV show of the year.

It was around this time that theatrical producer Kermit Bloomgarden (who had staged Death of a Salesman) began the groundwork for a Broadway version of The Lark, Lillian Hellman's adaptation of Jean Anouilh's L'Alouette, about the struggle of Joan of Arc. The Lark was one of seven plays by Hellman that he would put on during his prolific career.

In February, he wrote to Charles Laughton to see whether he'd be interested in directing the play, but Laughton believed further work was needed on the translation; plus he didn't have the time to devote to it. In a letter to Anouilh, written in July, Bloomgarden said he had also approached William Wyler.

He told Anouilh, "I just returned from the Coast where I went to see Wyler and Leslie Caron. Caron was interested in doing the play, but both Wyler and I felt that since we had never seen her on stage, we wanted her to read for us. This she was willing to do, and I must say she was very charming and warm when we met her. The studio, however, refused to permit her to read and while they were willing to give her permission to do the play, all they would release her for would be from January to June, so that with the limited amount of time they were willing to release her, and the fact they would not permit her to read, nor would she read without their consent, Wyler and I decided against it.

"As you know, my first choice when I read L'Alouette was Julie Harris and I'm very happy to say when we got together with her, we came to an agreement for her to do it with an unlimited amount of time, and expressing it in her own words 'will stay with the play as long as the play runs.' Both Wyler and I are very excited and happy about this and I hope you feel the same."

Harris, who first scored on Broadway in The Member of the Wedding, was no stranger to Anouilh, as she had appeared in his play Mademoiselle Colombe with Eli Wallach the year before. Bloomgarden had discussed the show with Audrey Hepburn, as well. She expressed interest in playing the Maid of Orleans if it was pushed back another year. Jennifer Jones offered to audition for The Lark, yet David O. Selznick, her husband, wouldn't allow it.

With regrets, William Wyler withdrew due to his film work, and Joseph Anthony, director of Bloomgarden's production of The Rainmaker, stepped in. That spring, the London version of The Lark, adapted by Christopher Fry, opened.

Brooks Atkinson, writing for The New York Times , found fault with it, saying the play's arguments were "tedious" and "undramatic." While Fry's version, Atkinson wrote, did not measure up to George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, he conceded that "as a whole, it is interesting."

To the cast, Bloomgarden added Theodore Bikel, Joseph Wiseman, and as Cauchon (the compassionate bishop trying to protect Joan from heresy), Boris Karloff. Karloff saw the London
show, too, and had this to say in a letter to Bloomgarden: It was a very strange experience. After having read our version many times, it was like looking at a rather smudged carbon copy through a smoked glass, which is a very mixed metaphor! Our version is so much tighter and has so much more impact. With the possible exception of the Dauphin, I did not admire any of the playing, and some passages through sheer length became very dull. Fry has not indulged in his usual flights of verbal fancy and a
curious tediousness supervenes. It's very sad, but perhaps a good omen for the play Miss Hellman has given us.

Rehearsals for The Lark began in October. Added to the company was Karloff's friend Bruce Gordon, then doing television in New York, who visited the Karloffs' apartment at the famed Dakota building near Central Park. He says,

Boris was shaving or something, and throws this script at me. He says, 'Read this. There's a good part in it for you.' So I sat there and read this thing, and I read and I read and I read. 'Where the hell is this?

I can't find it.' In the middle of the second act, there's a part of Captain La Hire and a scene with Julie.

One scene. I said, 'You mean the part of La Hire?' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Well, God, it's so smal l.'

He said, 'You, you horse's ass'—that's always the way he talked to me—'that's a good part. Try and get an audition for it.'

I contacted an agent and I got a reading and the part. When Boris and Evie came back from Europe, I said, 'Hey, what do you think? I'm going to be in this with you."

According to Gordon, Joseph Anthony's directing style did not go over well with Lillian Hellman.

William Ross, the show's production stage manager, agreed with Gordon's view. Ross told me,

"Lillian was a very tough lady. She was there 70-80 percent of the time during rehearsal, and voiced her objections very loudly. One day, we were in Boston after the performance, and Joe was addressing the cast and giving notes. I said, 'Lillian, can I see you a minute?' She came. I said, 'How'd you like to go for some Chinese food?' She said, 'That'd be wonderful, Bill. As soon as Joe's finished.' I said,

'Now.' She said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'You're standing behind him, and every point he's making, you're shaking your head no. You're being very destructive.' She said, 'I'm not doing that.' I said, 'You absolutely are. Either stop it or come on out for Chinese food.' So she stopped it.

"One night, Joe was sitting in the last row with his secretary and dictating notes to her during the performance, whispering, and suddenly behind him, Lillian said, 'That's all wrong.' She was standing behind eavesdropping. He was right in many cases, I think, and proven right by the reception of the play, but it was a very difficult situation."

Ross added that from time to time, Hellman would pick on somebody and go after them. At one point, the target of her wrath was Joseph Wiseman, playing the inquisitor at Joan's trial (the part Karloff very much wanted to play at first, according to Kermit Bloomgarden). Although Wiseman didn't speak until the second act, he was on stage with a big spotlight on him through the first act, during which he would move and gesture and point. When he spoke, he had a long speech addressed to
members of the court. Hellman kept complaining that he wasn't getting the lines right. Finally, from the stage, a frustrated Wiseman retorted, "Now, stop it, Lillian. I know my words."

Hellman shot back, "Yes, but do you know mine?"

William Ross said to me, "She was wrong."

Hellman notwithstanding, The Lark came together after tryouts in Boston and New Haven. The New York premiere was slated for November 17 in the Longacre Theater, where Julie Harris, being the lead, was assigned the star's dressing room. She would not accept it, and insisted that it go to Karloff.

William Ross said Karloff always came early and in a cheerful mood, as though he became happier when crossing the threshold to backstage. His dressing room became a meeting place where people felt free to drop in and say hello. If one entered at the right moment, Karloff could be found, clad in a robe, chinning himself with great effort on a bar he had put up. That was to loosen up his back on account of his arthritis.

Ever supportive of younger talent, Karloff always contributed to them, which Julie Harris can attest to. She told me, "It was wonderful working with Boris. He was a dream of a man—kind, humorous, gentle, and very, very strong. I had trouble with my throat—a bad cold—and Boris gave me a corncob pipe stuffed with cotton where the tobacco would be—cotton that had been soaked in oil of eucalyptus. I went puffing on this when not in rehearsal and it was good.

"He was a tireless worker—knew his lines backwards and forwards—was patient and giving to everyone. I thought he was a glorious actor, and wanted him to play King Lear, but he told me he had never played Shakespeare and now it was too late. I loved him as a man and an actor."

The admiration was mutual. Of his co-star, Karloff told Time magazine, "When Julie is at the height of her most emotional scene, she is always in complete control of herself, just as a fine pianist is always master of his music." She was one of many actresses Karloff admired, among them Jean Arthur, Dorothy McGuire, Mildred Natwick, Teresa Wright, and Jane Wyatt.

Just days before The Lark opened, Christopher Plummer joined the show as a replacement in the role of Warwick, the earl who wants to proceed with Joan's eventual burning. On the premiere night, all but Harris and Karloff were distracted by nervousness. When the curtain came down, the audience stood, roaring its approval, and showed it through eight curtain calls.

"Magnificent," "beautiful," "exciting," and "moving" were just a few of the adjectives applied by the critics to The Lark, and Life magazine simply called it "American theater at its finest." F o r Karloff, the notices and the public's acceptance must have been gratifying, to be in a successful drama for the first time on Broadway.

Harris and Karloff received two of the play's several Tony Award nominations. It was the only time in his career he was considered for a major acting award. His competition was made up of Ben Gazzara (A Hatful of Rain), Paul Muni ( Inherit the Wind), Michael Redgrave ( Tiger at the Gates), and Edward G. Robinson ( Middle of the Night). At the award ceremonies on June 1, 1956, the radiant Harris won for Best Actress, although the Best Actor prize went to Paul Muni.

The Lark enjoyed a run of 229 performances, closing that June. Karloff did not tour with the show (Cauchon was played by Sam Jaffe) but, along with Harris and Bruce Gordon, he performed the play on

TV's Hallmark Hall of Fame the following year.

Director George Schaefer, working with Karloff again several years after the ill-fated The Linden Tree, utilized a cast as good as Joseph Anthony's. Assuming the roles played by Christopher Plummer and Joseph Wiseman were Denholm Elliott and Basil Rathbone, plus Eli Wallach and Jack Warden.

Watching the program (which still exists) and seeing Karloff and Rathbone act with such passion and conviction makes one wish they were in a film of such depth. Screen rights to The Lark were, in fact, sold to Allied Artists at the time of its New York debut, but a film was never made.

In an interview in 1974, Kermit Bloomgarden said The Lark was "the best production I ever did—
magic in the theater."

During The Lark' s run, Karloff and Christopher Plummer worked in an outstanding drama for TV's Alcoa Hour, Even the Weariest River, a Western written in blank verse. Alvin Sapinsley's original teleplay, directed by Robert Mulligan ( To Kill a Mockingbird, Summer of '42, The Man in the Moon), dealt with an aging sheriff (Franchot Tone) of a dying town called Weary River, where a stagecoach robbery has taken place. A wounded stranger (Plummer) appears, and the sheriff, forced to cope with the townspeople who want justice, jails the man, whom he knows is innocent. Also part of the stark, dreary setting are the sheriff's daughter (Lee Grant) and the local doctor (Karloff) who relates the tragic story, told in flashback.

Sapinsley told me:

The fact that I was able to write and get produced a television play in iambic pentameter, coupled with rhymed couplets at the conclusion of each scene, can be attributed to [producer] Herbert Brodkin's reluctant persuasion of NBC, who agreed to its presentation with equal reluctance. Fortunately for all, and mostly for me, it proved a resounding success, garnered extremely enthusiastic reviews in New York, and from prominent TV critics elsewhere in the country. On the basis of its success, I was able, in the same year, to write another blank verse play,
this one for Omnibus: Lee at Gettysburg.

Boris was one of the two hardest-working actors I was associated with during the days of live television; hardworking in the sense that he rehearsed assiduously, studied his role and his lines unceasingly, made effort upon effort to sharpen, improve, and hone the part. During rehearsal breaks, while the others sat around the table drinking coffee, Boris would be off in a corner, working on his character. The other hardest-working actor of my acquaintance was Jackie Cooper.

Boris was also modest. I was visiting him once in the apartment in London he had sublet for the summer. One of his duties was to tend the plants. The plants were languishing and Boris was concerned. He noted in the paper that day that Woolworth's was featuring a miracle plant food called

'Dried Blood.' He walked over there, and turned around and walked back; he couldn't bring himself to step up to the counter and demand 'Dried Blood.' The plants perished.

Sapinsley was correct about the critics' response. Jack Gould, in his review for The New York Times , said "With Tone, Karloff, Plummer, and Grant contributing performances of quiet eloquence and intensity, Even the Weariest River had much of the quality of a Sandburg work brought to life. In its philosophy, its expression, and its disciplined mood, the play was an hour of original stage artistry on television." He added, "Mr. Karloff had the most inspired and rewarding lines. He spoke them with compassion and beauty." Gould summed up, "It was one of the season's fine achievements."

Variety's review said, "While this drama was rich in poetic qualities and an ethereal mood, its characters were hardly the types to be found in a frontier town on the Casper-Laramie stage line."

Still, it had praise for Tone, Plummer, and Robert Mulligan, and, echoing Jack Gould's thoughts, said,

"By far the best lines were handed Karloff, and he handled them in dignified, scholarly fashion that accented the grim,
fatalistic mood of the piece."

Robert Mulligan remembers, "Boris approached his work with a deep intelligence and a quiet strength. He was a gifted, serious, and subtle actor. Beyond his inherent personal dignity, there was a natural and easy kindness and generosity to everyone, and a surprising spontaneous and delightful
sense of humor. In the hectic pace of live television, he found a way to remain calm and in control of his performance."

Maintaining his demeanor in those early days of television was a Karloff trademark, as well as varying his roles. Appearing with Karloff and Eli Wallach on a General Electric Theater drama called Mr. Blue Ocean, a Chinese fairy tale, Susan Strasberg told me, "None of us were too thrilled about the rather primitive appliances to make us look Chinese. Mr. Karloff was lovely to me. He, I believe, played the man I was engaged to by my family, although I was in love with Tony Perkins—such is life!

"During intermission, the director (who shall be nameless) came screaming backstage at all the actors, telling us it was too slow and to pick up the pace. Mr. Karloff just said, 'Carry on as normal.'"

Eli Wallach, who played in George Schaefer's London production of Teahouse of the August Moon , remembers, "As a specialist in film villains, I can well understand the surprise people got when they actually met him. Soft-spoken, witty, involved and interested in his work, Mr. Karloff was a delight. I knew him socially as well, and we talked often over tea in his flat in Knightsbridge. His characterizations always were multi-dimensional. You felt and sensed the inner workings of a real professional."

Producer Norman Felton ( Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E .) says there was one time when Karloff had doubts about the role he was given. He would work with Karloff four times, and of the first, he told me, "I cast him in the role of a businessman in a Robert Montgomery Presents, which I directed. When Mr. Karloff arrived in New York, he had not read the script. When he did so, he told me that perhaps I had made a mistake in casting, for he had not played such a part before. I told him I was aware that it would be different for him, but I felt it would also be challenging. He agreed, and thanked me for the chance to do it. He was very good."

A new TV series for Karloff was the hoped-for result of The Veil, a pilot he appeared in as host and frequent star. These half-hour stories of the unusual and unexplained phenomena were produced for Hal Roach, Jr., and directed by Herbert L. Strock, who did several horror films including I Was a Teenage Frankenstein . Strock says, "These were for a potential series, but Roach was in financial trouble and blew the whole thing. I really loved Boris. He was the kindest and most considerate actor I ever worked with, and I have worked with hundreds. He always knew his lines, and could be molded in and out of various characters with ease.

"I would tell him that I wouldn't need him until 10 a.m., yet he would be on the stage when I arrived in the morning, always ready to give of himself in any capacity. I would try and let him go home early, due to his age, stating that I would read his offstage lines for another actor's shots. But, he would tell me that he would prefer staying to give the other actor the original reading. The only other man I ever met with such a professionalism was Ed Wynn, whom I directed in an outstanding Bonanza." The programs were edited into TV-movies titled Destination: Nightmare, Jack the Ripper, and The Veil.

Karloff returned to the stage in March of 1957, when he and Evelyn went to Alaska, for another production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Having done the show on Broadway, in the Pacific, and on radio and television, he was now doing it for a theater workshop at Anchorage Community College. And in the process, he was the first performer of note to appear in the region.

As Frank Brink, director of both the workshop and this three-day run of Arsenic, explained,

"Anchorage, and Alaska overall, was made up of people with a sense of adventure and the capacity to both survive and create an atmosphere they could not otherwise find in the next town." Therefore, with no centers of culture anywhere, the residents of Anchorage had to create their own.

In the '50s, Brink points out, Anchorage had a majority of educated, professional people, many of whom would fly to "the lower 48" to enjoy the theater and musical offerings of Seattle, Los Angeles,

and Broadway.

Brink believes that the adventurous spirit of those people found what he calls "a kindred spirit" in Boris Karloff. The engagement of Arsenic and Old Lace was a near sell-out and would prove to be "a tremendous experience" (as Brink describes it) for everyone involved.

Boris brought into his roles not only a combination of skills and insights, not accorded to every actor, but also a great measure of that indefinable human spirit for which there is no better word than love.

Karloff could not hide the fact that he was, innately, an intelligent, caring, and forgiving human being.

When Teresa Wright, who had never worked with a community theater before, and didn't intend to, was urged by Boris to accept the Alaskan invitation, she didn't hesitate. This was one small illustration of the trust Karloff inspired in everyone he knew.

When he played in Alaska, he was not entirely surrounded by experienced performers. This might have been considered a disservice by anyone of lesser stature than Boris. Without hesitation, he offered his talent and experience to assist a few of our performers and make them feel at ease. I have a theory that, without his being aware of it, he projected a sense of solicitude and tenderness that went beyond ordinary courtesy. I believe that subconsciously this 'sense' crept gently into many of the roles he played, and certainly in Frankenstein. I am convinced that Evelyn Karloff remained a powerful influence on her husband and his career. She understood the nature of theater with its varied creative, emotional, and physical demands. In a very real sense, they were a team. Evie quietly smoothed the paths for Boris, and gently stole the hearts of all of us involved in the Karloff experience.

The young Karloff.

The Criminal Code (1931).

Colin Clive and Karloff making film history
in Frankenstein (1931).

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) with Karen Morley.

With Bela Lugosi in The Black Cat (1934),
their first film together.

Boris and Dorothy Karloff and a friend

The proud father and his daughter, Sara Jane.

Getting his stripes while performing Arsenic and Old Lace during World War II. On the right is George Schaefer, who played Teddy, and also directed it.

With Henry Daniell in The Body Snatcher (1945).

On Broadway as Professor Linden in the short-lived

The Linden Tree (1948).

As Cauchon the bishop with Julie Harris in the Broadway hit

The Lark (1955).

Vincent Price and Karloff having fun in The Raven (1963).

A young Jack Nicholson and Karloff in The Terror (1963).

With his wife Evelyn while filming Tar gets (1968).

A publicity shot for How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Only once at the end of the run of Arsenic did she overtly betray any concern for her husband's welfare when, after a seemingly endless series of curtain calls, Boris walked out on stage, held his hands up to quiet the audience, and began to speak with them. Evie turned to me and said, 'Oh, Frank, he doesn't do that sort of thing! I'm worried.' She then listened, as I presumed to reassure her that the love Anchorage was trying to express would accept anything he did, even if he stood on his head.

At that moment, he poured out a rare and unusual response to an appreciative audience who saw in him something more than great skill and talent. He revealed a sense of humanity and generosity that evidently went beyond mere courtesy when he said, 'This has been the most rewarding moment in my career.' I had the feeling that even Evie must have been surprised at such an extravagant response.

Many of us would have been ashamed to admit we felt he was just being generous in his expression of appreciation for the Alaskan reaction to him and to Evie. Later, when he appeared on Louella Parsons'

radio show, he again expressed that same enthusiasm about Alaska and its theater.

After the cast party, Boris took me aside and said, 'I want to give you a gift and I don't want it to be something stupid or useless, so I want you to tell me what you would like.' After my stubborn protest and Boris' equally stubborn refusal to understand that he and Evie had already given us the greatest gift anyone could hope for—themselves—and that he and Evie would live in our hearts forever, Boris merely said, 'I shan't leave until you tell me.' Realizing he was adamant, I thought for a moment and suddenly blurted out, 'Your shoes!' I said, 'To have the shoes of the first great theater talent to walk on the Alaskan stage would be the most wonderful gift I can think of. But, if you can't part with them, I will understand!' With that, he said, 'I can't think why you would want these old shoes, but if you want them, they're yours!'

On opening night, Boris invited me to his, dressing room and asked a favor. 'Frank, would you have a small stool or ladder about eighteen inches tall?' I was puzzled, but I said, 'I'll get one.' The janitor's closet produced a stool. He placed it in the middle of the room, below the spot where a two-inch pipe crossed the room just before the ceiling. Then, before he stepped upon the stool, he solemnly announced, 'I'm going to hang myself.' Needless to say, I was startled. After he had his joke, he said,

'You needn't be alarmed. It's my arthritis. By hanging from that pipe, I can stop the irritation for a while.' I placed the stool under the pipe, he climbed upon it, then I removed it while he hung there, and replaced it when he was ready to come down and go to the stage.

Many times Boris downplayed not only his physical problems, but problems created by the limited experience of some of the performers. The stool ritual went on each night and Boris insisted I tell no one. He did not wish the cast to be concerned with anything but the play itself.

Before coming to Anchorage, Karloff told Brink, "Now, Frank, I want to do your show, not mine.

Whatever you decide, let me know. I will adapt. There's no sense in your forcing the others to do anything, except perhaps to learn their lines." The next day, March 11th, Brink told his cast that Karloff would adapt, an announcement that brought forth applause and cheers.

In his notes of March 13th, Brink mentioned that he discussed with Karloff his arrival, needs, plans, and such. Karloff said to him, "Frank, please listen! You need not prepare any reception. I would prefer not. There will be plenty of time for that after you fit me into the play, for I want to give you the best performance I can." In parentheses, Brink wrote after that, "Is this man real?"

Just two hours after he and Evelyn arrived in Anchorage, rehearsals were underway on March 16th.

Karloff was quickly impressed with the city's theater movement, his fellow players, even the stagecraft. His first remark when he walked in the theater was, "What a perfect set."

Brink added:

I believe that Karloff's compassion and sense of decency subtly imbued the characters he created with
qualities of being so seldom found in the distorted and sometimes ghoulish roles he often played. He seasoned the black and white roles with shades of gray.

Evelyn was important, or better still, necessary to the middle and latter periods of Karloff's career.

Her influence has been constant as an essential part of the decisions that affected the roles he accepted, as well as the attitude he carried to those roles. They, I truly believe, were genuine partners in every sense of the word. I believe this left a subtle stamp on the attitude he brought to the roles he played. I believe that Evie not only became an island of peace in her husband's life, but one whose output became important to the roles he accepted. Even though there were long periods when we did not communicate except at Christmas, we followed Boris' career with the firm conviction that a genuine and lasting love bound them together.

I never felt it so strongly as I did when something prompted me to call London to make contact for a possible reunion. A nurse or someone tending Boris answered the phone and said, 'I'm sorry, but Mr.

Karloff is ill and cannot talk with anyone.' At that moment, Evie interrupted and said, 'Oh, Frank, he's very sick, but I know he would want to talk with you.' At that point, I was devastated for I felt that she was saying he might not live. I was hardly ready to be cheerful, though I knew I must try. In talking with Boris, I found myself being led away from any sense of dejection with that same buoyant spirit that would have encouraged an inexperienced performer about to make his entrance on stage.

It was this spirit, I believe, that motivated his entire life. Though his voice was weak, he immediately played down the seriousness of his illness, as he responded to my facetious attempt to hold him to his promise to play Gramps in On Borrowed Time , which I still wanted to produce. Ironically, as we discussed the role, I had the feeling that he was already playing the final scene of that play. I know little of 'greatness,' but I sincerely believe that Boris Karloff was endowed with the qualities that overused word implies. I feel he never fully realized the effect of his Frankenstein monster on the nascent film images of the unknown, the surrealistic quality of the nightmare made so horrible by Mary Shelley. Karloff's monster was unlike Shelley's demon-driven creation, who slaughtered out of hate and vengeance because of Frankenstein's abandonment or denial of him.

The audience reaction on closing night was amazing. Brink wrote afterward, "After seven curtain calls, only three of which we rehearsed, the stage manager came to me and said, 'Good Lord, what'll we do?' I said, 'Hell, I don't know. Just go through the single group then bring in Karloff again.' 'But we already did that.' 'Well, do it again', I told him. And he did, and they still called for more, so I told John, 'Just push Boris on for the next call.' Boris went out there three more times and they continued to applaud. Boris came offstage and he looked sober as he lifted his arms in a hopeless shrug. I was at a total loss to know what to do and, while looking helplessly at Boris, I said, 'This has never happened before. I don't know what to do except ask if you'll go out one more time!'

Karloff did as told, and while speaking to the crowd, he praised his director, whom he then called to join him. Brink recalled later, "So out I went not knowing what the hell to say. I was embarrassed.

More applause. Boris turned to me, took my arm, and gently thrust me right towards center. I didn't know what to say. The audience applauded. Karloff applauded. I was scared out of my wits. I remember only that I said, 'Thank you. Thank you so very much. I'm not the one you should applaud.

He's the one!' I turned to point to Karloff only to discover he had gone backstage, leaving me out there alone. I waved at the audience, left the stage, got on the intercom, and told Bob to dim the downstage lights and bring up some house lights. I yelled, 'Kill the curtain!' Not until then did the audience calm down. From the beginning of the applause to dimming up of the house lights, it was about 33
minutes."

Further evidence of how much the Karloffs meant to the people of Anchorage was a letter from Don Gretzer, president of the theater workshop, to Actors Equity representative Ed Russell in Hollywood.

Written shortly after the engagement, it read, in part: Mr. Karloff most generously donated his percentage of the profits to the general funds of the Theatre Workshop. Mr. Karloff's generosity went so far as to assume the obligation of paying the agent's percentage without drawing from the percentage which was due him from the play production. We would like to have discussed this further with him in an effort to dissuade him from such further generosity, and turn over to him at least the amount of the agent's commission. However, Mr. Karloff did not permit further mention of the subject. So much for the strictly business aspect of this letter.

We would like you people to know of the great good which Mr. Karloff has done for the theater movement here in Anchorage. The wonderful personalities of Mr. and Mrs. Karloff, their understanding of people, and their wish to help us resulted not only in great admiration and respect for professional artists, but heightened community respect for local players which we may have had to strive for over a period of many years.

It is difficult to say exactly how we feel about Mr. Karloff
and his gracious wife. Superlatives can never tell the story of their effect upon our community and upon the future of, theater here. Statistically, Arsenic and Old Lace drew the largest crowd ever to attend any performance of any kind of show in the history of the territory. But statistics can never say as much about the Karloffs as the lump in our throats at their departure.

On April 7th, from his home in London, Karloff wrote a letter expressing his gratitude to Brink.

"Alaska is lucky to have you. You wondered how I could come to such a conclusion, so I will tell you.

I learned that with every cast member you did far more than direct. You carefully and sympathetically taught the inexperienced. You cared more for their feelings than any director I have worked with."

Referring to Teresa Wright, whom Brink directed in Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Karloff said,

"When I talk with Terry, I will tell her she need have no fear of being embarrassed. She will be thrilled. As you indicated, you will be able to support her with professional quality talent right there in Anchorage."

In continued correspondence with Brink, Karloff often referred to "our theater" and said he would

"return every time I am able." In addition to On Borrowed Time, which he and Karloff discussed doing a few years later (Karloff seriously suggested Brink portray the character of Mr. Brink), Brink also considered as possible vehicles for Karloff Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Hunchback of Notre Dame , and Richard III. None of these came to pass.

In 1957, Karloff, still making bad movies such as Frankenstein

1970 (he played a descendant of the original Baron, which is all that needs to be said of it) and Voodoo Island, had a rare brush with William Shakespeare. For TV's prestigious Omnibus series, he narrated a series of sketches dramatizing the Bard's boyhood, to which New York drama critic Walter Kerr contributed.

Kerr told me:

The program, in its original format, was written by Alfred Harbage, one of my favorite commentators on Shakespearean theater. It was much too long, however, and I was asked to do a fast cutting on it—
with some rearranging and some link-up writing—which I did. My work with Omnibus was largely advisory, with occasional scriptwriting and reworking of troubled scripts. It was also one hell of a lot of fun, with some of the nicest people I ever knew, particularly Bob Saudek and Mary Ahern. As a result, I was rarely on the floor during production, unless I was there to catch a Bert Lahr rehearsal for fun, or to just say hello to Chris Plummer and Irene Worth. Most of the people I met in the Saudek offices during pre-production conferences, and that's where I did meet Mr. Karloff.

He was a wonderfully amenable, social, charming fellow, and from what I later heard, there had rarely
been a more admired (and liked) man while the show was in work. He established an easy atmosphere for the crew and everyone else, and I heard nothing but good about him. Much earlier, in 1949, my wife and I had done a revue called Touch and Go , and we had brought one of the performers along to New York, after the original production at Catholic University in Washington. Naturally, this performer was nervous as hell, never having been on Broadway before. And, along about the third or fourth performance, there was a knock on his dressing room door. He opened it to find Boris Karloff standing there, and Karloff simply said, 'If there are many more coming up with talents like yours, we older people had better look to our laurels.' It's the gist of it and shows something about his kindness.

Toward the end of the year (notable in that Frankenstein was first released to television, and for the death of James Whale), Karloff was seen to good effect in a thriller written for TV's Suspicion which could have put him back on Broadway.

Playwright James Yaffe adapted for the series a novelette by Friedrich Durrenmatt ( The Visit), involving an American businessman, played by Gary Merrill, who finds shelter in a Swiss mansion from a blizzard. There, he encounters a judge, prosecutor, defense lawyer, and a state executioner, all of them retired. After dinner, the salesman is invited to join his hosts in a parlor game, in which they hold mock trials. Accepting the offer, he finds himself being made the defendant, and subjected to constant questioning. Merrill's character becomes both angry and afraid, for he is being put on trial for murder, having brought on a fatal heart attack suffered by his boss, whose job the businessman wanted.

In the end, Merrill is driven to commit suicide, and when his widow unexpectedly arrives, she agrees to stay for dinner, and perhaps a parlor game to ease her grief. Time magazine called the show "urbane and eerie," with kudos for Yaffe's script and the cast which, with Karloff as the judge, also featured Joseph Wiseman, Harry Townes, and Ian Wolfe.

Yaffe later reworked The Deadly Game for the stage, and says, "When we were casting the play for Broadway production, we offered Karloff the same part he had played in the TV show, but he turned it down. Instead, he offered to play the somewhat meatier role of the prosecutor, which Wiseman played.

Our director thought Karloff was wrong for that role (so did I) and that ended it." Yaffe's play did open in New York in 1960, and closed after 39 performances.

Karloff worked on two fairly good pictures filmed back to back in England, The Haunted Strangler and Corridors of Blood. In the former, he played a criminologist who believes that a man suspected to be a notorious strangler was wrongly executed. Upon discovery of a scalpel, the missing murder weapon, he reverts to earlier behavior as the strangler in a Jekyll and Hyde manner. In fact, he was the original killer and had suffered amnesia after escaping from an institution.

Variety commented, "Karloff masters both characters and comes off well in each" but said The Haunted Strangler was "mild horror." The New York Times criticized the film's "flat direction" and, in addition, said it "has little more life than a chestful of old Victorian costumes."

Corridors of Blood was somewhat better, although its release was pushed back until 1963. This time out, Karloff was a surgeon who develops an early form of anesthesia, and becomes addicted to it. With echoes of The Body Snatcher, he is taken in by some lowlifes who plan to sell bodies to hospitals, and get Karloff to sign phony death certificates by keeping him under the influence.

Playing one of the heavies was Christopher Lee, who had become a star by the time the film was released, but at the time of shooting was still unknown, and not yet acquainted with Karloff offscreen.

Corridors of Blood started off well, said the review in The New York Times, but became "a plodding, shuddersome exercise in blood and pain."

In his autobiography Tall, Dark, and Gruesome , Lee said Karloff had an ongoing joke about himself being ready for the scrap heap. He quoted Karloff as saying, "I'm only a feeble old wreck, it'th plain to thee. What am I here for? Jutht to thweep up the odd jobth left behind." Karloff added, "All I'm fit for ith to thweep up the lawnth at night when the thet is deserted, and the playerth have all gone home." At the wrap party after the film was completed, the crew gave him a broom as a present, which he appreciated.

With few decent film scripts coming along, Karloff kept on directing his energies toward television primarily, as well as the occasional stage work and many recordings (he made more than two dozen).

After Corridors of Blood was completed, he didn't make a film again until 1962.

Just as he had begun the decade by playing characters created by Cervantes and Chekhov, Karloff began to end it by essaying one from his favorite author, Joseph Conrad. He was cast as the enigmatic Kurtz in Heart of Darkness for Playhouse 90. Adapting Conrad's work was Stewart Stern, whose screenplays include Rebel Without a Cause, The Rack, and Rachel, Rachel.

In a letter to Fred Coe and Robert Goldman, the show's producers, he expressed (if asked) his casting choices for Marlow, the protagonist, and Maria, the woman he loves. His first suggestion was Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, or, among the names he mentioned, possibly Anthony Perkins and Julie Harris. For the director, he asked for either Robert Mulligan or Arthur Penn, whom Stern thought could vitalize the human relationships in Heart of Darkness.

Roddy MacDowall and Inga Swenson were cast in the leads, and Ron Winston assumed the director's chair. Other characters were played by Richard Haydn, Oscar Homolka, Eartha Kitt, Cathleen Nesbitt, and the Katharine Dunham Dancers. Of Karloff, MacDowall told me, "He was a great gentleman. A man functioning in those years, despite crippling pain from arthritis, with enormous grace and bravery. He was a very elegant man and I enjoyed acting with him; he was simple and honest and direct in his work.

"I have always enjoyed him in films very much and really felt deeply privileged both to work with him and be around him; there was some special aura around Boris Karloff." MacDowall, an accomplished photographer, used a picture he took of Karloff offstage in Double Exposure, his1966
book of celebrity portraits.

Stern says his adaptation was "a night journey of the soul," using all the symbols of Africa, which had to do with the healing of Marlow, a man who had repressed his dark side. His journey, says Stern, was into himself, where Marlow met his own horror, and in so doing, emerged as a more complete human being.

He remembers:

I was tremendously thrilled and relieved to know that Mr. Karloff wanted to play Kurtz, and was almost dumbstruck with awe and shyness at the first reading. We arrived at CBS at the same instant.

His wife had dropped him off and the elevators were, for some reason, broken, so we walked up the steps together, he with The Manchester Guardian tucked under his arm, and looking extremely proper in his suit and tie.

He was somewhat frail, somewhat stooped, and had a very gentle handshake, and there was an enormous sadness about that face when it turned to you. Great beauty. His eyes were deep and brown and looked at you directly. He had an enormous capacity for allowing you to feel received, and was keenly interested in who you were and what you had to say.

It was an amazing group of people that Playhouse 90 had collected, and the director had certainly never done material of this kind that required the kind of style this did, and the psychological
understanding, and he was simply lost. It drove the actors frantic because they had no guidance, and I remember Roddy MacDowall, one Sunday, calling me in desperation because he didn't know really how to deal with one of the major soliloquies Marlow had. I found him in the studio working his head off, but it was a catch-as-catch-can kind of production. Fred Coe finally took over and half-directed it himself, and I semi-directed, and everyone else was directing themselves.

But for all of that, I'll never forget one afternoon, all the actors had left, as far as we knew, and Ron Winston and the art director and I—I think the cameraman too—were sitting around the conference table in the rehearsal room, trying to find some unity of approach. It was one of those agonizing moments for a writer when no one seems to have the proper vision, except in this case, the art director, who understood it completely. Two hours after we thought the rehearsal had ended, I happened to turn, and noticed Boris in the corner, sitting very quietly reading the newspaper. I went over to him and said, 'Mr. Karloff, are you waiting for someone?' He said, 'No, no, no, no.' I said, 'Well, why are you still here?'

He said, 'Because I haven't been officially dismissed.'

There was no rancor in it, no resentment. He was simply doing his part as a professional actor, and until he was given his dismissal, his place was on the set, and I'll never forget that.

During production, the only genuine disagreement was whether Karloff, as Kurtz, should don a wig and a beard. At great cost, there made for Karloff, who summoned Stern to the makeup room. Stern arrived, to find him seated and staring at himself in the mirror, so he asked if anything was wrong. In a depressed state, Karloff said yes, adding that he was aware of how much had been spent on the wig and beard, but thought it made him look like Michelangelo's Moses. He asked if that wasn't slightly different from what Stern intended Kurtz to be.

Stern says, "It was said with such wryness and sweetness, and it was just intolerable that he should be decked out in such a thing, so I went to Ron Winston and told him we simply couldn't do it, and he agreed. He saw at once it was not proper either to hide Mr. Karloff under all that, or for the character of Kurtz, so it was flung away and Boris was tremendously relieved."

Outside the studio (where there was more tension behind the camera than in front of it), the situation was much more relaxed. Inga Swenson told me, "I remember we used to have lunch together—Boris, Roddy, Richard Haydn—outdoors at a sort of lunch stand. There were tables with umbrellas, and it was nice to get out of the studio.

"Once there was a dog tethered to one of the cars in the parking lot nearby. Boris sat and looked at him for a while, and then said, 'I think I must go and talk to this fellow.' He walked his Boris Karloff walk over to the dog, which was one of those big, sweet breeds—maybe a yellow Lab or something—
and the dog rolled over with pure love, while Boris bent over and stroked and talked to him. He was so fond of animals."

Despite the best intentions of a talented cast and screenwriter, Heart of Darkness was a failure. It was difficult to stage, with three cameras moving back and forth, and actors jumping behind them, donning new costumes, and jumping back in. That, as well as rewriting up to the moment of broadcast, and last-minute instructions to the actors (which was not uncommon in live television), resulted in what Variety dubbed "a mental shambles", while The New York Times called it "a numbing exercise in dramatic mumbo-jumbo without merit or reason."

Also among Karloff's TV credits that year was his narration of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for the children's series Shirley Temple's Storybook, hosted by the former child star. Ordinarily, she would narrate, but since she acted in that episode, which was live, Karloff filled in.

Director Paul Bogart ( Torch Song Trilogy ) says, "We were staying in the same hotel. He lived upstairs in the Chateau Marmont and I was a floor or two below him. He was wonderful when I
brought my kids up to see him. He knew they were shaking when they met him.

"I used to drive him to work every day. I had rented a convertible, and would drive with the top down, with him sitting in the passenger seat, and when you stopped at a traffic light with him, you really created a confusion. That was great fun."

Live programs airing from Los Angeles at that time would be shown in New York, then taped for playback later on the west coast, with no editing. Between those times, a party was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where anyone who wanted to could see the program, as Bogart told Karloff.

I said to him, 'Are you going to watch the show on the air?'

He looked very puzzled and said, 'I don't understand what you mean.'

So I explained that it had been taped, and he could sit down and watch himself doing what he had just done. He looked astonished, and said, 'Oh, no, dear boy. That's rather like a dog returning to his own vomit.' Which I thought was a very colorful way of expressing it."

Karloff's reaction to seeing his own work was fairly common. While making movies, he would never watch the rushes of the day's shooting. He preferred to wait a while to see the final product and watch it from a more critical viewpoint.

The Karloffs made a change in their lifestyle in 1959, by moving permanently to England. They continued to travel wherever Karloff's work took him, but it was in his homeland that he lived out his last decade, having left it to become an actor a half-century before.

THE LAST DECADE

In 1959, TV producer Hubbell Robinson was scouting around for a new series to air on NBC, the network he had once been president of. When he left that position, NBC settled his contract by giving him two hours of prime time to fill. One would be 87th Precinct, based on the Ed McBain novels.

Robinson's concept for the other was, as he put it, "the Studio One of mystery." He wanted the series, known as Thriller, to be an anthology, with different casts and stories every week that would draw upon the works of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Cornell Woolrich.

To help bring this about, Robinson recruited Fletcher Markle, an alumnus of Studio One, as executive producer, and writers Maxwell Shane and James Cavanagh, the latter as story editor. The host was Boris Karloff, who agreed to the project wholeheartedly under the terms that he could perform in the series, as well.

Robinson told me, "When I first discussed the series with David Levy, then vice president in charge of programming for NBC, Boris was my recommendation, with which he was in total agreement. To the best of my recollection, no one else was ever considered." Karloff later told an interviewer for TV

Guide, "I'm quite delighted with the whole thing."

Once Thriller went on the air in September of 1960, those involved could not seem to reach a consensus on the type of story material the show required. As Fletcher Markle informed me, "We put together a wonderful pilot (directed by Arthur Hiller, pre- Love Story, who also directed at least two more of the early shows), which sold the series in a matter of days. I wrote the intros for Boris initially, and planned the back-projection patterns, but once we were into production on a series basis, a bizarre conflict developed between the then-head of the studio and myself. They had to do with quality versus quantity, an ancient TV battleground, and in this instance I was happy to lay down my lance."

At first, reaction to Thriller was mixed. The first installment, "The Twisted Image" (written by James Cavanagh) was, said the Los Angeles Times, "slightly out of focus, but there was still enough fleshcrawling qualities to keep one fascinated," while Variety said, "Cavanagh seemed more anxious to make his script a heart-stopper than an engrossing, plausible play. He succeeded in neither."

What the creative personnel couldn't agree on was whether Thriller would be a horror or suspense program, or a combination of both. Within weeks of the premiere, reports appeared in Variety saying that Allstate, one of the sponsors, found some of the content objectionable, especially scenes of an axe murder and a strangulation. The company, said Variety, had believed Thriller would rank with such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.

By October, Thriller focused primarily on horror stories. According to Robinson, "The reason we dropped our original policy on story material was simply we could not get enough of it to satisfy our weekly requirements."

Douglas Benton, who soon became associate producer, explained: "After they ran the first six shows, NBC called Universal and said they were going to cancel because they were getting the same story week after week, and they weren't pleased with production values. Lew Wasserman, who even then was chief executive officer at MCA, sat down and looked at all six hours in one running. And, the next morning, he had the show taken away from Fletcher Markle and assigned it to William Frye, who for many years was producer of the filmed segments of the General Electric Theater."

Before Frye assumed Markle's duties, some criticism of the show fell on its host. A TV Guide article a few months later said "some people" believed Karloff was a poor host and seemed ill-suited for the job, as opposed to Alfred Hitchcock, who hosted his own show. This reaction appears to have been unjustified.

William Frye told me, "Boris was always considered a first-rate host and, when after two years the series was discontinued, we received thousands of letters asking why, and praising Boris."

Hubbell Robinson concurred: "The network thought Mr. Karloff was an ideal and excellent host." He added (responding to the article's statement that "most impartial observers agree Karloff is not ideally suited for the role"), "I never heard anybody make any remark of that sort whatsoever. He enjoyed it and I would say he was one of the show's great strengths."

Frye was a personal friend of the Karloffs, and once he took over, Thriller improved. Noted mystery and fantasy writers Charles Beaumont, Robert Bloch, and Cornell Woolrich contributed scripts, and among the directors were Paul Henreid, Ida Lupino, and Ray Milland.

Douglas Benton remembered, "I was amazed at how much energy Karloff had. He had a tremendous sense of humor, and was very happy that Bill had been put on the show and we already had begun to work out a new format. He was very enthusiastic about this. He watched the show on the air and we got criticism. Some. Not as much as you'd think, because he seemed to like everything we did, and was very desirous of doing as many of the stories as he could himself.

"He particularly liked doing the little introductions. They were little playlets in themselves roughly, I suppose, copied after the Hitchcock introductions. I always thought ours were better produced.

Hitchcock's might have been a bit cleverer."

A frequent scriptwriter for Thriller was Donald Sanford, brought on for a rewrite when Frye came aboard. Sanford often adapted stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Weird Tales, and remembers, "Frye was a fabulous guy because he liked his writers to come into the first cast reading of a script, which is unusual in this business. Generally, they want to get rid of the writer as soon as they can. The director doesn't want the writer there, but Frye insisted writers be there, and he would not allow the directors to change one damn line unless he approved of it. I had a chance to work with Boris because I was at the readings of the scripts I wrote for him.

"Boris would come in letter perfect. He gave his reading with exactly the reading he would give in front of the cameras. Without looking at the script. He could read a double-jointed or triple-jointed line with no problems at all. By that I mean a complex sentence that has a lot of information in it. A lot of actors can't do that. They don't know how to read it, and particularly in Boris' openings, where he had to set up the premise, you had to squeeze in as much information as you could in a very few lines.

"When I write dialogue for a normal actor, I don't do that. I don't give them a compound sentence, because dialogue direction—I came out of radio originally—is dreadful, and the actors just don't learn how to read lines. Give 'em a lot of information in a line and you don't get it. It doesn't come out unless you have a very good actor. Boris was a consummate expert."

Karloff would appear in five episodes, the first being "The Prediction" about a nightclub mentalist who finds he can actually predict the future. Douglas Benton describes the filming: I'll never forget one night on the back lot at Universal. John Brahm, really an expert in the horror genre, was directing Mr. Karloff. The scene was for him to be killed, he fell in the gutter, and this great wash of dirty water swept over him. As a matter of fact, it swept through him. He was lying on an incline with his head down, and the water ran up his pants leg, through his clothes, and came out his collar. So Mr. Brahm instructed Mr. Karloff where he wanted to fall, and said, 'Then we'll put in the double and run the water.'

Boris looked at John, offended, and said, 'Oh, no, I wouldn't allow anybody else to do that. That water was meant for me.'

And, by golly, he laid down and they made three takes,
and every time he was drenched. I think that was the time I said, 'Jesus, Boris, you're at a time in your life and on a plateau in this business that you don't have to do that sort of thing.'

'Have to?', he says. 'I want to.' Then he went into his speech about how marvelous it was to make a good living doing what you enjoyed so much.

"I think, all in all, the shows that John Brahm made were probably the best, although every once in a while, Ida Lupino would make a beauty. John might make a great one and then a bad one. Ida, I don't think she really took it seriously, although she did take her directing seriously. She was a great favorite of Boris', as both used to tell slightly off-color English stories with a great deal of relish. He really would laugh when he was amused, and she was one of the best storytellers I ever heard in my life."

Lupino directed Karloff and Phyllis Thaxter in "The Last of the Sommervilles" for the series, and Miss Thaxter recalls her as "a great director."

One of Benton's memories of Karloff away from the studio was the actor's bartending skill. He says,

"He made the most potent martini out of Bombay gin that anyone ever concocted. Several occasions I'd gotten flat-out roaring drunk, sitting there watching him matching me drink for drink, and never even getting a glow. He was amazing."

After its shaky beginning, Thriller drew enough viewers to last a full season, and was picked up for another. Making guest appearances were some of Karloff's co-stars from his films, such as John Carradine and Henry Daniell. It was on Thriller that Karloff met and became friends with Robert Bloch, who wrote several episodes, in addition to the novel Psycho, among his many books, short stories, and scripts.

In 1981 Bloch told me, "He was a fine and intelligent actor—and never, except in The Lark—did he really get much opportunity to demonstrate his capability for serious drama. He told me this was his best role.

"What he probably would have liked was to have starred in a play for London's West End but, he told me ruefully, he was too old for such a grind. He and Evie visited us, and we were at the flat and the summer cottage in England. And we still miss him!"

According to Evelyn Karloff, her husband was offered a run in London of Arsenic and Old Lace, but was, indeed, too far along in years to handle it. She added, "Especially all that jumping in and out of the window seat!"

Another of Karloff's acting assignments on Thriller was in "The Premature Burial," based on the Poe story. Douglas Heyes, who directed it (his credits included some of the best-remembered shows of The Twilight Zone), recalled the impression Karloff made upon him: One thing I noticed, having been brought up to think of him as the Monster or in some hideous makeup, was that he was a strikingly handsome man, even at the age he'd attained when I was with him. He had style, elegance, and wonderful soulful eyes, which illuminated all his characters and set them apart from the over-gruesome ghouls you see today.

I had a sequence in which his character had to climb a flight of stairs to a balcony, and I was going up with him on a crane. We had some truly inept guys working the crane, and though Boris did his part of the scene perfectly every time, the camera kept blowing the shot due to technical difficulties—a euphemism for screwing up. Boris' legs were killing him, but he went up and down that long staircase again and again, never once complaining or blaming anyone until, at last, we got it right. His greatest
lamentation was to murmur on occasion with a gentle sigh, 'My, my, this business does eat into your day!'

Thriller, perhaps inevitably, was compared with Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Not only were the formats alike, but they were both on NBC, and at one time, aired on the same night, back to back.

After the second year, Thriller was considered very successful, but the network had run out its commitment to Hubbell Robinson, and cancelled it. However, there may have been more to it than that. Thriller was the first hourlong series of that type, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents was a half-hour.

When he chose to expand his show, Thriller was no longer available.

Douglas Benton told me, "Here at the studio, we felt that some politics was involved. Hitchcock was a very, very close friend of Lew Wasserman, the head man. He wanted to go to an hour and couldn't as long as Boris was holding forth in another hour show.

"The ratings on Thriller, although they'd be marvelous today, averaged about a 28, 29 share, and that was marginal in those days. If you didn't have a 30 share, chances are you wouldn't be renewed, and the fact that we were marginal, and Hitch wanted to go to an hour, I think, were factors in the cancellation."

In the time since, Thriller has been in and out of syndication, and enjoyed something of a rebirth, to the pleasure of horror fans then and now. Among that legion is Stephen King, who appreciated the show for a number of reasons. One of them was its frequent source material, the mystery and pulp magazines like Weird Tales. In Danse Macabre (1981), his entertaining overview of horror in popular culture, King termed Thriller "probably the best horror series ever put on TV."

As Thriller was winding down its last season, Karloff played Jonathan Brewster one last time in Arsenic and Old Lace for George Schaefer on Hallmark Hall of Fame. Playing the Brewster sisters were Karloff's friends Mildred Natwick and Dorothy Stickney, in addition to Tony Randall as Mortimer and Tom Bosley as Teddy. Of the three TV versions Karloff did, Schaefer's was the least appreciated by critics, and while it is entertaining, Schaefer was not entirely pleased with it (he did point out, "Boris was magnificent").

Of his co-star, Tom Bosley told me, "Boris was one of the kindest and gentlest persons I have ever known. We spent about three weeks together, and since he lived across the street from me in New York, I would drive him and Tony to rehearsal each day at the studio in Brooklyn.

"He was an extremely literate person who never spent too much time telling of his career, as so many senior actors have a tendency to do. He loved life and was extremely charitable, as I learned later that he made donations to various charities, all the time."

Tony Randall remembers how Karloff was, in his words, "very clear-headed about things, saw things as they were. For instance, someone said how brave of Truman to drop the atomic bomb, and Boris said, 'The Japanese were ready to sue for peace before that.'"

Worth noting that same year (1962) was the October 26 episode of TV's Route 66, as it gave Karloff the opportunity to appear once more, if fleetingly, as the Frankenstein monster. "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing," written by Stirling Silliphant (a frequent contributor to the series, who won an Academy Award for adapting In the Heat of the Night), featured Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., and Peter Lorre—all playing themselves—meeting to decide whether to produce a series of horror films, if such films still had the power to scare people. Shot in the Chicago area, where it was set, the underwritten show did not require its guest stars to do very much. It took just 45 minutes for make Karloff up as the Monster, using mostly prefabricated appliances.

Karloff never referred to Route 66 as one of his appearances as the Monster, wisely thinking of only
the three Universal pictures. His reasons for going to the Windy City were twofold. He also went to see his friend Tom Helmore, who was appearing onstage there in the road company of Mary, Mary. As he told the Los Angeles Times, "This way I had an opportunity to visit with him and get paid for it, too."

With the cancellation of Thriller, Karloff returned to the movies after a four-year hiatus. By this time, American-International Pictures had launched a successful series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, many of which starred Vincent Price. These flashy, Technicolor pictures ( The House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial) were directed by Roger Corman, who was given the combined talents of Price, Karloff, and Peter Lorre, and decided, for a change of pace, to make a flat-out comedy inspired by Poe's The Raven. Given that the source material was simply a poem, screenwriter Richard Matheson devised a story in which Price and Lorre played 16th-century magicians pitted against Karloff, a rival magician.

With all three stars playing tongue-in-cheek, The Raven was a broad comedy highlighted by nifty visual effects during a climactic duel between Karloff and Price. In a supporting part as Lorre's son was a young Jack Nicholson, one of many who started out working for Corman prior to reaching success in the late '60s and early '70s. Among those under Corman's tutelage were Bruce Dern, directors Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese, and Robert Towne.

Although Corman was not a director who worked much with actors (certainly not seasoned pros like Karloff, Lorre, and Price), The Raven was a treat for the stars and for audiences, who made it a box-office hit in 1963. One thing the leads had in common was that they all had the same agent, Arthur Kennard, who had represented Price at first.

Kennard remembers, "When I acquired Vincent, he said to me, 'You should have Boris Karloff.'

Here I am, just a fledgling agent at the time. I agreed with him. With that, he called and told Boris that he had this hotshot agent, and that when Boris comes to the U.S. next time, he should meet with me.

Boris agreed, and during the interim, much talk back and forth between Vincent and Boris.

"We met with Boris. He said, 'Vincent tells me you're a hotshot, Arthur' and I agreed. Then both of them got hold of Peter. We met in the Beverly Hills Health Club, because that's where Peter was taking a sauna. That was quite a visual picture to see Vincent and Boris and myself and Peter in a sheet. And that's how I got Peter. That whole part of my life was infected with humor. The dialogue between these people was rapier wit and great enjoyment."

Of Karloff, Kennard remembers, "He had the driest humor of anybody I've ever met. So did Peter.

One night, we were all sitting around, and a reporter said, 'How was it when the Nazis came into Vienna, Peter?' Peter was doing theater in Vienna just before the war, and he said, 'Well, when Hitler, God rest his soul, came into the thing, etc.' He just threw out the 'God rest his soul', nobody heard it until a minute went by, and then everybody broke out laughing."

Corman, for the most part, let his cast do as they pleased, so when Karloff, a carefully prepared and by-the-script performer, had to deal with Lorre's light-hearted, improvisational approach, Price acted as a buffer between them. Price said later on that he and his chums conceived jokes and bits of business which they added to the film.

The reviews of The Raven were somewhat mixed, between those which said it was a silly waste of talent, and others that termed it sheer escapist fun. The New York Times' Bosley Crowther wrote it off as "comic-book nonsense" and "strictly a picture for the kiddies and the bird-brained, quoth the critic."

Variety, on the other hand, labeled it "a cornpop of considerable comedic dimensions" and said the cast "played straight for greater comedy value, sparked by sometimes ridiculous lines and situations."

American-International Pictures was founded by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson. When they released The Raven in February of 1963, Arthur Kennard discovered the sly humor and wickedness his clients displayed could take form in a manner he didn't expect. He told me,

When we worked for Sam Arkoff and AIP, they came up with an idea to have a personal appearance tour of Boris and Peter. It was the RKO movie houses in and around New York. We flew to New York

—Boris, Peter, and myself—and stayed at the Hampshire House. The office sent me along with them to keep things in order, and I knew how difficult it was for Boris to get on and off the bus and walk into the theater. It was the dead of winter. When we got to the Hampshire House, there was a young lady—Rica Moore by name—who I was pursuing. Eventually married her. We were touring around Brooklyn and so on, and there was a blizzard one day, and I feigned illness. I said to Boris, 'My throat is killing me.' and said to Peter, 'Oh, I can't go the rest of the day.'

The snow was piling up, and they both looked at me and smiled and said, 'Well, why don't you go back to the hotel?' That was the whole thing, because I had arranged to meet with Rica at the hotel at 5:00. I left the bus, and 23 of New York's finest that were assigned to get us in and out of the theaters, because we were mobbed by fans all the time. They'd grab your hand and rip the cufflinks off your shirt.

I met with the young lady at the hotel, all strictly above board. She and I were sitting in the living room of this gorgeous suite, balcony and everything. We were in front of the fireplace, having a drink.

The door burst open, and in came 23 cops and Boris and Peter. They knew I had a date. I never told them, but they figured it out. I could hear Boris and Peter shoveling all the police into the bedrooms, so I could get Rica out of the place to avoid any embarrassment. We were fully clothed and all that, but it looked bad because her galoshes were sitting in the vestibule when they came in. Fur top galoshes, very feminine. Something I wouldn't wear.

When Rica left, Boris became the judge, the jury was the policemen, Peter was the prosecuting attorney, and they sat me in the middle of this big living room, surrounded by these policemen, and started to interrogate me. Boris would sit at the head in another chair and rap on the arm and say,

'You're out of order, you're out of order.' We had a kangaroo court and I'll always remember that as one of the highest memories of my life. All ad-lib, all fun. We spent a couple of hours doing the courtroom business, and took a recess when Boris rapped and said, 'We will recess for one hour.' At which point, they called down to the kitchen, had room service send up trays and trays at $80 a tray to feed the policemen. The blizzard had gotten so bad everybody couldn't leave, so you woke up in the morning with uniforms and guns and billy clubs strewn all over and police sleeping everywhere.

Having completed The Raven, Roger Corman had the grand, palatial sets, as well as Karloff, at his disposal, so he and screenwriters Leo Gordon and Jack Hill concocted a new picture titled The Terror.

Karloff was used for two days of shooting opposite Jack Nicholson (sporting Marlon Brando's costume from Desiree), who played a Napoleonic soldier drawn to Karloff's castle by a woman (Sandra Knight, then married to Nicholson offscreen) who turns out to be Karloff's dead wife. Any further explanation of the story would be futile.

Over a period of months, the rest of the film was completed by four other people. The production ran out of money for union crews, and being a member of the Directors Guild, Corman couldn't direct nonunion people. He asked four others, including his associate producer Francis Ford Coppola and assistant director Monte Hellman (who were nonunion) if they wanted to direct for a day or two, and they all did. Nicholson himself directed the last scene of the movie.

While The Terror , in its finished form, made almost no sense at all (not surprising, since it barely had a plot) and Nicholson showed little sign of the actor he has gone on to become, it proved to become another box-office wonder. In addition, it gave Karloff a good deal of screen time and the opportunity to carry off lines such as "You think I'm mad, don't you?" Just a few years later, The Terror factored into the final milestone of Karloff's career.

While Karloff enjoyed making The Raven, Roger Corman was not high on his list of favorite
directors. According to Arthur Kennard, "Roger called one day and wanted Boris for a movie, and I explained to him it would have to be in a wheelchair. I looked at the script, and if you blinked, he wouldn't be in the movie. I called Roger back and said 'You're going to offer him $50,000, $25,000—it was a nothing amount—'to have Boris in the picture.' Simply because he wanted to put Boris above the title in whatever that film was.

"I said, 'You're cheating the audience. The part, you can phone it in.' I told this to Boris. He said,

'That would be naughty of Roger to do that.' I said, 'Boris, I think we should not do this picture.' He said, 'I absolutely agree, Arthur.' And we didn't do it, because Boris' scruples and, forgive me, my own scruples wouldn't allow Roger to cheat the audiences who would go to the picture, expecting to see Boris Karloff, and him make no more than a cameo role. I told that to Roger. I'll never forget Boris'

comment. He said, 'Roger would rather steal a picture than make one."

As on radio and for occasional narration assignments, Karloff continued at this point in his career to use his mellifluous voice to its fullest by doing spoken word recordings. Most of these were produced and released by Caedmon Records, which had begun using numerous luminaries from show business and literature in 1952. From both sides of the Atlantic came performers the likes of Lee J. Cobb, Noel Coward, John Gielgud, Rex Harrison, Katharine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Jessica Tandy, and Eli Wallach, as well as T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg, Gertrude Stein, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Tennessee Williams.

With a few exceptions, Karloff read works for children. Barbara Holdridge, co-founder and later president of Caedmon, told me, "It was his agent who first suggested him for our recording of Mother Goose, for which we had already chosen Celeste Holm and Cyril Ritchard. Dubious that the monster of film renown could not only read Mother Goose, but sing, we were crass enough to ask that he audition for us. He did so with not the least trace of irritation. On the contrary, he was totally obliging and charming, and so very good that we were convinced that he would be just what the production needed.

"And he was. We never had a better time than at those recording sessions. Celeste was hilariously adept with lascivious innuendoes and plays on words that were later cut out of the edited tape, and Boris was not only appreciative of her quips, but reciprocated with his own quiet humor, as Cyril did, too. I visited Boris' apartment several times, and was impressed by the love of antiques, and particularly of old, polished wood, that was shared by Boris and Evie. When I asked her about this, she confirmed that Boris was very partial to fine wood furnishings."

Karloff's other releases included Aesop's Fables, Cymbeline, and The Reluctant Dragon. After hearing Karloff's recording of The Jungle Book, animated cartoon veteran Chuck Jones (famous for such classic Warner Brothers characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the Roadrunner) sought to have him narrate Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas for CBS in 1966.

For some reason, the network resisted the choice of Karloff, but Jones was adamant, and won in the end. The show became an annual broadcast and made Karloff known to millions of children at an early age, who otherwise might not have until they were older. It is Sara Karloff's favorite work of her father's, and she also favors his work in Peter Pan, The Lark, The Raven (Roger Corman's version), and Targets.

Chuck Jones' persistence paid off in another way. The soundtrack album from How the Grinch Stole Christmas earned Karloff a Grammy Award for the year's best children's recording.

During the 60s, the Karloffs, already having an apartment in the Kensington section of London, bought a cottage called "Roundabout" in the village of Bramshott, East Hampshire. It got its name from the fact that three roads intersected, forming a triangle, and the cottage was located there.

"Roundabout" was the last place Karloff lived in, and after his death, Evelyn continued living there until she passed away in 1993.

Kristin Helmore told me, "I don't think we ever saw Boris at 'Roundabout,' although I might have
because I was in school in England in those days. Somebody was having tea in the garden with them, and a hearse went by on the road. When you were sitting in the garden, you could just see the tops of cars. It was clear that it was a funeral procession going by. There was a church just up the lane, so they were on their way to the church. The hearse goes by, and Boris kind of waves his hand and says,

'Won't be a minute!'"

While Miss Helmore was a student, still in her teens, she often visited the Karloffs, and when she did, "Boris would slip me a tenpound note or something. Stuff like that, so he was very sweet and generous." She recalls Evelyn's great sense of style and decorating. In both residences, she says there was a lot of honey-colored wood. In her words, "It's something to remember because I noticed this all the time. People of that generation who were born in the Edwardian period or just when the Victorian style was ending. They rejected Victorian things. In furnishings and in decoration and style, people like Boris and Evie and my parents looked ahead. They liked modern things. Today, we look back and we love chintz and dark wood and antiques, and they didn't. That was not their style, because they actually remembered their childhood in Edwardian and Victorian houses in England, which they didn't like." Tom Helmore, she says, wanted sunny, bright Californiastyle colors and, in the London apartment, Evelyn had rusty, natural, autumn-like hues.

At one time, wishing to mark a special occasion, the Helmores gave a gift to the Karloffs. They had a small china piggy bank made, with the pig formed to look like Frankenstein's monster, complete with bolts in the neck. It was, they felt, a cute way of teasing Boris that the Frankenstein persona was the Karloffs' piggy bank.

It didn't get the response they expected, however. Says their daughter: "They were kind of disappointed it didn't get the hilarity that they hoped. My mother said when they saw Boris' reaction to the joke, even though he was his usual charming self, she could tell it was a sensitive issue with him.

She never realized before the extent to which he did not like having it all depend on the Monster."

Following the success of The Raven, Karloff appeared in another horror spoof, The Comedy of Terrors with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre again, as.well as Basil Rathbone. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, who had shown his flair for fantastic subject matter years before in Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie (produced for Val Lewton), the film was a broad farce written by The Raven's Richard Matheson.

His script had Price and Lorre as a pair of undertakers, whose business is slow, so they decide to drum up some business on their own. In the process, they must cope with their landlord (Rathbone, who stole the movie) who wants the back rent owed him. Price and Lorre try to murder him more than once, but Rathbone won't stay dead. Karloff, in a smaller role, played Price's senile father-in-law and is quite funny in the few scenes he has, particularly when giving the eulogy at Rathbone's supposed funeral, although he doesn't even know who the man was.

At first, Karloff was to play the landlord and Rathbone the father-inlaw, Richard Matheson told me.

Due to Karloff's physical condition, and scenes requiring a lot of exertion, he and Rathbone switched roles. The four had a grand time making The Comedy of Terrors , filmed in less than three weeks, and, Matheson added, had a director who really worked with actors, as opposed to Roger Corman.

The finished film has its flaws, and is not without some labored attempts at humor. Referring to a poorly made coffin, Price remarks, "Nobody would be caught dead in that thing." And, Joyce Jameson, as Price's shrewish wife, is more than one can take.

Yet, Price and Lorre work well together, and Rathbone goes full tilt in his role. The Comedy of Terrors was more fun for the people making it than for the critics. In The New York Times' eye, it was

"a musty, rusty bag of tricks" and Variety said, "The raw material for a jovial spoof of chillers was there, but the comic restraint and perception necessary to capitalize on those natural resources is conspicuously ' missing." The critic summed it up in four words: "Poof goes the spoof."

Matheson wrote a third picture for American-International: Sweethearts and Horrors, that was to again showcase Karloff, Lorre, Price, and Rathbone, plus Tallulah Bankhead, portraying the Sweethearts, a family of show business people attending the reading of their father's will. It was never filmed. Within five years, all but Price were dead.

Due to the American-International pictures, as well as such thenpopular TV series as The Addams Family and The Munsters, the horror field was enjoying a resurgence in the mass media. Karloff's talents were always in demand, as a new generation of fans embraced him and his equally fearsome contemporaries. At 76, he made the cover of Look, spotlighted as "The Old Master Monster."

Again, the suitability of horror as a source of pleasure, especially for young people, was raised in the press. Interviewed in England by The Times, Karloff addressed the subject in, as always, a thoughtful manner:

Horror suggests physical repulsion, disgust, and that seems to me a worthless, pointless reaction for any work of entertainment to aim at; it's so easy it isn't worth doing. An eye, say, plopping all bloody into a glass dish may provoke a gasp of revulsion when it is first seen on the screen, but this is an entirely physical thing, and something one can get used to—no doubt with a certain coarsening of one's responses in the process. The second or third time something like that happens in a film, the surprise and excitement is gone, and then you come back to the old, inevitable question. What is there to support it in the way of plot and characterization, to give it some point other than providing an immediate physical shock? In other words, what is there to appeal to the spectator's imagination?

Those words are as apropos today as they were then.

Karloff's first appearance as an actual monster in quite a while took place in Mario Bava's Black Sabbath, also released in 1964. This Italian-made trilogy of horror tales, each of them introduced by Karloff on-camera, was an effective, low-key film without any lurid attempts at shocking audiences.

In the best and most haunting story , "The Wurdalak" (based on a tale by Leo Tolstoy), Karloff eerily portrayed the patriarch of a family in Eastern Europe, awaiting his return from a journey to kill a wurdalak (a form of vampire). He arrives, bearing the wurdalak's severed head, but has become one himself. Gradually, the family all dies and is transformed into wurdalaks, too.

The other films for American-International Karloff appeared in ( Die, Monster, Die and Ghost in the Invisible Bikini) were forgettable, the former being a weak adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space. One of the remaining pictures he did for a major studio was MGM's The Venetian Affair, starring Robert Vaughn (popular then for his TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. from the same studio), another entry in the glut of cinematic spy stories of the time.

In this sluggish, unsuspenseful film, Karloff, as a scientist, was a key factor in the plot, and had one of the better roles. Another supporting player was Edward Asner, who told me he had no personal contact with Karloff, although he did say "he was fascinating to look at and to watch."

Karloff's looks were even more distinctive when he played a woman in "The Mother Muffin Affair,"

an episode of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. , a spinoff that lasted one season, and starred Stefanie Powers.

Both shows were produced by Norman Felton, who recalls, "My last adventure with Mr. Karloff came about when I thought it would be marvelous fun to cast him as a woman. He was in London at the time, and had gone, as usual, to see the cricket matches at Lord's. He was told about the role, and later he told me that he said to his agent, 'For Felton? He wants me to play a role in drag? Of course I will.'"

Karloff loved the part, and that episode is one of the show's more memorable. Arthur Kennard said to him, "Boris, you're going to play a woman." To which Karloff said, with humor, "Well, I won't fool anybody." Once in makeup, he quipped, "I look like a two-dollar whore."

Despite his ailments, Karloff never lost the desire to keep on working, no matter what. Though he was now 80 and a grandfather (Sara had two sons, Michael and David), retirement was apparently
never a consideration.

Teresa Wright remembers, "The last time I saw him, my former husband Bob Anderson and I were in London, and we went by to see them at the apartment, and he was having lots of trouble with emphysema. He had to have oxygen nearby, and was in a wheelchair, but he had a job coming up.

Whether they'd written it especially for him or not, he was to do it in a wheelchair. He was as excited as a kid. He was just so excited about it and saying, 'Isn't this marvelous? That I can, at my age, go do this and they can let me do it in a wheelchair?' He had great enthusiasm, really."

Continuing to go wherever there was a gig, Karloff went to Spain for a couple of them. One was an episode of the series I Spy shot in Madrid, with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. Playing a nuclear scientist with delusions of being Don Quixote, Karloff gave an eloquent and touching performance, capturing the essence of the wandering knight of La Mancha.

He needn't have bothered for Blind Man's Bluff, another rehash of the House of Wax plot (murder victims used to make wax figures), with Karloff as a blind sculptor who, with a visiting writer (Jean-Pierre Aumont), uncovers a conspiracy by his wife (Viveca Lindfors) and her lover. Karloff substituted for Claude Rains, the first choice for the role, who was not well, and died that year (1967).

The film, a dubbed disaster, hit American screens in 1971 and was renamed Cauldron of Blood.

One of Karloff's more interesting films during this stage in his life was The Sorcerers , filmed in London by a promising director named Michael Reeves, still in his early twenties. Karloff played a retired hypnotist who develops a mind control device, which he and his wife use to experience the physical sensations felt by their test subject. (A variation on this theme was later used in 1983's Brainstorm.) Coproducing the picture was Patrick Curtis, a former child actor who, at the time, was married to Raquel Welch and produced some of her work, as well.

The Sorcerers was another low-budget release, as Curtis can attest: I bought my wife a Rolls-Royce convertible. We went over to do One Million Years B.C. and stayed for a long time. For Christmas, I bought her this Rolls, and that was our camera car. I would pick up Mr. Karloff every morning and take him to the studio. Once he was ensconced and they were working, many times we took the trunk lid off the car and the cameraman would sit in front. Or, we'd put the top down and he'd fix himself in the back seat and we did all the chase scenes.

That was badly paid, but I owned the only convertible in the company, so I did it. Then I had to rush back and
sometimes put the top up and the trunk lid back on and take him home.

Karloff was not the only horror star Curtis crossed paths with. Growing up in Hollywood (his father, D.A. Curtis, had been a director at Republic and Universal), he met Karloff many times, and was a childhood friend of Bela Lugosi, Jr. Years later when he and Raquel Welch arrived in London, their agent asked what they wanted to do. The couple replied they wanted to meet Christopher Lee, whose Dracula pictures they enjoyed so much. The agent, Dennis Salinger also represented Lee, so he invited them to his house for dinner.

Curtis remembers, "Christopher and Mrs. Lee were there, with another fellow with sandy hair and glasses. I didn't catch his name, didn't care. Christopher's had a fabulous life, so I was just enthralled.

This other guy was trying to get a word in edgewise. He kept trying to get into the conversation, but he didn't say ten words. Nobody paid any attention to him.

"It was Michael Caine. Ipcress File opened two weeks after that and we just didn't know who he was.

Even if I had, I don't think I would have given a damn. I was in my element, having dinner with Christopher Lee, so we became fast friends."

Karloff appears visibly unwell in The Sorcerers, but still dominates the screen. (Due to his age and infirmity, the producers were unable to insure him.) He is equally matched by Catherine Lacey as his wife, whose willpower over their subject becomes stronger than this, and forces the young man to commit crimes. At the end, Karloff wills him into wrecking his car, and from the ensuing explosion, all three of them are killed.

Michael Reeves, whom Patrick Curtis says was "terribly talented," next directed Vincent Price in The Conqueror Worm, a better picture than The Sorcerers. It would prove to be his last work. In 1969, the same year his star in The Sorcerers would pass away, Reeves himself died from a drug overdose.

He was 24 years old.

Karloff stayed busy with the TV appearances, recordings, and voiceovers, but thanks to Roger Corman, he was able to make one outstanding film that stood above anything he had done in a long time.

Peter Bogdanovich, a former writer for Esquire and author of a number of books on directors (such as John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Orson Welles), had worked as assistant director, second-unit director, and screenwriter on Corman's The Wild Angels, and wanted to make a picture of his own.

Corman, realizing that Karloff still owed him a few days' work, said that Bogdanovich could make whatever kind of movie he pleased, but stipulated that there had to be a part for Karloff, 18 minutes of footage from The Terror would have to be included, and the production cost was not to exceed $125,000. Karloff was also used so Corman could avoid a lawsuit by the actor regarding the profits from The Terror. Thus, Corman promised to pay Karloff $15,000 for no more than two days' work on a new picture, which turned out to be Targets.

Bogdanovich said later that Corman told him, "I want you to shoot for two days with Karloff. You can shoot 20 minutes in two days. I want you to take 20 minutes out of The Terror . Then get another bunch of actors and shoot for about ten days for about another 40 minutes, and you've got an 80-minute Karloff picture I can release."

Given all that, Bogdanovich and his wife, production designer Polly Platt (a future producer of such films as Broadcast News and The War of the Roses) wrote a screenplay that he thought would utilize two kinds of horror, the cinematic type personified by Karloff, and the violence in American society.

The plot involved two men, one of them an aging star of horror films (Karloff) who wants to call it quits, and the other an apparently normal, clean-cut young man who one day snaps, and goes on a killing spree. Their stories are intertwined at the climax, when the killer (played by Tim O'Kelly, an unknown but perfect in the role) wreaks havoc at a drive-in where Byron Orlok, the actor, is attending the premiere of his latest opus called The Terror.

The type of senseless, random, violence the script examines had taken place most prominently in 1966 at the University of Texas in Austin where 23 year-old Charles Whitman fired at people below from a campus tower. He claimed the lives of 13 people and wounded 31 others before he was shot by authorities.

An early idea of Bogdanovich's was to have Karloff play an actor who secretly wishes he was Cary Grant, so he puts on a mask making him look handsome. He then goes into grocery stores where he strangles people behind the frozen food sections. Bogdanovich aptly remarked, "That didn't work out, thank heaven."

With the completed script, Bogdanovich went to Arthur Kennard and laid out what he wanted to do.

Kennard passed the information on, and Karloff said, "Well, let's meet with the young man." They did, and Karloff had faith in the project, to the point where he worked five days, instead of the required
two.

Bogdanovich cast himself in an autobiographical role, too, as Sammy Michaels, a director trying to persuade Orlok to doing one more picture before going back to England and retiring. Orlok refers to himself as "an anachronism" whose old-style movie horror, in his mind, is passe. Intitially, Karloff, modest man that he was, had reservations about some of his dialogue. He said to Bogdanovich, "Peter, since I am playing a character who's not far away from what I really am, couldn't we tone down some of these awful things I say about myself?"

Bogdanovich, just 28 at the time, replied, "No. The audience will like it if you put yourself down."

Karloff agreed, and supported his director throughout shooting.

No actual reason is given in Targets for the behavior of killer Bobby Thompson, the product of a straight-laced,antiseptic home environment, but that makes the film more powerful. At a time in American history when violence broke out nationwide, there was no purpose in trying to explain it, though many have tried in the decades since.

Where Bogdanovich truly succeeded was in giving Karloff a role he played brilliantly. In a straight dramatic film, without any macabre settings or detailed makeup, Karloff could not have put a better cap on his career. Nearing almost 50 years on the screen, with the subtle underplaying that served him so well for so long, Karloff made Targets
an apt self-portrait and some of his best work.

While it wasn't the last picture he would make (and certainly should have been), it serves as fitting a swan song as The Shootist was for John Wayne and On Golden Pond was for Henry Fonda, two other stars with an indelible cinematic image.

Targets, which Bogdanovich has referred to as his "Hitchcock picture," is notable in other aspects.

Other than Karloff, the cast has no other name actors (which perhaps made the characters even more real), and there is no film score at all. The cinematographer was Laszlo Kovacs, who shortly thereafter did Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and several other Bogdanovich works.

Karloff has a wonderful moment in the film when Orlok is preparing for his drive-in appearance, and a disc jockey scheduled to interview him reads off several hackneyed questions he's prepared.

Orlok tells Michaels, "Sammy, this is dull." Instead, Orlok suggests he tell the audience a story and then relates the tale of Death having an appointment in Samarra. (Karloff recorded this on his first Tales of the Frightened album.)

Bogdanovich wanted the scene done without any editing, so though it was past midnight and everyone was tired, Karloff did it in a single take, with the camera moving further into close-up as he spoke. Bogdanovich told me this is one of his favorite moments in the film.

Targets was finished in 25 days. However, with its release imminent, both Sen. Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were assassinated. In a year wracked with violence, no studio wanted to release the film. Some thought it should be shown to capitalize on the violence, and others wanted to shelve it entirely. Paramount picked it up, but a foreword about gun control was inserted, and the question "Why gun control?" was used in the print advertising.

The reviews of Targets were mixed. Bogdanovich's directorial debut, The New York Times said, was an "admirably spun and gripping little movie" that "scores an unnerving bulls-eye." Variety said

"Bogdanovich has made a film of much suspense and implicit violence."

The New York Daily News' Wanda Hale commented, "'Boris Karloff plays the part of Byron Orlok beautifully" and added, "Bogdanovich gets E for effort." Writing for New York , Judith Crist hailed Targets as "a hard-hitting melodrama" and added, "the casting is excellent."

On the down side, Newsweek said, "The workmanship is sloppy, the dramatic potential is unfulfilled, and the violence is painfully repetitive." One of the highlights, it added, was Karloff whose "presence takes charge of the film."

Time referred to Karloff "stoically suffering though a prolonged cameo appearance" and panned the film which, in their words, "eventually falls victim to artistic overkill."

Particularly unkind to the entire film were The New Republic and The New Yorker. The former said,

"Bogdanovich just cooked up some clever ideas out of the backer's prerequisites and filmed them smoothly with little regard for credibilty or conclusion." The latter remarked, "The picture has a clumsy, diagrammatic plot (wanly acted and fidgety to sit through)" and further criticized it by saying,

"How intellectually chaotic to make a gun control parable that is so empty of any sense of the people in it that the only response left to an audience is to recline with a bag of popcorn and lust after a manly score of assassinations."

Of the violence in Targets, it is fairly tame and non-graphic compared to, say, 1967's Bonnie and Clyde or 1969's The Wild Bunch.

Targets was not released in England until 1969, after Karloff's death, no doubt giving his character's feelings about the mark he has left on the movies and ending his career added resonance. Despite 14
minutes cut out by the British arm of Paramount and being stuck as the lower half of double features, the film did receive kind treatment from at least the critics there.

Said The Manchester Guardian: "The more you think about Targets, the more it grows." The Illustrated London News called it "the most important and surprising film of the week" and, referring to Bogdanovich, was correct in saying "more will obviously be heard of him." One of the truest summations was from The Times: "A distinguished directorial debut and a movingly appropriate farewell to a great star."

During this twilight of his career, and on a purely social basis, Karloff met another man noted for his contributions to the fantastic, with whom he shared a child-like sense of wonderment that manifested in their work. It was the gifted writer Ray Bradbury, whose vast input includes such classics as Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

I asked Bradbury what impressions of Karloff he took with him. With the simplicity of language that is part of his style, he wrote: "It was exceptionally brief, but in its briefness was warmth. He knew my work, I knew his. There was a mutual love, which pleased me, of course. After all, I had known his face since I was ten, and he scared the hell out of me with Frankenstein. Then after that, The Mummy, which I saw four or five times when I was twelve, and a radio actor, and got free tickets to see my favorite films, in Tucson, Arizona.

"Good memories, summoned up by my one encounter. There's nothing to add. We shook hands, chatted a few minutes, and he was gone. A nice man, I hear. A nice man, I saw."

The lure of work was too strong for Karloff to resist, so he went to Middlesex, England, to make The Crimson Altar, with his friend Christopher Lee. A middling horror film about modern-day witchcraft, it went through much rewriting, and was not worth Karloff showing up to shoot some of his scenes at night in freezing rain. His part was not villainous, and about the only interesting one, even including the work of Lee and Barbara Steele (with such horror films to her credit then as Black Sunday and The Pit and the Pendulum).

Release of the film was postponed until 1970, retitled The Crimson Cult for America, and in England, Curse of the Crimson Altar. It was inaccurately advertised as "His final evil role," because there were a few more he made after The Crimson Cult yet to be shown at the time of that film's release.

When The Crimson Cult came out, Variety dismissed it as "a totally unabashed rehash of a formula that Karloff has been identified with through the years" and, writing for The New York Times , critic Roger Greenspun observed, "Karloff acts with a quiet lucidity of such great beauty that it is a refreshment merely to hear him speak old claptrap. Nothing else in The Crimson Cult comes close to him."

In the time between his first work with Karloff in Corridors of Blood and the making of The Crimson Cult, Christopher Lee had shared with him some of the same roles, in particular Fu Manchu, the Mummy, Rasputin, and the Frankenstein monster.

Of his friend and one-time neighbor, Lee told me, "He was one of the most versatile actors I have ever known, and certainly one of the warmest human beings. I feel very strongly that only rarely was he able to fulfill his immense potential." He also said there were plans for the two of them to film some of H.P. Lovecraft's stories together.

In its issue of March 29, 1968, Variety announced that Karloff would arrive in Los Angeles to start work on four films produced by Filmica Azteca, a Mexican studio, with financial backing from Columbia Pictures. Producer Luis Enrique Vergara had intended that Karloff go to Mexico for filming, but the actor's emphysema was so advanced (he was functioning with only half of one lung, requiring use of an oxygen tank), plus the higher altitude in Mexico necessitated he remain in Hollywood.

The films (three of which were co-written by Jack Hill, who shared the writing of The Terror and, with Vergara and Juan Ibanez, jointly directed each of them) were made back-to-back using largely American crews and Mexican actors. Titled The Fear Chamber, House of Evil, The Incredible Invasion, and Isle of the Snake People, Columbia was to distribute them theatrically with eventual sale to television. When the domestic shooting ended (Karloff had worked five weeks), the Mexican crew members completed the rest south of the border.

To see these pictures, which is more than anyone should be asked to do, is to witness absolutely pathetic moviemaking. They are poorly written, shot, and edited (not to mention dubbed), and Karloff's screen time is relatively short, which may have been a blessing. He didn't think much of them, and they received scant distribution after his passing.

With the future development of home video, they were released under a variety of titles. For the record, House of Evil was the final Karloff film.

Karloff's remaining assignments were making the cover of Life magazine (a memorably spooky photograph accompanying an article marking the 150th anniversary of Frankenstein's publication), a couple of commercials, and three more television shows.

One of the latter was with Vincent Price on The Red Skelton Show (their last work together, doing a sketch with Skelton, and a musical number), followed by virtually the same work on The Jonathan Winters Show, only that time he did a solo version of the song "It Was a Very Good Year."

Winters told me, "I found Mr. Karloff to be delightful. I have long been a fan of his and that is why I wanted him on the show. As a matter of fact, I do a horror house routine in which I use his voice. He was very sweet to work with. He was confined to a wheelchair, and it was only when he was forced to stand on his feet that he did. He is certainly missed by millions of fans and fellow actors everywhere."

The Name of the Game, at the time it premiered on NBC, was heralded as television's first motion picture series, meaning more production time was allowed for each 90-minute show by alternating three lead actors. Plus, every episode was filmed like a TV movie, with up to three weeks' shooting time allotted.

It was in one of that first season's shows on Nov. 29 that Boris Karloff last worked in front of a camera, and, coming full circle, at Universal where he became a star. He was joined by series lead Gene Barry, and an all-star cast in "The White Birch." Playing a Czech writer who wanted his book of the same title smuggled out of the country, Karloff contributed what he could to the character.

Director Lamont Johnson ( My Sweet Charlie, That Certain Summer, Wallenberg: A Hero's Story, and Gore Vidal's Lincoln , the latter two earned him Emmy Awards) shared these memories of that experience:

He was an obvious choice for 'The White Birch' role, but we were kept in suspense until virtually the
day of shooting his first scene, because of his many health problems. When word came his car was coming through the Universal gates, I felt a signal of excitement and relief all around the set, only to be shocked into silence when he was wheeled through the stage door, looking pitifully emaciated and breathing with loud and disturbing symptoms of his emphysema.

Then his nurse brought him to me directly, and he promptly dissipated the anxiety. As he shook my hand, he said in a loud, firm, and witty voice, 'What you see before you is not encouraging, I'm sure, but what is there is entirely at your service, sir.'

He was never so much as a single beat behind in anything relating to his role. A complete and heartening joy to all. His reminiscences of Peter Lorre were particularly delightful. The work and the community of his fellow actors, myself, and the crew seemed to feed his energy and elan vital. He left more dynamically than he came to us, and always charming, humorous, and strongly concentrated on his character and the telling of the story we had at hand.

Reviewing the series as a whole, TV Guide critic Cleveland Amory cited "The White Birch." He wrote, "A recent show, for example, offered Boris Karloff, Roddy MacDowall, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Lilia Skala, Bethel Leslie, Susan Oliver, and Richard Jaeckel—and hard as it is to believe, they were all overwhelmed by a sea of muddy melodrama and messy, unmotivated characterization."

MacDowall and Karloff, working together again ten years after their Studio One version of "Heart of Darkness," had little contact then. Says MacDowall, "We didn't talk very much together during that show, as it was evident that he was very frail, and it seemed that it would be a burden to him."

Back in February, Karloff had been briefly hospitalized in London for treatment of bronchitis. A year later, on February 2, 1969, his hour upon the stage was heard no more when, at 81, he died from heart and lung disease at King Edward VII Hospital in Midhurst, England.

His passing was front-page news in many newspapers, including The New York Times , which in its lengthy write-up, erred by printing a photo not of Karloff as the Frankenstein monster, but Glenn Strange. With his death came the end of an era, as the last of the actors who cemented the image of the classic Hollywood horror film was gone.

In the Covent Garden section of London, is St. Paul's Church, consecrated in 1638, and which has a long-lasting connection with the arts, especially the theater. Its architect, Inigo Jones, was a theatrical designer. It is here that Boris Karloff joined the many performers who've been commemorated at the church, where a small funeral was held, following his cremation.

Inside the church are many plaques honoring British luminaries, among them Charlie Chaplin, Vivien Leigh, Sybil Thorndike, Laurence Harvey, and Robert Shaw. Bearing his name and the dates 1887-1969 is Karloff's, which quotes Andrew Marvell's "Upon Cromwell's Return to England:"

He Nothing Common DId or Mean Upon That Memorable Scene.

Less than two weeks after Karloff's death, Variety reported that Tigon Pictures was negotiating the lease of a site on which it planned to build a small theater devoted entirely to showing horror films, and named The Karloff Cinema.

Tony Tenser, executive producer of The Crimson Cult and coproducer of The Sorcerers , had written the actor for permission to honor him this way, and asked him to open it when the time came.

Karloff's response was, "Permission gladly granted providing somewhere in the cinema you find room for my bones."

Tenser received the letter a couple of weeks before February 2. The project did not materialize.

In California, Karloff is remembered not with one, but two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one for his film work, the other for hosting Thriller), and in the summer of 1969, Evelyn Karloff

made a donation of $5,000 to the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund in honor of her husband.

The memory of Boris Karloff has remained green through the decades and the generations. Speaking as host of a Karloff tribute by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1988, George Schaefer remarked that students at UCLA (where he was then chairman of the Department of Theater, Film, and Television) often didn't know the names of Robert Donat or Alfred Lunt or Paul Muni, for example, but at the mention of Boris Karloff, "they're delighted and seem to know exactly what you're talking about."

Evelyn Karloff continued living at the cottage in Bramshott and the apartment in London. She travelled frequently until her death in 1993.

Sara Karloff lives in Rancho Mirage, California, and runs Karloff Enterprises, which sells and distributes merchandise bearing her father's name and image. She is also a real estate broker.

On September 30, 1997, after a long and vigorous campaign by Sara, Bela Lugosi, Jr., and Ron Chaney (grandson of Lon Jr.), the United States Postal Service released a set of Classic Movie Monster stamps. Pictured are Karloff as both Frankenstein's Monster and the Mummy; Bela Lugosi as Dracula; Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera; and Lon Jr. as the Wolf Man. Appropriately, the unveiling ceremony was held at Universal Studios.

Fan interest in horror films and the people involved with them has not waned; in fact, it is probably more popular now than ever before, thanks to such innovations as videocassettes and the growth of cable television. Conventions focusing on horror movies are held throughout the country on an annual basis.

A Karloff retrospective at the American Museum of the Moving Image in October of 1997 was the largest attended event at the museum up until that time, and fans had to be turned away. Frankenstein is among the films added to The National Film Registry, based on its aesthetic, historical, or cultural importance. The Registry was established at the Library of Congress in 1988 to help preserve America's movie heritage.

Acts such as these certainly would have pleased Karloff to know his appeal and his work have not withered with age. People still recognize the name, no matter what aspect of his career they know it from. And, because film retains an image, he will always be with us.

While Boris Karloff is largely remembered for the images emitted from the light of a film projector, his everlasting impression on the world is the intensity of the light that came from within. This is perhaps his greatest legacy.

FILMOGRAPHY

The Lightning Raider (1919) Director: George B. Seitz. Script: Charles Goddard and John B.

Clymer. Released by Pathe Pictures. 15-chapter serial. Cast: Pearl White, Warner Oland, Henry G.

Sell, Boris Karloff.

The Masked Raider (1919) Director: Aubrey M. Kennedy. Released by Arrow Pictures. 15-chapter serial. Cast: Harry Myers, Ruth Stonehouse, Paul Panzer, Boris Karloff.

His Majesty, the American (1919) Director: Joseph Henabety. Producer: Douglas Fairbanks. Script: Joseph Henabery and Elton Banks. Based on a story by Elton Banks (Fairbanks). Photography: Victor Fleming and Glen MacWilliams. Released by United Artists. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Marjorie Daw, Lillian Langdon, Frank Campeau, Sam Southern, Jay Dwiggins, Albert McQuarrle, Boris Karloff.

The Prince and Betty (1919) Director: Robert Thornby. Producer: Jesse D. Hampton. Based on the novel by P.G. Wodehouse. Released by Pathe Film Exchange. Cast: William Desmond, Gary Thurman, Anita Kay, George Swann, Walter Peng, Wilton Taylor, William Levaull, Frank Lanning, Boris Karloff.

The Deadlier Sex (1920) Director: Robert Thornby. Script: Fred Myton. Based on a story by Bayard Veiler. Released by Pathe Pictures. Cast: Blanche Sweet, Winter Hall, Roy Laidlaw, Russell Simpson, Boris Karloff.

The Courage of Marge O'Doone (1920) Director: David Smith. Script: Robert North Bradbury.

Based on the novel by James Oliver Curtwood. Released by Vitagraph Pictures. Cast: Pauline Stark, Niles Welch, George Stanley, Jack Curtis, William Dryer, Boris Karloff, Billie Benedict, James O'Neill.

The Last of the Mohicans (1920) Directors: Maurice Tourneur and Clarence Brown. Producer: Maurice Tourneur. Script: Robert A. Dillon. Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper.

Photography: Philip R. Dubois and Charles Van Anger. Released by Associated Producers. Cast: Wallace Beery, Barbara Bedford, Albert Roscoe, Lillian Hall, Henry Woodward, James Gordon, George Hackathorne, Nelson McDowell, Harry Lorraine, Theodore Lorch, Jack McDonald, Sydney Dean, Boris Karloff.

The Hope Diamond Mystery (1921) Director: Stuart Payton. Script: Charles Goddard and John B.

Clymer. Based on a story by May Yohe. Released by Kosmik Films. 15-chapter serial. Cast: Grace Darmond, William Marion, Harry Carter, George Cheseboro, Boris Karloff, Carmen Phillips, May Yohe, Frank Seka, Harry Archer, William Buckley.

Cheated Hearts (1921) Director: Hobart Henley. Script: Wallace Clifton. Based on the novel Barry

Gordon written by William Farquar Payson. Photography: Virgil Miller. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Herbert Rawlinson, Warner Baxter, Marjorie Daw, Doris Pawn, Winter Hall, Josef Swickard, Murdock MacQuarrie, Anna Lehr, Boris Karloff.

The Cave Girl (1921) Director: Joseph.J. Franz. Script: William A. Parker. Based on the play by Guy Bolton and George Middleton. Photography: Victor Milner. Released by First National Pictures. Cast: Teddie Gerard, Charles Meredith, Wilton Taylor, Eleanor Hancock, Lillian Tucker, Frank Coleman, Boris Karloff, Jake Abrahams, John Beck.

The Man From Downing Street (1922) Director: Edward Jose. Producer: A.E. Smith. Script: Bradley J. Smollen. Based on a story by Clyde Westover, Lottie Horner, and Florine Williams. Photography: Ernest Smith. Released by Vitagraph Pictures. Cast: Earle Williams, Betty Ross Clarke, Boris Karloff, Charles Phillips, Kathryn Adams, Herbert Prior, Henry Burrows, Eugenia Gilbert, James Butler, George Stanley.

The Infidel (1922) Director: James A. Young. Producer: B.P. Schulberg. Script: James A. Young.

Based.on a story by Charles A. Logue. Photography: Joseph Brotherton. Released by First National Pictures. Cast: Katherine MacDonald, Robert Ellis, Joseph Dowling, Boris Karloff, Melbourne McDowell, Oleta Otis, Charles Smiley, Loyala O'Connor, Barbara Tennant, Charles Force.

The Altar Stairs (1922) Director: Lambert Hillyer. Script: Doris Schroeder and George Hively.

Based on a story by G.B. Lancaster. Photography: Dwight Warren. Released by Universal Pictures.

Cast: Frank Mayo, Dagmar Godowsky, Louise Lorraine, Harry Devere, Hugh Thompson, Boris Karloff, Nick De Ruiz, Lawrence Hughes, J.J. Lanoe.

Omar the Tentmaker (1923) Director: James A. Young. Producer: Richard Walton Tully. Script: Richard Walton Tully, based on his play Omar Khayam the Tentmaker. Photography: George Benoit.

Released by First National Pictures. Cast: Guy Bates Post, Virginia Brown Faire, Nigel De Brulier, Noah Beery, Rose Dione, Patsy Ruth Miller, Douglas Gerard, Boris Karloff, Maurice B. Flynn, Edward M. Kimball, Walter Long, Evelyn Selbie, John Gribner.

The Woman Conquers (1923) Director: Tom Forman. Producer: B.P. Schulberg. Based on a story by Violet Clark. Photography: Joseph Brotherton. Released by First National Pictures. Cast: Katherine MacDonald, Bryant Washburn, Mitchell Lewis, June Elvidge, Clarissa Selwynne, Boris Karloff, Francis McDonald.

The Gentleman From America (1923) Director: Edward Sedgwick. Producer: Carl Laemmle. Script: George Hull. Based on a story by Raymond L. Schrock. Photography: Virgil Miller. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Hoot Gibson, Tom O'Brien, Louise Lorraine, Carmen Phillips, Frank Leigh, Jack Crane, Bob McKenzie, Albert Prisco, Rosa Rosanova, Boris Karloff.

The Prisoner (1923) Director: Jack Conway. Script: Edward T. Lowe, Jr. Based on the novel Castle Craneycrow by George Barr McCutcheon. Photography: Benjamin Reynolds. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Herbert Rawlinson, Eileen Percy, George Cowl, June Elvidge, Lincoln Stedman, Gertrude Short, Bertram Grassby, Mario Carillo, Hayford Hobbs, Lillian Langdon, Bert Sprotte, Boris

Karloff.

Riders of the Plains (1924) Director: Jacques Jaccard. Released by Arrow Pictures. 15-chapter serial.

Cast: Jack Perrin, Marilyn Mills, Ruth Royce, Boris Karloff.

The Hellion (1924) Director: Bruce Mitchell. Producer: Anthony J. Xydias. Script: Bruce Mitchell.

Released by Sunset Pictures. Cast: J.B. Warner, Marin Sais, William Lester, Alline Goodwin, Boris Karloff.

Dynamite Dan (1924) Director: Bruce Mitchell. Producer: Anthony J. Xydias. Script: Bruce Mitchell. Photography: Bert Longenecker. Cast: Kenneth McDonald, Diana Alden, Boris Karloff, Frank Rice, Harry Woods, Jack Waltemeyer, Jack Richardson, Eddie.Harris, Emily Gerdes.

Perils of the Wind (1925) Director: Francis Ford. Released by Universal Pictures. 15-chapter serial.

Cast: Joe Bonomo, Margaret Quimby, Jack Mower, Boris Karloff.

Forbidden Cargo (1925) Director: Thomas Buckingham. Script and story: Frederick Kennedy Myton. Photography: Silvano Balboni. Released by FBO. Cast: Evelyn Brent, Robert Ellis, Boris Karloff.

The Prairie Wife (1925) Director: Hugo Ballin. Assistant Director: James Chapin. Script: Hugo Ballin. Based on a story by Arthur Stringer. Photography: James Diamond. Editors: Katherine Hilliker and H.H. Caldwell. Released by MGM. Cast: Dorothy Devore, Herbert Rawlinson, Gibson Gowland, Leslie Stuart, Frances Prim, Boris Karloff, Erich von Ritzau, Rupert Franklin.

Parisian Nights (1925) Director: Alfred Santell. Assistant Directors: Robert Florey and Roland Asher. Script: Fred Myton and C. Doty Hobart. Based on a story by Emil Forst. Photography: Ernest Haller. Released by FBO. Cast: Elaine Hammerstein,Gaston Glass, Lou Tellegen, William J. Kelly, Boris Karloff, Renee Adoree.

Never the Twain Shall Meet (1925) Director: Maurice Tourneur. Producer: William Randolph Hearst. Script: Eugene Mullin. Based on a novel by Peter B. Kyne. Photography: Ira H. Morgan and J.B. Shackleford. Art Director: Joseph Urban. Editor: Donn Hayes. Released by MGM. Cast: Anita Stewart, Bert Lytell, Huntey Gordon, Justine Johnstone, George Siegmann, Lionel Belmore, William Norris, Emily Fitzroy,Princess Marie de Bourbon, Florence Turner, Boris Karloff.

Lady Robin Hood (1925) Director: Ralph Ince. Assistant Director: Pandro S. Berman Script: Fred Myton. Based on a story by Clifford Howard and Burke Jenkins. Photography: Silvano Balboni.

Released by FBO. Cast: Evelyn Brent, Robert Ellis, Boris Karloff, William Humphrey, Darcy Corrigan, Robert Cauterio.

The Greater Glory (1926) Director: Curt Rehfeld. Producer: June Mathis. Based on the novel Viennese Medley written by Edith O'Shaughnessy. Photography: John Boyle and Arthur Martinelli. Art Director: E.J. Shulter. Editor: George McGuire. Released by First National Pictures. Cast: Conway Tearle, Anna Q. Nilsson, May Allison, Ian Keith, Lucy Beaumont, Jean Hersholt, Nigel De Brulier,

Bridgetta Clark, John Sainpolis, Marcia Manon, Boris Karloff.

Her Honor, the Governor (1926) (Alternate title: The Second Mrs. Fenway) Director: Chet Withey.

Producer: Joseph P. Kennedy. Script: Doris Anderson. Based on a story by Hyatt Daab and Weed Dickinson. Photography: Andre Balatier. Cast: Pauline Frederick, Carroll Nye, Thomas Sanschi, Greta Von Rue, Stanton Heck, Boris Karloff, Jack Richardson, Kathleen Kirkham, Charles McHugh, William Worthington.

The Bells (1926) Director: James A. Young. Producer: I.E. Chadwick. Script: James A. Young.

Based on the play Le Juif Polonais by Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian. Photography: William O'Connell. Released by Chadwick Pictures. Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Gustaf von Seyffertitz, Edward Phillips, Lola Todd, Boris Karloff, Fred Warren, Otto Lederer, Lorimer Johnson.

The Golden Web (1926) Director: Walter Lang. Producer: Renaud Hoffman. Script: James Bell Smith. Based on a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim. Photography by Gotham Pictures. Cast: Lillian Rich, Huntly Gordon, Jay Hunt, Boris Karloff, Lawford Davidson, Nora Hayden, Syd Crossley, Joe Moore.

The Eagle of the Sea (1926) Director: Frank Lloyd. Producers: Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky.

Associate Producer: B.P. Schulberg. Script: Julian Josephson. Based on the novel Captain Sazarac written by Charles Tenney Jackson. Photography: Nobert Brodine. Released by Paramount Pictures.

Cast: Ricardo Cortez, Florence Vidor, Sam De Grasse, Andre Beranger, Mitchell Lewis, Guy Oliver, George Irving, Irvin Renard, James Marcus, Charles E. Anderson, Boris Karloff.

Flames (1926) Director and Producer: Lewis H. Moonmaw. Script and story: Alfred A. Colm.

Photography: Herbert Brownelli and King Gray. Editor: Frank Lawrence. Released by Associate Exhibitors, Inc. Cast: Eugene O'Brien, Virginia Valli, Jean Hersholt, Bryant Washburn, George Nichols, Boris Karloff, Cissy Fitzgerald.

Old Ironsides (1926) (Alternate title: Sons of the Sea) Director: James Cruze. Assistant Director: Harold Schwartz. Producers: Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. Script: Dorothy Arzner, Walter Woods, and Harry Carr. Based on the novel by Laurence Stallings. Photography: Alfred Gilks and Charles Boyle. Music: Hugo Riesenfeld. Cast: Esther Ralston, Wallace Beery, George Bancroft, Charles Farrell, Johnny Walker, George Godfrey, Guy Oliver, Eddie Fetherston, Boris Karloff, Effie Ellsler, William Conklin, Fred Kohler, Charles Hill Mailes, Nick De Ruiz, Mitchell Lewis.

Flaming Fury (1926) Director: James Hogan. Producer: Joseph P. Kennedy. Script: Ewart Adamson.

Photography: Joe Walker. Released by FBO. Cast: Charles Delaney, Betty May, Boris Karloff, Eddie Chandler.

The Man in the Saddle (1926) Directors: Lynn Reynolds and Clifford S. Smith. Script and story: Charles A. Logue. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Hoot Gibson, Virginia Brown Faire, Fay Wray, Charles Hill Mailes, Clark Comstock, Boris Karloff.

The Nickel Hopper (1926) Director: Hal Yates. Producer: Hal Roach. Released by Pathe Film Exchange. Cast: Mabel Normand, Michael Visaroff, Margaret Seddon, Theodore von Eltz, James Finlayson, Oliver Hardy, Boris Karloff.

Valencia (1926) (Alternate title: The Love Song) Director and Producer: Dmitri Buchowetzki. Script: Alice D.G. Miller. Based on a story by Dmitri Buchowetzki and Alice D.G. Miller. Photography: Percy Hilburn. Editor: Hugh Wynn. Art Director: Cedric Gibbons. Released by MGM. Cast: Mae Murray, Lloyd Hughes, Roy D'Arcy, Max Barwyn, Michael Vavitch, Michael Visaroff, Boris Karloff.

Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927) Director: J.P. McGowan. Producer: Joseph P. Kennedy. Script: William F. Wing. Based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Photography: Joseph Walker.

Released by FBO. Cast: James Pierce, Dorothy Dunbar, Edna Murphy, Frederic Peters,, Harold Goodwin, Liu Yu-Ching, D'Arcy Corrigan, Boris Karloff, Robert Bolder.

Let It Rain (1927) Director: Edward Francis Cline. Producer: Douglas MacLean. Script and story: Wade Boteler, George J. Crone, and Earle Snell. Photography: Jack MacKentie. Released by Paramount Pictures. Cast: Douglas MacLean, Shirley Mason, Wade Boteler, James Bradbury, Jr., Lincoln Stedman, Lee Shumway, Edwin Sturgis, Boris Karloff, James Mason.

The Meddlin' Stranger (1927) Director: Richard Thorpe. Producer: Lester F. Scott, Jr. Script and story: Christopher B. Booth. Photography: Ray Ries. Released by Patho Film Exchange. Cast: Wally Wales, Nola Luxford, James Marcus, Boris Karloff, Charles K. French, Mabel Van Buren.

The Princess From Hobokta (1927) Director: Allan Dale. Producer: John M. Stahl. Screenplay and story: Sonya Levieni. Photography: Joseph Dubray and Robert Martin. Editor: James McKay. Art Director: Edwin B. Willis. Released by Tiffany Pictures. Cast: Edmund Burns, Blanche Mehaffey, Ethel Clayton: Lou Tellegen, Julie (Babe) London, Will R. Walling, Charles McHugh, Aggie Herring, Charles Crockett, Robert Homans, Harry Bailey, Sidney D'Albrook, Boris Karloff.

Soft Cushions (1927) Director: Edward Francis Cline. Producer: Douglas Maclean. Script: Wade Boteler and Frederic Chapin. Based on a story by George Randolph Chester. Photography: Jack MacKenzie. Art Director: Ben Carre. Released by Paramount Pictures. Cast: Douglas MacLean, Sue Carol, Richard Carle, Russell Powell, Frank Leigh, Wade Boteler, Nigel DeBrulier, Albert Prisco, Boris Karloff, Albert Gran, Fred Kelsey, Harry Jones.

Two Arabian Knights (1927) Director: Lewis Milestone. Assistant Director: Nate Watt. Producer: Howard Hughes. Supervised by John W. Considine, Jr. Script: James O'Donohue and Wallace Smith.

Based on a story by Donald McGibney. Adapted by Wallace Smith and Cyril Gardner. Photography: Tony Gaudio and Joseph August. Art Director: William Cameron Menzies. Released by Caddo/Howard Hughes Pictures. Cast: William Boyd, Mary Astor, Louis Wolheim, Michael Vavitch, Ian Keith, De Witt Jennings, Michael Visaroff, Boris Karloff.

The Love Mart (1927) Director: George Fitzmaurice. Producer: Richard A. Rowland. Script: Benjamin Glazer. Based on the novel The Code of Victor Jallot written by Edward Childs Carpenter.

Photography: Lee Garmes. Editor: Stuart Heisler. Released by First National Pictures. Cast: Billie Dove, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Raymond Turner, Armand Kaliz, Emil Chautard, Boris Karloff,

Mattie Peters.

The Black Ace (1928) Director: Leo D. Mahoney. Script and story: Ford I. Beebee. Photography: Edward A. Kull. Editor: Joseph Kane. Leo Maloney Productions. Released by Pathe Exchange. Cast: Don Coleman, Jeanette Loff, Billy Butts, J.P. McGowan, Noble Johnson, William Steele, Ben Corbett, Edward Jones, Boris Karloff.

Sharp Shooters (1928) Director: J.G. Blystone. Script: Marion Orth. Titles: Malcolm Stuart Boylan.

Story: Randall H. Faye. Photography: Charles Clarke. Assistant Director: Jasper Blystone. Presented by William Fox. Released by Fox Film Coporation: Cast: George O.'Brien, Lois Moran, Noah Young, Tom Dugan, William Demarest, Gwen Lee, Josef Swickard, Boris Karloff.

Vanishing Rider (1928) Director: Ray Taylor. Released by Universal Pictures. 10-chapter serial.

Cast: William Desmond, Ethylene Clair, Bud Osborne, Nelson McDowell, Boris Karloff.

Vultures of the Sea (1928) Director: Richard Thorpe. Producer: Nat Levine. Released by Mascot Pictures. 10-chapter serial. Cast: Johnnie Walker, Shirley Mason, Tom Sanschi, Boris Karloff, John Carpenter, George Magrill, Joe Bennett, Arthur Dewey, Frank Hagney.

Burning the Wind (1928) Directors: Henry MacRae and Herbert Blache. Script by Raymond Script: Raymond Schrock, George Plympton, and George Morgan. Based on the novel A Daughter of the Dons written by William MacLeod Raine. Photography: Harry Neuman and Ray Ramsey. Editors: Maurice Pivar and Thomas Malloy. Released by Universal Pictures Cast: Hoot Gibson, Virginia Brown Faire, Cesare Gravina, Robert Homans, George Grandee, Boris Karloff, Pee Wee Holmes.

The Little Wild Girl (1928) Director: Frank Mattison.. Script: Cecil Burtis Hill. Based on a story by Putnam Hoover. Photography: Charles Cronjager. Editor: Minnie Steppler. Cast: Lila Lee, Cullen Landis, Frank Merrill, Sheldon Lewis, Boris Karloff, Jimmy Aubrey, Bud Shaw.

The Fatal Warning (1929) Director: Richard Thorpe. Producer: Nat Levine. Released by Mascot Pictures. 10-chapter serial. Cast: Helene Costello, Ralph Graves, Tom Lingham, Phillips Smalley, Lloyd Whitlock, George Periolat, Boris Karloff, Syd Crossley, Martha Mattox, Symona Boniface.

The Devil's Chaplain (1929) Director: Duke Worne. Producer: Trem Carr. Script: Arthur Hoerl.

Based on the novel by George Bronson Howard. Photography: Hap Depew. Editor: J.S. Harrington.

Released by RayartRichmond Pictures. Cast: Cornelius O'Keefe, Virginia Brown Faire, Josef Swickard, Boris Karloff, Wheeler Oakman, George McIntosh, Leland Carr.

The Phantom of the North (1929) Director: Harry Webb. Script: George Hull and Carl Krusada.

Based on a story by Flora E. Douglas. Photography: Arthur Reeves and William Thornley. Editor: Frank Bain. Released by Biltmore Productions—All Star Pictures. Cast: Edith Roberts, Donald Keith, Kathleen Kay, Boris Karloff, Joe Bonomo, Josef Swickard.

Two Sisters (1929) Director: Scott Pembroke. Producer: Trem Carr. Script: Arthur Hoerl. Based on a
novel by Virginia Terhune Vandewater. Photography: Hap Depew. Released by Rayart Pictures. Cast: Viola Dana, Rex Lease, Claire DeBrey, Irving Bacon, Boris Karloff,Tom Lingham, Tom Curran, Adalyn Asbury.

Anne Against the World (1929) Director: Duke Worne. Script: Arthur Hoerl. Based on a story by Victor Thorne. Photography: Hap Depew. Editor: J.S. Harrington. Released by Rayart Pictures. Cast: Shirley Mason, Jack Mower, James Bradbury, Jr., Isabelle Keith, Tom Curran, Henry Roquemore, Boris Karloff, Billy Franey, Belle Stoddard.

Sound Films

Behind That Curtain (1929) Director: Irving Cummings. Producer: William Fox. Script: Sonya Levien and Clarke Silvernail. Based on the story by Earl Derr Biggers. Assistant Director: Charles Woolstenhume. Photography: Conrad Wells, Dave Ragin, and Vincent Farrar. Editor: Alfred De Gaetano. Released by Fox Pictures. Cast: Warner Baxter, Lois Moran, Gilbert Emery, Claude King, Philip Strange, Boris Karloff, Jamiel Hassan, Peter Gawthorne, John Rogers, Montague Shaw, Frank Finch-Smiles, Mercedes de Velasco, E.L. Park.

King of the Kongo (1929) Director: Richard Thorpe. Producer: Nat Levine. Released by Mascot Pictures (silent and sound versions). 10-chapter serial. Cast: Jacqueline Logan, Walter Miller, Richard Tucker, Boris Karloff, Larry Sheers, Harry Todd, Richard Neil, Lafe McKee, J.P. Leckray, William Burt, Gordon Russell, Robert Frazer, Ruth Davis.

The Unholy Night (1929) Director: Lionel Barrymore. Script: Edwin Justus Mayer. Based on a story by Ben Hecht. Adaptation: Dorothy Farnum. Photography: Ira Morgan. Editor: Grant Whytock.

Released by MGM. Cast: Ernest Torrence, Roland Young, Dorothy Sebastian, Natalie Moorhead, Claude Fleming. John Miljan, Richard Tucker, John Loder, Philip Strange, Polly Moran, Boris Karloff, Sidney Jarvis, Clarence Geldert.

The Bad One (1930) Director: George Fitzmaurice. Producer: Joseph M. Schenck. Script: Carey Wilson. Based on a story by John Farrow. Dialogue: Howard Emmett Rogers. Assistant Director: Walter Mayo. Photography: Karl.Struss. Editor: Donn Hayes. Art Director: William Cameron Menzies. Music: Hugo Riesenfeld. Released by United Artists. Cast: Dolores Del Rio, Edmund Lowe, Don Alvarado, Blanche Frederici, Adrienne D'Ambricourt, Ullrich Haupt, Mitchell Lewis, Ralph Lewis, Charles McNaughton, Yola D'Avril, John Sainpolis, Henry Kolker, George Fawcett, Tom Dugan, Boris Katloff.

The Sea Bat (1930) Director: Wesley Ruggles. Script: Bess Meredyth and John Howard Lawson.

Based on a story by Dorothy Yost. Photography: Ira Morgan. Editors: Harry Reynolds and Jerry Thomas. Art Director: Cedric Gibbons. Released by MGM. Cast: Raquel Torres, Charles Bickford, Nils Asther, George M. Marion, John Miljan, Boris Karloff, Gibson Gowland, Edmund Breese, Mathilde Comont, Mack Swain.

The Utah Kid (1930) Director: Richard Thorpe. Script and story: Frank Howard Clark. Photography: Arthur Reed. Editor: Billy Bolen. Cast: Rex Leasej Dorothy Sebastian, Tom Santschi, Mary Carr, Walter Miller, Lafe McKee, Boris Karloff, Bud Osborne.

Mothers Cry (1930) Director: Hobart Henley. Producer: Robert North. Script: Lenore J. Coffee.

Based on the novel by Helen Grace Carlisle. Photography: Gilbert Warrenton. Editor: Frank Hare.

Released by First National Pictures. Cast: Dorothy Peterson, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Sidney Blackmer, Edward Woods, Evalyn Knapp, Jean Bary, Pat O'Malley, Claire McDowell, Charles Hill Mailes, Reginald Pasch, Boris Karloff, Marvin Jones, Meredyth Burel.

King of the Wild (1931) Directors: Richard Thorpe and B. Reeves Eason. Producer: NatLevine.

Script and story Wyndham Gittes and Ford Beebee. Photography: Benjamin Kline and Edward Kull.

Released by Mascot Pictures. 12-chapter serial. Cast: Walter Miller, Nora Lane, Dorothy Cristy, Tom Santschi, Boris Karloff, Arthur McLaglen, Carroll Nye, Victor Potel, Martha Lalade, Mischa Auer.

The Criminal Code (1931) Director: Howard Hawks. Producer: Harry Cohn. Script: Fred Niblo, Jr.

and Seton I. Miller. Based on the play by Martin Flavin. Photography: James Wong Howe. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Walter Huston, Philips Holmes, Constance Cummings, Mary Doran, DeWitt Jennings, John Sheehan, Boris Karloff, Otto Hoffman, Clark Marshall, Arthur Hoyt, Ethel Wales, Nicholas Soussanin, Paul Porcasi, James Guilfoyle, Lee Phelps.

The Last Parade (1931) Director: Erle C. Kenton. Script and Dialogue: Dorothy Howell. Based on a story by Casey Robinson. Photography: Teddy Tetzlaff. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Jack Holt, Tom Moore, Constance Cummings, Gaylord Pendleton, Robert Ellis, Earle D. Bunn, Vivi, Jess De Vorska, Ed Le Saint, Edmund Breese, Clarence Muse, Boris Karloff.

Dirigible (1931) Director: Frank Capra. Script: Jo Swerling and Dorothy Howell. Based on a story by Lt. Cmdr. Frank W. ("Spig") Wead. Dialogue: Jo Swerling. Photography: Joe Wilbur and Elmer Dyer. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Fay Wray, Hobart Bosworth, Roscoe Karns, Harold Goodwin, Clarence Muse, Emmett Corrigan, Al Roscoe, Selmer Jackson, Boris Karloff.

Young Donovan's Kid (1931) Director: Fred Niblo. Producer: Louis Sarecky. Script: J. Walter Ruben. Based on the novel Big Brother by Rex Beach. Photography: Edward Cronjager. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Richard Dix, Jackie Cooper, Marion Shilling, Frank Sheridan, Boris Karloff, Dick Rush, Fred Kelsey, Richard Alexander, Harry Tenbrook, Wilfred Lucas, Phil Sleeman, Charles Sullivan.

Cracked Nuts (1931) Director: Edward Francis Cline. Producer: Douglas MacLean. Script: Ralph Spence. Story: Douglas MacLean and Al Boasberg. Dialogue: Ralph Spence and Al Boasberg.

Photography: Nicholas Musuraca. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Edna May Oliver, Dorothy Lee, Leni Stengel, Stanley Fields, Boris Karloff, Harvey Clark, Ben Turpin, Frank Thornton, Frank Lackteen, Wilfred Lucas.

Smart Money (1931) Director: Alfred E. Green. Screenplay and dialogue: Kubec Glasmon, John Bright, Lucien Hubbard, and Joseph Jackson. Based on the story "The Idol" by Lucien Hubbard and Joseph Jackson. Photography: Robert Kurle. Music: Leo F. Forbstein. Makeup: Perc Westmore.

Released by Warner Brothers. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Evalyn Knapp, Noel Francis, Morgan Wallace, Paul Porcasi, Maurice Black, Margaret Livingston, Boris Karloff, Billy House, Polly Walters, Ben Taggart, Gladys Lloyd.

The Public Defender (1931) Director: J. Walter Ruben. Producer: Louis Sarecky. Script: Bernard Schubert. Based on the novel The Splendid Crime written by George Goodchild. Photography: Edward Cronjager. Editor: Archie Marshek. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Richard Dix, Shirley Grey, Edmund Breese, Boris Karloff, Paul Hurst, Purnell Pratt, Alan Roscoe, Ruth Weston, Nela Walker, Frank Sheridan, William Halligan, Carl Gerrard.

Pardon Us (1931) (French version) Director: James Parrott. Producer: Hal Roach. Screenplay and dialogue: H.M. Walker. Photography: Jack Stevens. Editor: Richard Currier. Released by MGM. Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, June Marlowe, James Finlayson, Boris Karloff, Charlie Hall, Sam Lufkin, Silas D. Wilcox, George Miller, Wilfred Lucas.

Five Star Final (1931) Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Screenplay: Byron Morgan. Based on the play Late Night Final by Louis Weitzenkorn. Adaptation: Robert Lord. Photography: Sol Polito. Music: Leo Forbstein. Released by Warner Brothers-First National Pictures. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, Anthony Bushell, George E. Stone, Frances Starr, Ona Munson, Boris Karloff, Robert Elliott, Aline McMahon, Purnell Pratt, David Torrene, Oscar Apfel, Harold Waldridge, Gladys Lloyd, Polly Walters.

I Like Your Nerve (1931) Director: William McGann. Script: Houston Branch. Based on a story by Roland Pertwee. Dialogue: Roland Pertwee and Houston Branch. Photography: Ernest Haller. Editor: Peter Fritsch, Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, Edmund Breon, Henry Kolker, Claude Allister, Ivan Simpson, Paul Porcasi, Boris Karloff, Henry Bunston.

Graft (1931) Director: Christy Cabanne. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script and story: Barry Barringer. Photography: Jerome Ash. Editor: Maurice Pivar. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Regis Toomey, Sue Carol, Dorothy Revier, Boris Karloff, William Davidson, Richard Tucker, William Robertson, Harold Goodwin, George Irving, Carmelita Geraghty.

The Guilty Generation (1931) Director: Rowland V. Lee. Producer: Harry Cohn. Script: Jack Cunningham. Based on the play by Jo Milard and J. Kirby Hawkes. Photography: Byron Haskin.

Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Leo Carrillo, Constance Cummings, Robert Young, Boris Karloff, Leslie Fenton, Jimmy Wilcox, Elliott Roth, Phil Tead, Frederick Howard, Eddie Boland, W.J.

O'Brien, Ruth Warren.

The Mad Genius (1931) Director: Michael Curtiz. Script: J. Grubb Alexander and Harvey Thew.

Based on the play The Idol by Martin Brown. Photography: Barney McGill. Editor: Ralph Dawson. Art Director: Anton Grot. Choreography: Adolph Bolm. Released by Warner Brothers-First National Pictures. Cast: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, Luis Alberni, Carmel Myers, Andre Luguet, Frankie Darro, Boris Karloff, Mae Madison.

The Yellow Ticket (1931) Director: Raoul Walsh. Script: Jules Furthman and Guy Bolton. Based on the play by Michael Morton. Photography: James Wong Howe. Editor: Jack Murray. Released by Fox Pictures. Cast: Elissa Landi, Lionel Barrymore, Laurence Olivier, Walter Byron, Sarah Padden, Arnold Korff, Mischa Auer, Rita LaRoy, Boris Karloff, Edwin Maxwell, Alex Malesh.

Frankenstein (1931)Director: James Whale. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Associate Producer: E.M.

Asher. Script: Garrett Fort, Francis Edwards Faragoh, John Russell, and Robert Florey. Based on the novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and the play by Peggy Webling. Adaptation: John L.

Balderston. Scenario edited by Richard Schayer. Photography: Arthur Edeson. Special Electrical Effects: Kenneth Strickfaden. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Art Director: Charles D. Hall. Musical Theme: David Broekman. Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Editor: Clarence Kolster. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Joh Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Boris Karloff, Frederick Kerr, Dwight Frye, Lionel Belmore, Marilyn Harris, Michael Mark, Arletta Duncan, Pauline Moore, Francis Ford.

Tonight or Never (1931) Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Producer: Samuel Goldwyn. Script: Ernest Vajda. Based on the play by Lili Hatvany. Adaptation: Frederick Hatton and Fanny Hatton.

Photography: Gregg Toland. Editor: Grant Whytock. Art Director: Willy Pogany. Music: Alfred Newman. Costumes: Chanel. Released by United Artists. Cast: Gloria Swanson, Melvyn Douglas, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Robert Grieg, Greta Meyer, Warburton Gamble, Alison Skipworth, Boris Karloff.

Behind the Mask (1932) Director: John Frances Dillon. Producer: Harry Cohn. Screenplay and dialogue: Jo Swerling. Adapted from the story "In the Secret Service" by Jo Swerling. Photography: Ted Tetzlaff. Continuity: Dorothy Howell. Editor: Otis Garrett. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Jack Holt, Constance Cummings, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Bertha Mann, Edward Van Sloan, Willard Robertson, Tommy Jackson.

Alias the Doctor (1932) Director: Michael Curtiz. Script: Houston Branch. Based on the play by Imre Foeldes. Dialogue: Charles Kenyon. Photography: Barney McGill. Editor: William Holmes. Art Director Anton Grot. Technical Advisor: Dr. Henry Morton. Released by Warner BrothersFirst National Pictures. Cast: Richard Barthelmess, Marian Marsh, Lucille La Verne, Norman Foster, Adrienne Dore, Oscar Apfel, John St. Polis, Wallis Clark, Claire Dodd, George Rosener, Boris Karloff, Nigel De Brulier, Reginald Barlow, Arnold Lucy, Harold Westridge, Robert Farfan.

Business and Pleasure (1932) Director: David Butler. Producer: Al Rockett. Script and dialogue: Gene Towne and William Copselman. Based on the novel The Plutocrat by Booth Tarkington and the play by Arthur Goodrich. Photography: Ernest Palmer. Released by Fox Pictures. Cast: Will Rogers, Jetta Goudal, Joel McCrea, Dorothy Peterson, Peggy Ross, Cyril Ring, Jed Prouty, Oscar Apfel, Vernon Dent, Boris Karloff.

Scarface (1932) Director: Howard Hawks. Producer: Howard Hughes. Script: Seton I. Miller, John Lee Mahin, W.R. Burnett, and Fred Palsey. Based on the novel by Armitage Trail. Adaptation: Ben Hecht. Photography: Lee Garmes and L.W. O'Connell. Editor: Edward Curtiss. Assistant Director: Richard Rosson. Music: Adolph Tandler and Gus Arnheim. Production Designer: Harry Oliver.

Released by United Artists. Cast: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins, Boris Karloff, George Raft, Vince Barnett, C. Henry Gordon, Inez Palange, Edwin Maxwell, Tully Marshall, Harry J. Vejar, Bert Starkey, Henry Armetta, Maurice Black.

The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood (1932) Director: John Frances Dillon. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script and story: Howard J. Green. Based on characters created by Aaron Hoffman.

Dialogue: James Mulhouser. Photography: Jerome Ash. Editor: Harry Webb. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: George Sidney, Charlie Murray, June Clyde, Norman Foster, Emma Dunn, Esther Howard, Eileen Percy. Edwin Maxwell, Dorothy Christy, Luis Alberni, John Roche. As themselves: Lew Ayres, Harry Barris, Sidney Fox, Boris Karloff, Tom Mix, Genevieve Tobin.

The Miracle Man (1932) Director: Norman Z. McLeod. Screenplay: Waldermar Young. Based on a story by Frank L. Packard and the play by George M. Cohan and Robert H. Davis. Dialogue: Walderma Young and Samuel Hoffenstein. Photography: David Abel. Art Director: Hans Drier.

Released by Paramount Pictures. Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Chester Morris, Robert Coogan, John Wray, Ned Sparks, Hobart Bosworth, Lloyd Hughes, Virginia Bruce, Boris Karloff, Irving Pichel, Frank Larien, Florine McKinney, Lew Kelly, Jackie Searle.

Night World (1932) Director: Hobart Henley. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script: Richard Schayer.

Based on a story by P.J. Wolfson and Allen Rivkin. Photography: Merritt Gerstad. Editor: Maurice Pivar. Music: Alfred Newman. Musical Director: Hal Grayson. Choreographer: Busby Berkeley.

Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, Dorothy Revier, Russell Hopton, Bert Roach, Dorothy Peterson, Paisley Noon, Hedda Hopper, Clarence Muse, George Raft, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Florence Lake, Huntley Gordon.

The Old Dark House (1932) Director: James Whale. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script and Adaptation: Benn W. Levy. Additional dialogue: R.C. Sheriff. Based on the novel Benighted written by J.B. Priestley. Photography: Arthur Edeson. Editor: Clarence Kolster. Art Director: Charles D. Hall.

Makeup: Jack Pierce. Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, Raymond Massey, Lillian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, Brember Wills, John/Elspeth Dudgeon.

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) Directors: Charles Brabin and Charles Vidor. Producer: Irving Thalberg. Script: Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf, and John Willard. Based on the novel by Sax Rohmer. Photography: Tony Gaudio. Editor: Ben Lewis. Art Director: Cedric Gibbons. Makeup: Cecil Holland. Costumes: Adrian. Special Effects: Kenneth Strickfaden. Released by MGM. Cast: Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy, Jean Hersholt, Lawrence Grant, David Torrence, Herbert Bunston, Gertrude Michael, Ferdinand Gottschalk, C. Montague Shaw.

The Mummy (1932) Director: Karl Freund. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script: John D. Balderston.

Based on a story by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer. Photography: Charles Stumar. Editor: Milton Carruth. Art Director: Willy Pogany. Makeup: Jack Pierce. Special Effects: John P. Fulton.

Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan, Arthur Byron, Bramwell Fletcher, Noble Johnson, Leonard Mudie, Katherine Byron, Eddie Kane, Tony Marlow, Arnold Gray, James Crane, Henry Victor.

The Ghoul (1933) Director: T. Hayes Hunter. Producer: Michael Balcon. Script: Leonard Hines, Roland Pertwee, and John Hastings Turner. Adaptation: Rupert Downing. Based on a novel by Frank King. Photography: Gunther Krampf. Editor: Ian Dalrymple. Art Director: Alfred Junge. Music: Louis

Levy. Makeup: Heinrich Heitfeld. Released by Gaumont-British Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Hyson, Anthony Bushnell, Kathleen Harrison, Ralph Richardson, Harold Huth, D.A. Clarke-Smith, Jack Raine.

The Lost Patrol (1934) Director: John Ford. Producer: Cliff Reid. Executive Producer: Merian C.

Cooper. Screenplay: Dudley Nichols. Adaptation: Garrett Fort. Based on the novel Patrol written by Philip MacDonald. Photography: Harold Wenstrom. Editor: Paul Weatherwax. Art Directors: Van Nest Polglase and Sidney Ullman. Music: Max Steiner. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny, J.M. Kerrigan, Billy Bevan, Alan Hale, Brandon Hurst, Douglas Walton, Sammy Stein, Howard Wilson, Neville Clark, Paul Hanson, Francis Ford.

The House of Rothschild (1934) Director: Alfred Werker. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Script: Nunnally Johnson. Based on the play by George Humbert Westley. Photography: Peverell Marley.

Editors: Alan McNeil and Barbara McLean. Music: Alfred Newman. Released by United Artists. Cast: George Arliss, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, Robert Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Arthur Byron, Helen Westley, Reginald Owen, Florence Arliss, Alan Mowbray, Noel Madison, Ivan Simpson, Holmes Herbert, Paul Harvey, Georges Renavent, Murray Kinnell, Oscar Apfel, Lumsden Hare, Leo McCabe, Gilbert Emery, Ethel Griffies.

The Black Cat (1934) Director: Edgar G. Ulmer. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script: Peter Ruric.

Story: Edgar G. Ulmer and Peter Ruric. Suggested by the story by Edgar Allan Poe. Photography: John J. Mescall. Editor: Raymond Curtis. Art Director: Charles D. Hall. Special Effects: John P. Fulton.

Makeup: Jack Pierce. Music: Heinz Roemheld. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells, Lucille Lund, Egon Brecher, Harry Cording, Henry Armetta, Albert Conti, Anna Duncan, Herman Bing, Andre Cheron, Luis Alberni.

Gift of Gab (1934) Director: Karl Freund. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script: Rian James.

Adaptation: Lou Breslow. Based on a story by Jerry Wald and Philip G. Epstein. Photography: George Robinson and Harold Wenstrom. Editor: Raymond Curtis. Music: Edward Ward. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Edmund Lowe, Gloria Stuart, Ruth Etting, Phil Baker, Ethel Waters, Alice White, Victor Moore, Hugh O'Connell, Helen Vinson, Gene Austin, Thomas Hanlon, Henry Armetta, Andy Devine, Marion Byron, Sterling Holloway, Edwin Maxwell, Leighton Noble, James Flavin, Billy Barty, Richard Elliott, Florence Enright, Warner Richmond, Sidney Skolsky, Dennis O'Keefe, Dave O'Brien, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Alexander Woolcott, Paul Lukas, Chester Morris, Roger Pryor, Douglass Montgomery, Binnie Barnes, Douglas Fowley, June Knight.

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Director: James Whale. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. Script: William Hurlburt. Adaptation: John L. Balderston and William Hurlburt. Based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Photography: John J. Mescall. Editor: Ted Kent.

Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Special Electrical Properties: Kenneth Strickfaden. Art Director: Charles D. Hall. Musical Score: Franz Waxman. Makeup: Jack Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures.

Cast: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger, Elsa Lanchester, O.P. Heggie, Una O'Connor, Gavin Gordon, Douglas Walton, E.E. Clive, Lucien Prival, Dwight Frye, Reginald Barlow,

Mary Gordon, Anne Darling, Ted Billings, Gunnis Davis, John Carradine.

The Black Room (1935) Director: Roy William Neill. Producer: Robert North. Script: Henry Myers and Arthur Strawn. Based on a story by Arthur Strawn. Photography: Al Siegler. Editor: Richard Cahoon. Art Director: Stephen Gooson. Musical Director: Louis Silvers. Costumes: Murray Mayer.

Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Marian Marsh, Robert Allen, Thurston Hall, Katherine DeMille, John Buckler, Henry Kolker, Colin Tapley, Torbin Meyer, Egon Brecher, John Bleifer, Frederick Vogeding, Edward Van Sloan, Alan Mowbray.

The Raven (1935) Director: Louis Friedlander (Lew Landers). Producer: David Diamond. Script: David Boehrn. Suggested by The Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum written by Edgar Allan Poe.

Photography: Charles Stumar. Editor: Alfred Akst. Art Director: Albert S. D'Agostino. Musical Director: Gilbert Harland. Choreography: Theodore Kosloff. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Irene Ware, Lester Matthews, Samuel S. Hinds, Inez Courtney, Ian Wolfe, Spencer Charters, Maidel Turner, Arthur Hoyt.

The Invisible Ray (1936) Director: Lambert Hillyer. Producer: Edmond Grainger. Script: John Colton. Based on a story by Howard Higgin and Douglas Hodges. Photography: George Robinson.

Editor: Bernard Burton. Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Art Director: Albert S. D'Agostino. Music: Franz Waxman. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Frances Drake, Frank Lawton, Walter Kingsford, Beulah Bondi, Violet Kemble Cooper, Nydia Westman, Georges Renavent, Frank Weicher, Paul Wegel, Adele St. Maur.

The Walking Dead (1936) Director: Michael Curtiz. Producer: Lou Edelman. Script: Ewart Adamson, Peter Milne, Robert Andrews, and Lillie Hayward. Based on a story by Ewart Adamson and Joseph Fields. Photography: Hal Mohr. Editor: Thomas Pratt. Art Director: Hugh Reticker. Dialogue Director: Irving Rapper. Costumes: Cary Odell and Orry Kelly. Makeup: Perc Westmore. Released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez,Warren Hull, Robert Strange, Joseph King, Edmund Gwenn, Marguerite Churchill, Barton MacLane, Henry O'Neill, Paul Harvey, Joseph Sawyer, Eddie Acuff, Ruth Robinson, Addison Richards, Kenneth Harlan.

The Man Who Lived Again (1936) (British title: The Man Who Changed His Mind. Also called Dr.

Maniac and The Brain Snatcher.) Director: Robert Stevenson. Producer: Michael Balcon. Script: L.

DuGarde Peach and Sidney Gilliat. Based on a story by John L. Balderston. Photography: Jack Cox.

Editors: R.E. Dearing and Alfred Roome. Art Director: Alex Vetchinsky. Makeup: Roy Ashton.

Released by Gaumont-British Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, John Loder, Frank Cellier, Donald Calthrop, Cecil Parker, Lyn Harding, Clive Morton, D.J. Williams, Brian Pawley.

Juggernaut (1936) (Re-released as The Demon Doctor) Director: Henry Edwards. Producer: Julius Hagen. Script: Cyril Campion and H. Fowler Mear. Adaptation and dialogue: Heinrich Fraenkel.

Based on a novel by Alice Campbell. Photography: Sidney Blythe and William Luff. Editor: Michael Chorlton. Art Director: James Carter. Music: W.L. Trytel. Released by Grand National Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Joan Wyndham, Arthur Margetson, Mona Goya, Anthony Ireland, Morton Selten, Nina Boucicault, Gibb McLaughlin, J.H. Roberts, Victor Rietti.

Charlie Chan at the Opera (1937) Director: H. Bruce Humberstone. Producer: John Stone.

Screenplay: W. Scott Darling and Charles Belden. Based on a story by Bess Meredyth and on characters created by Earl Derr Biggers. Photography: Lucien Andriot. Editor: Alex Troffoy. Opera Carnival by Oscar Levant. Libretto: William Kernell. Orchestrations: Charles Maxwell. Musical Director: Samuel Kaylin. Costumes: Herschel. Art Directors: Duncan Cramer and Lewis Creber.

Released by 20th Century Fox. Cast: Warner Oland, Boris Karloff, Keye Luke, Charlotte Henry, Thomas Beck, Margaret Irving, Gregory Gaye, Frank Conroy, Guy Usher, William Demarest, Maurice Cass.

Night Key (1937) Director: Lloyd Corrigan. Producer: Robert Presnell. Script: Tristam Tupper and John C. Moffitt. Based on a story by William Pierce. Photography: George Robinson. Editor: Otis Garrett. Art Director: Jack Otterson. Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Musical Director: Lou Forbes.

Make-up: Jack P. Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, Warren Hull, Hobart Cavanaugh, Samuel S. Hinds, Alan Baxter, David Oliver, Edwin Maxwell, Ward Bond.

West of Shanghai (1937) Director: John Farrow. Producer: Bryan Foy. Script: Crane Wilbur. Based on the play The Bad Man by Peter Emerson Browne. Photography: L. William O'Connell. Editor: Frank Dewar. Costumes: Howard Soup. Makeup: Perc Westmore. Released by Warner Brothers-First National Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Beverly Roberts, Ricardo Cortez, Gordon Oliver, Sheila Bromley, Vladimir Sokoloff, Gordon Hart, Richard Loo, Douglas Wood, Chester Gan, Luke Chan, Selmer Jackson, James B. Leong.

The Invisible Menace (1937) Director: John Farrow. Producer: Bryan Foy. Screenplay: Crane Wilbur. Based on a play by Ralph Spencer Zink. Dialogue Director: Harry Seymour. Photography: L.

William O'Connell. Editor: Harold McLernon. Released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Regis Toomey, Marie Wilson, Eddie Craven, Cy Kendall, Frank Faylen, Harland Tucker, John Ridgely, Henry Kolker, Charles Trowbridge, William Haade, Phyllis Barry.

Mr. Wong, Detective (1938) Director: William Nigh. Producer: Scott R. Dunlap. Associate Producer: William T. Lackey. Screenplay: Houston Branch. Based on the stories by Hugh Wiley. Photography: Harry Neumann. Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Musical Director: Art Meyer. Makeup: Gordon Bau.

Released by Monogram Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Maxine Jennings, Evelyn Brent, Lucien Prival, William Gould, John Hamilton, John St. Polis, Frank Bruno, Hooper Atchley, George Lloyd.

Son of Frankenstein (1939) Director and Producer: Rowland V. Lee. Screenplay: Willis Cooper.

Suggested by the novel Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Photography: George Robinson. Editor: Ted Kent. Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Art Director: Jack Otterson. Associate Art Director: Russell Gausman. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Music: Frank Skinner. Musical Arrangements: Hans J. Salter. Musical Director: Lionel Newman. Costumes: Vera West. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson, Donnie Dunagan, Emma Dunn, Edgar Norton, Perry Ivins, Lawrence Grant, Lionel Belmore, Michael Mark, Caroline Cook, Gustav Von Seyffertitz.

The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939) Director: William Nigh. Producer: Scott R. Dunlap. Associate Producer: William T. Lackey. Screenplay: W. Scott Darling. Based on a story by Hugh Wiley.

Photography: Harry Neumann. Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Makeup: Gordon Bau. Released by Monogram Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Dorothy Tree, Craig Reynolds, Lotus Long, Morgan Wallace, Holmes Herbert, Ivan Lebedoff, Hooper Atchley, Bruce Wong.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939) Director: William Nigh. Producer: Scott R. Dunlap. Supervised by William T. Lackey. Screenplay: W. Scott Darling. Based on a story by Hugh Wiley. Photography: Harry Neumann. Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Makeup: Gordon Bau. Released by Monogram Pictures.

Cast: Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Marjorie Reynolds, Peter George Lynn, William Royle, Huntly Gordon, James Flavin, Lotus Long, Richard Loo, Bessie Loo, Lee Tong Foo, Guy Usher.

Tower of London (1939) Director and Producer: Rowland V. Lee. Script and story: Robert N. Lee.

Photography: George Robinson. Editor: Edward Curtiss. Art Director: Jack Otterson. Associate Art Director: Richard H. Riedel. orchestrations: Frank Skinner. Musical Director: Charles Previn.

Costumes: Vera West. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Barbara O'Neil, Ian Hunter, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, John Sutton, Leo G. Carroll, Miles Mander, Lionel Belmore, Rose Hobart, Ralph Forbes, Frances Robinson, Ernest Cossart, G.P.

Huntley, John Rodion, Ronald Sinclair.

The Fatal Hour (1940) Director: William Nigh. Producer: William T. Lackey. Script: W. Scott Darling. Based on a story by Hugh Wiley. Adaptation: Joseph West. Photography: Harry Neumann.

Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Makeup: Gordon Bau. Released by Monogram Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Marjorie Reynolds, Charles Trowbridge, John Hamilton, Craig Reynolds, Jack Kennedy, Lita Chevret, Frank Puglia, I. Stanford Jolley, Jason Robards, Sr.

British Intelligence (1940) Director: Terry Morse. Script: Lee Katz. Based on the play Three Faces East by Anthony Paul Kelly. Additional Dialogue: John Langan. Photography: Sid Hickox. Editor: Thomas Pratt. Musical Score: Heinz Roemheld. Makeup: Perc Westmore. Released by Warner Brothers-First National Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Margaret Lindsay, Maris Wrixon, Leonard Mudie, Holmes Herbert, Winifred Harrist, Lester Matthews, John Graham, Austin Fairman, Clarence Derwent, Louis Brien, Frederick Vogeding.

Black Friday (1940) Director: Arthur Lubin. Producer: Burt Kelly. Script and story: Curt Siodmak and Eric Taylor. Photography: Elwood Bredell. Editor: Phillip Cahn. Special Effects: John P. Fulton.

Art Director: Jack Otterson. Associate Art Director: Harold MacArthur. Set Decorator: Russell Gausman. Musical Director: Hans J. Salter. Costumes: Vera West. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Stanley Ridges, Anne Nagel, Anne Gwynne, Virginia Brissac, Edmund MacDonald, Paul Fix, Murray Alper, Jack Mullhall, Joe King.

The Man With Nine Lives (1940) Director: Nick Grinde. Producer: Wallace MacDonald. Script: Karl Brown. Based on a story by Harold Shumate. Photography: Benjamin Kline. Editor: Al Clark. Art Director: Lionel Banks. Musical Director: Morris W. Stoloff. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Roger Pryor, Jo Ann Sayers, Stanley Brown, Hal Taliaferro, Byron Foulger, Charles Trowbridge Ernie Adams, Lee Willard, Ivan Miller, Bruce Bennett, John Dilson.

Devil's Island (1940) Director: William Clemens. Producer: Bryan Foy. Script: Don Ryan and Kenneth Gamet. Based on the story The Return of Doctor X by Anthony Coldeway and Raymond L.

Schrock. Photography: George Barnes. Editor: Frank Magee. Art Director: Max Parker. Technical Advisor: Louis Van Den Ecker. Released by Warner Brothers-First National Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Nedda Harrigan, James Stephenson, Adia Kuznetzoff, Rolla Gourvitch, Will Stanton, Edward Keane, Robert Warwick, Pedro de Cordoba, Tom Wilson, John Harmond, Richard Bond, Earl Gunn.

Doomed to Die (1940) (Alternate title: The Mystery of Wentworth Castle ). Director: William Nigh.

Producer: Paul Malvern. Script: Ralph G. Bettinson and Michael Jacoby. Based on the short stories by Hugh Wiley. Photography: Harry Neumann. Editor: Robert Golden. Makeup: Gordon Bau. Cast: Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Marjorie Reynolds, Melvin Lang, quy Usher, Catherine Craig, William Sterling, Kenneth Harlan, Wilbur Mack, Henry Brandon.

Before I Hang (1940) Director: Nick Grinde. Producer: Wallace MacDonald. Script: Robert D.

Andrews. Based on a story by Karl Brown and Robert D. Andrews. Photogaphy: Benjamin Kline.

Editor: Charles Nelson. Art Director: Lionel Banks. Musical Director: Morris W. Stoloff. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Evelyn Keyes, Bruce Bennett, Edward Van Sloan, Ben Taggart, Pedro de Cordoba, Wright Kramer, Barton Yarborough, Don Beddoe, Robert Fiske, Kenneth McDonald, Frank Richards.

The Ape (1940) Director: William Nigh. Producer: Scott R. Dunlap. Associate Producer: William T.

Lackey. Assistant Director: Allen Wood. Script: Curt Siodmak and Richard Carroll. Based on the play by Adam Hull Shirk. Photography: Harry Neumann. Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Art Director: E.R.

Hickson. Musical Director: Robert Kay. Released by Monogram Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon, Gertrude Hoffman, Henry Hall, Gene O'Donnell, Dorothy Vaughn, Jack Kennedy, Jessie Arnold, Selmer Jackson, Philo McCullough, George Cleveland.

You'll Find Out (1940) Director and Producer: David Butler. Script: James V. Kern, Monte Brice, Andrew Bennison, and R.T.M. Scott. Based on a story by David Butler and James V. Kern.

Photography: Frank Redman. Editor: Irene Morra. Special Effects: Vernon L. Walker. Art Director: Van Nest Polglase. Musical Director: Roy Webb. Music and Lyrics: Jimmy McHugh and Johnny Mercer. Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Kay Kyser, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Helen Parrish, Dennis O'Keefe, Alma Kruger, Joseph Eggenton, Ginny Simms, Harry Babbitt, Sully Mason, Ish Kabibble, Kay Kyser's Band.

The Devil Commands (1941) Director: Edward Dmytryk. Producer: Wallace MacDonald. Script: Robert D. Andrews and Milton Guzberg. Based on the novel The Edge of Running Water writtenby William Sloane. Photography: Allen G. Siegler. Editor: Al Clark. Art Director: Lionel Banks. Musical Director: Morris W. Stoloff. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Richard Fiske, Amanda Duff, Anne Revere, Ralph Penney, Dorothy Adams, Walter Baldwin, Kenneth McDonald, Shirley Warde.

The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942) Director: Lew Landers. Producer: Colbert Clark. Script: Edwin Blum. Adaptation: Paul Gangelin. Photography: Henry Freulich. Editor: Richard Fantl. Art Director: Lionel Banks. Associate Art Director: Robert Peterson. Musical Director: Morris W. Stoloff. Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Maxie Rosenbloom, Larry Parks, Jeff Donnell, Maude Eburne, Don Beddow, George McKay, Frank Puglia, Eddie Laughton, Frank Sully, James Morton.

The Climax (1944) Director and Producer: George Waggner. Script: Curt Siodmak and Lynn Starling. Adaptation: Curt Siodmak. Based on the play by Edward Locke. Photography: Hal Mohr and W. Howard Greene. Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Art Directors: John B. Goodman and Howard Golitzen. Set Decorators: Russell A. Gausman and Ira S. Webb. Musical Score: Edward Ward. Musical Director: Don George. Libretto: George Waggner. Assistant Director: Seymour Friedman. Costumes: Vera West. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures.

Cast: Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, Gale Sondergaard, Thomas Gomez, June Vincent, George Dolenz, Ludwig Stossel, Jane Farrar, Erno Verebes, Lotte Stein, Scotty Beckett, William Edmunds, Maxwell Hayes, Dorothy Lawrence.

House of Frankenstein (1944) Director: Erle C. Kenton. Producer: Paul Malvern. Executive Producer: Joseph Gershenson. Script: Edward T. Lowe. Based on a story by Curt Siodmak. Assistant Director: William Tummell. Photography: George Robinson. Editor: Philip Cahn. Special Photography: John P. Fulton. Art Directors: John B. Goodman and Martin Obzina. Musical Score: Hans J. Salter, Paul Desau, Frank Skinner, and Charles Previn. Makeup: Jack P. Pierce. Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, J. Carrol Naish, Anne Gwynne, Peter Coe, Lionel Atwill, George Zucco, Elena Verdugo, Glenn Strange, Sig Rumann, William Edmunds, Charles Miller, Philip Van Zandt, Julius Tannen, Hans Herbert, Dick Dickinson, George Lynn, Michael Mark, Olaf Hytten, Frank Reicher, Brandon Hurst.

The Body Snatcher (1945) Director: Robert Wise. Producer: Val Lewton. Executive Producer: Jack J.

Gross. Script: Philip MacDonald and Carlos Keith (Val Lewton). Based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson. Assistant Director: Harry Scott. Photography: Robert De Grasse. Editor: J.R. Whittredge.

Art Directors: Albert S. D'Agostino and Walter Keller. Musical Score: Roy Webb. Musical Director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Costumes: Renee. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi. Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater, Russell Wade, Rita Corday, Sharyn Moffett, Donna Lee, Robert Clarke, Carl Kent, Jack Welch, Larry Wheat, Mary Gordon, Jim Moran, Ina Constant, Bill Williams.

Isle of the Dead (1945) Director: Mark Robson. Producer: Val Lewton. Executive Producer: Jack J.

Gross. Script: Ardel Wray and Josef Mischel. Suggested by the painting by Arnold Bocklin. Assistant Director: Harry Scott. Photography: Jack MacKenzie. Editor: Lyle Boyer. Art Directors: Albert S.

D'Agostino and Walter Keller. Musical Score: Leigh Harline. Musical Director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer, Katherine Emery, Helene Thimig, Alan Napier, Jason Robards, Sr., Skelton Knaggs, Sherry Hall, Ernst Dorian, Erick Hanson.

Bedlam (1946) Director: Mark Robson. Producer: Val Lewton. Executive Producer: Jack J. Gross.

Script: Mark Robson and Carlos Keith (Val Lewton). Suggested by the painting "Bedlam" by William

Hogarth. Assistant Director: Dorian Cox. Photography: Nicholas Musuraca. Special Photographic Effects: Vernon L. Walker. Art Directors: Albert S. D'Agostino and Walter E. Keller. Musical Score: Roy Webb. Musical Director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Richard Fraser, Glenn Vernon, Ian Wolfe, Jason Robards, Sr., Leland Hodgson, Joan Newton, Elizabeth Russell, Ellen Corby, Robert Clarke, Victor Holbrook, Larry Wheat, Bruce Edwards, John Meredith.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) Director: Norman Z. McLeod. Producer: Samuel Goldwyn.

Script: Ken Englund and Everett Freeman. Based on the story by James Thurber. Assistant Director: Rollie Asher. Photography: Lee Garmes. Special Effects: John P. Fulton. Art Directors: George Jenkins and Perry Ferguson. Musical Score: David Raskin. Musical Director: Emil Newman. Songs: Sylvia Fine. Costumes: Irene Sharoff. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Fay Bainter, Ann Rutherford, Thurston Hall, Konstantin Shayne, Florence Bates, Gordon Jones, Reginald Denny,'Henry Corden, Doris Lloyd, Fritz Feld, Frank Reicher, Milton Parsons, Mary Brewer, Betty Carlyle, Lorraine De Rome, Jackie Jordan, Martha Montgomery, Sue Casey, Pat Patrick, Irene Vernon.

Lured (1947) (British title: Personal Column). Director: Douglas Sirk. Producer: James Nasser.

Executive Producer: Hunt Stromberg. Associate Producer: Henry S. Kessler. Script: Leo Rosten.

Based on a story by Jacques Companeez, Ernest Neuville, and Simon Gentillon. Assistant Director: Clarence Eurist. Photography: William Daniels. Editors: John M. Foley and James E. Newcom. Art Director: Nicolai Remisoff. Musical Score: Michel Michelet. Musical Director: David Chudnow.

Makeup: Don Cash. Released by Unite Artists. Cast: George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn, Boris Karloff, Alan Mowbray, Cedric Hardwicke, George Zucco, Joseph Calleia, Tanis Chandler, Alan Napier, Robert Coote, Jimmie Aubrey, Dorothy Vaughan, Sam Harris.

Unconquered (1947) Director and Producer: Cecil B. DeMille. Script: Charles Bennett, Frederic M.

Frank, and Jesse Lasky, Jr. Based on the novel The Judas Tree by Neil H. Swanson. Assistant Director: Edward Salven. Photography: Ray Rennahan. Editor: Anne Bauchens. Special Effects: Gordon Jennings, Farciot Edouart, W. Wallace Kelley, Paul Lerpae, and Devereux Jennings. Art Directors: Hans Dreier and Walter Tyler. Musical Score: Victor Young. Costumes: Gwen Wakeling and Madame Barbara Karinska. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Released by Paramount Pictures. Cast: Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, Cecil Kellaway, Ward Bond, Katherine DeMille, Henry Wilcoxon, C. Aubrey Smith, Virginia Campbell, Mike Mazurki, Robert Warwick, Mark Lawrence, Alan Napier, Gavin Muir, Nan Sutherland, Lloyd Bridges, Oliver Thorndike.

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) Director: George Marshall. Producer: Herman Schlom. Script: Robertson White and Eric Taylor. Based on a story by William H. Graffis and Robert E. Kent and the comic strip by Chester Gould. Photography: Frank Redman. Editor: Elmo Williams. Special Effects: Russell A. Cully. Art Directors: Albert S. D'Agostino and Walter Keller. Musical Score: Paul Sawtell.

Musical Director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Released by RKO-Radio Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Ralph Byrd, Anne Gwynne, Edward Ashley, June Clayworth, Lyle Latell, Tony Barrett, Skelton Knaggs, Jim Nolan, Joseph Crehan, Milton Parsons.

Tap Roots (1948) Director: George Marshall. Producer: Walter Wanger. Script: Alan Le May. Based on a novel by James Street. Additional Dialogue: Lionel Wiggam. Photography: Lionel Lindon and Winton C. Hoch. Editor: Milton Carruth. Art Director: Frank A. Richards. Musical Score: Frank Skinner. Costumes: Yvonne Wood. Makeup: Bud Westmore. Released by Universal-International Pictures. Cast: Van Heflin, Susan Hayward, Boris Karloff, Julie London, Whitfield Connor, Ward Bond, Richard Long, Arthur Shields, Griff Barnett, Sondra Rogers, Ruby Dandridge, Russell Simpson, Jack Davis, Gregg Barton, George Hamilton, Jonathan Hale.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) Director: Charles T. Barton, Jr. Producer: Robert Arthur. Script: Hugh Wedlock, Jr., Howard Snyder, and John Grant. Based on a story by Hugh Wedlock, Jr., and Howard Snyder. Assistant Director: Joe Kenny. Photography: Charles Van Enger.

Editor: Edward Curtiss. Special Effects: David S. Horsley. Art Directors: Bernard Herzbrun and Richard H. Reidel. Musical Score: Milton Schwarzwald. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Makeup: Bud Westmore. Released byUniversal-International Pictures. Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Lenore Aubert, Gar Moore, Donna Martell, Alan Mowbray, James Flavin, Roland Winters, Nicholas Joy, Mikel Conrad, Morgan Farley, Percy Helton, Victoria Horne, Clair Du Brey, Vincent Renno, Harry Hayden, Murray Alper, Patricia Hall.

The Strange Door (1951) Director: Joseph Pevney. Producer: Ted Richmond. Script: Jerry Sackheim. Based on the story The Sire de Maletroit's Door by Robert Louis Stevenson. Assistant Director: Jesse Hibbs. Photography: Irving Glassberg. Editor: Edward Curtiss. Special Effects: David S. Horsley. Art Directors: Bernard Herzbrun and Eric Orbom. Musical Director: Joseph Gershenson.

Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Makeup: Bud Westmore. Released by Universal-International Pictures.

Cast: Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Sally Forrest, Richard Stapley, Michael Pate, Paul Cavanagh, Alan Napier, William Cottrell, Morgan Farley, Charles Horvath, Edwin Harker.

The Emperor's Nightingale (1951) Directors: Milos Makovec (live action) and Jiri Trnka (animation). Script: Jiri Trnka and Jiri Drdecka. Based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. English Narrative: Phyllis McGinley. Photography: Ferdinand Pecenka. Musical Score: Vaclav Trajan.

Released in the U.S. by Rembrandt Films. Cast: Jaramir Sobota, Helena Patockova, Boris Karloff (Narrator).

The Black Castle (1951) Director: Nathan Juran. Producer: William Alland. Script and Story: Jerry Sackheim. Assistant Director: William Holland. Photography: Irving Glassburg. Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Special Effects: David S. Horsley. Art Directors: Bernard Herzbrun and Alfred Sweeney.

Musical Director: Joseph Gershenson. Costumes: Bill Thomas. Makeup: Bud Westmore. Released by Universal-International Pictures. Cast: Richard Greene, Boris Karloff, Stephen McNally, Paula Corday, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Hoyt, Michael Pate, Nancy Valentine, Tudor Owen, Otto Waldis.

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) Director: Charles Lamont. Producer: Howard Christie. Script: Lee Loeb and John Grant. Based on the screen story by Sidney Fields and Grant Garrett and the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Photography: George Robinson. Editor: Russell Schoengarth. Special Effects: David S. Horsley. Art Directors: Bernard Herzbrun and Eric Orbom. Musical Director: Joseph Gershenson. Costumes: Rosemary Odell. Makeup: Bud Westmore.

Release by UniversalInternational Pictures. Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Helen

Westcott, Craig Stevens, John Dierkes, Reginald Denny, Patti McKaye, Lucille Lamarr, Harry Corden, Marjorie Bennett, Carmen de Lavallade.

Monster of the Island (1953) Directors: Roberto Montero and Alberto Vecchietti. Producer: Fortunato Mislano. Script: Roberto Montero and Albert Vecchietti. Based on a story by Carlo Lombardo. Photography: Augusto Tiezzi. Editor: Iolanda Benvenuti. Musical Score: Carlo Innocenzi.

Released by Romano Films. Cast: Boris Karloff, Franca Marzi, Renato Vicario, Germana Paolieril Patrizi Remiddi, Jose Fierro, Carlo Duse. Released by Romana Films. Cast: Boris Karloff, Franca Marzi, Renato Vicario, Germana Paolieri, Patrizi Remiddi, Jose Fiero, Carlo Duse, Guilio Battiferri.

The Hindu (1953) (Re-released in the U.S. as Sabaka). Director and Producer: Frank Ferrin. Script and Story: Frank Ferrin. Photography: Allen Svensvold and Jack McCoskey. Editor: Jack Foley. Art Director: Ralph Ferrin. Musical Score: Daksnamurti. Released by United Artists. Cast: Boris Karloff, Nino Marcel, Lou Krugman, Reginald Denny, Victor Jory, June Foray, Jay Novello, Lisa Howard, Peter Coe, Paul Marion, Vito Scotti, Lou Merrill.

Colonel March Investigates (1953) Director: Cyril Endfield. Producer: Donald Ginsberg. Script: Leo Davis. Based on the stories by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr). Photography: Jonah Jones. Editor: Stan Willis. Art Director: George Paterson. Musical Score: John Lanchberry. Musical Director: Eric Robinson. Released by Criterion Films. Cast: Boris Karloff, Ewan Roberts, Richard Wattis, Sheila Burrell, Anthony Forwood, John Hewer, Joan Sims, Ronald Leigh Hunt Roger Maxwell, Patricia Owens, Dana Wynter, Sonya Hana, Bernard Rebel.

Voodoo Island (1957) (Re-released as Silent Death). Director: Reginald LeBorg. Producer: Howard W. Koch. Executive Producer: Aubrey Schenck. Scrip and Story: Richard Landau. Assistant Director: Paul Wurtzel. Photography: William Marguiles. Editor: John F. Schreyer. Special Effects: Jack Rabin and Louis De Witt. Musical Score: Les Baxter. Makeup: Ted Coodley. Released by United Artists.

Cast: Boris Karloff, Beverly Tyler, Murvyn Vye, Elisha Cook, Jr., Rhodes Reason, Jean Engstrom, Frederick Ledebur, Glenn Dixon, Gwen Cunningham, Herbert Patterson, Jerome Frank.

The Haunted Strangler (1958) (British title: Grip of the Strangler). Director: Robert Day. Producer: John Croydon. Executive Producer: Richard Gordon. Script: Jan Read and John C. Cooper. Based on a story by Jan Read. Photography: Lionel Banes. Editor: Peter Mayhew. Special Effects: Les Bowie. Art Director: John Elphick. Musical Score: Buxton Orr. Musical Director: Frederick Lewis. Released by MGM. Cast: Boris Karloff, Jean Kent, Elizabeth Allan, Anthony Dawson, Vera Day, Tim Turner, Diane Aubrey, Dorothy Gordon, Peggy Ann Clifford, Leslie Perrins, Michael Atkinson, Desmond Roberts, Jesse Cairns, Roy Russell, Derek Birch, George Hirste.

Frankenstein 1970 (1958) Director: Howard W. Koch. Producer: Aubrey Schenck. Script: Richard Landau and George Worthing Yates. Based on a story by Aubrey Schenck and Charles A. Moses.

Assistant Director: George Vieira. Photography: Carl E. Guthrie. Editor: John A. Bushelman. Art Director: Jack T. Collins. Set Decorator: Jerry Welch. Musical Score: Paul A. Dunlap. Makeup: Gordon Bau. Released by Allied Artists. Cast: Boris Karloff, Tom Duggan, Jana Lund, Donald Barry,

Charlotte Austin, Irwin Berke, Rudolph Anders, John Dennis, Norbert Schiller, Mike Lane.

The Raven (1963) Director and Producer: Roger Corman. Executive Producers: James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Script: Richard Matheson. Suggested by the poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

Assistant Director: Peter Bolton. Photography: Floyd Crosby. Editor: Ronald Sinclair. Special Effects: Pat Dinga. Art Director: Daniel Haller. Musical Score: Les Baxter. Costumes: Marjorie Corso.

Makeup: Ted Coodley. Released by American International Pictures. Cast: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess, Jack Nicholson, Connie Wallace, William Baskin, Aaron Saxon.

Corridors of Blood (1963) Director: Robert Day. Producers: John Croydon and Charles Vetter.

Executive Producer: Richard Gordon. Associate Producer: Peter Mayhew. Script and Story: Jean Scott Rogers. Assistant Director: Peter Bolton. Photography: Geoffrey Faithfull. Editor: Peter Mayhew. Art Director: Ant hony Masters. Musical Score: Buxton Orr. Musical Director: Frederick Lewis. Makeup: Walter Schneiderman. Released by MGM. Cast: Boris Karloff, Betta St. John, Finlay Currie, Christopher Lee, Francis Matthews, Adrienne Corri, Francis De Wolff, Basil Dignam, Frank Pettingell, Marian Spencer, Carl Bernard, Yvonne Warren, Charles Lloyd Pack, Robert Raglan, John Gabriel, Nigel Green, Howard Lang.

The Terror (1963) Director and Producer: Roger Corman. Executive Producer: Harvey Jacobson.

Associate Producer: Francis Ford Coppola. Script and story: Leo Gordon and Jack Hill. Assistant Director: Monte Hellman. Photography: John Nicholaus. Editor: Stuart O'Brien. Art Director: Daniel Haller. Musical Score: Les Baxter. Costumes: Marjorie Corso. Released by American International Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight, Richard Miller, Dorothy Neumann, Jonathan Haze.

The Comedy of Terrors (1964) (Re-released as The Graveside Story). Director: Jacques Tourneur.

Producers: Anthony Carras and Richard Matheson. Executive Producers: James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Assistant Director: Robert Agnew. Photography: Floyd Crosby. Special Effects: Pat Dinga. Art Director: Daniel Haller. Musical Score: Les Baxter. Costumes: Marjorie Corso. Makeup: Charlie Taylor. Released by American International Pictures. Cast: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Joyce Jameson, Joe E. Brown, Beverly Hills, Paul Barsolow, Linda Rogers, Luree Nicholson, Buddy Mason.

Black Sabbath (1964) Director: Mario Bava. Producer: Salvatore Billitteri. Presented in the U.S. by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Script: Marcello Fondato, Alberto Bevilacqua, and Mario Bava. Based on the stories "The Drop of Water" by Anton Chekhov, "The Telephone" by F.G. Snyder, and "The Wurdalak" by Alexei Tolstoy. Photography: Ubaldo Terzano. Editor: Mario Serandrei. Art Director: Georgio Giovannini. Musical Score: Les Baxter (U.S.) and Robert Nicolosi (Italy). Makeup: Otello Fava. Released by Emmepi/Galatea/Lyre Films (Italy) and American International Pictures (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Mark Damon, Susy Andersen, Michele Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi, Jacqueline Perrieux, Milli Monti, Glauco Onorato, Rika Dialina, Massino Righi.

Bikini Beach (1964) Director: William Asher. Producer: Anthony Carras. Executive Producers:

James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Script: William Asher, Leo Townsend, and Robert Dillon.

Photography: Floyd Crosby. Editor: Fred Feitshans. Special Effects: Roger and Joe Zonar. Art Director: Daniel Haller. Musical Score: Les Baxter. Songs by Guy Hemric, Jerry Styner, Gary Usher, Roger Christian, Jack Merrill, and Red Gilson. Released by American International Pictures. Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Martha Hyer, John Ashley, Don Rickles, Harvey Lembeck, Keenan Wynn, Jody McCrea, Candy Johnson, Danielle Aubry, Meredith MacRae, Dolores Welles, Janos Prohaska, Timothy Carrey, Val Warren, Donna Loren, Little Stevie Wonder, the Pyramids, Boris Karloff.

Die, Monster, Die (1965) (British title: Monster of Terror ). Director: Daniel Haller. Producer: Pat Green. Executive Producers: James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Script: Jerry Sohl. Based on the story "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft. Assistant Director: Dennis Hall. Photography: Paul Beeson. Editor: Alfred Cox. Special Effects: Wally Veevers and Ernest Sullivan. Art Director: Colin Southcott. Musical Score: Don Banks. Makeup: Jimmy Evans. Released by American International Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Nick Adams, Freda Jackson, Suzan Farmer, Terence De Marney, Patrick Magee, Paul Farrell, George Moon, Gretchen Franklin, Sydney Bromley, Billy Milton, Leslie Dwyer.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) Director: Don Weis. Producer: Anthony Carras. Executive Producers: James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Script: Louis M. Heyward and Ellwood Ullman.

Based on a story by Louis M. Hayward. Photography: Stanley Cortez. Editors: Fred Feitshans and Eve Newman. Special Effects: Roger George. Art Director: Daniel Haller. Musical Score: Les Baxter.

Songs: Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner. Makeup: Ted Coodley. Released by American International Pictures. Cast: Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Aron Kincaid, Quinn O'Hara, Jesse White, Harvey Lembeck, Nancy Sinatra, Claudia Martin, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Patsy Kelly, Susan Hart, Francis X. Bushman, Luree Holmes, Benny Rubin, Alberta Nelson, George Barrows.

The Daydreamer (1966) Director: Jules Bass. Produced and scripted by Arthur Rankin, Jr. Executive Producer: Joseph E. Levine. Based on the stories "The Little Mermaid," "The Emperor's New Clothes,"

"Thumbelina," and "The Garden of Paradise." Animagic Sequences: Don Duga. Anamagic Photography: Tad Mochinga. Live Action Sequences Photography: Daniel Cavelli. Art Director: Maurice Gordon. Music and Lyrics: Maury Laws and Jules Bass. Released by Embassy Pictures. Cast: Paul O'Keefe, Jack Gilford, Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton, Robert Harter. Voices: Cyril Ritchard, Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, Tallulah Bankhead, Terry Thomas, Victor Borge, Patty Duke, Robert Goulet, Sessue Hayakawa, Boris Karloff, Ed Wynn.

The Venetian Affair (1967) Director: Jerry Thorpe. Producers: Jerry Thorpe and E. Jack Neuman.

Scrip t: E. Jack Neuman. Based on the novel by Helen MacInnes. Photography: Milton Krasner and Enzo Serafin. Editor Henry Berman. Special Effects: Carroll L. Shepphird. Art Directors: George W.

Davis and Leroy Coleman. Music and Lyrics: Lalo Schifrin and Hall Winn. Makeup: William Tuttle.

Released by MGM. Cast: Robert Vaughn, Elke Sommer, Felicia Farr, Karl Boehm, Edward Asner, Boris Karloff, Roger C. Carmel, Joe De Santis, Fabrizio Mioni, Wesley Lau, Luciana Paluzzi, Bill Weiss.

Mondo Balordo (1967) Director: Robert Bianchi Montero. Narrative: Castaldo and Tori. American
version: Ted Weiss. Photography: Giuseppe la Torre. Editor: Enzio Alfonsi. American version: Fred von Bernewitz. Musical Score: Lallo Gori and Nani Rossi. Narrator: Boris Karloff. A Cine Produzioni Film (Italy) and an Ivanhoe Production (U.S.). Released by Crown International.

The Sorcerers (1967) Director: Michael Reeves. Producers: Tony Tenser and Patrick Curtis.

Executive Producer: Arnold Louis Miller. Script: Michael Reeves and Tom Baker. Based on a story by John Burke. Photography: Stanley Long. Editor: David Woodward and Ralph Sheldon. Art Director: Tony Curtis. Musical Score: Paul Ferris. Released by Tigon-Curtwell-Global (Great Britain) and Allied Artists (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Catherine Lacey, Ian Ogilvy, Elizabeth Ercy, Victor Henry, Susan George, Dani Sheridan, Ivor Dean, Peter Fraser, Meier Tzelniker, Bill Barnsley, Martin Terry, Gerald Campion, Alf Joint.

Mad Monster Party (1967) Director: Jules Bass. Producer: Arthur Rankin, Jr. Executive Producer: Joseph E. Levine. Script: Harvey Kurtzman, Len Lorobkin, and Forrest J. Ackerman. Based on a story by Arthur Rankin, Jr. Music and Lyrics: Maury Laws and Jules Bass. Puppet Design: Jack Davis.

Released by Embassy Pictures. Voices: Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller, Ethel Ennis, Gale Garnett, Alan Swift.

Targets (1968) Director and Producer: Peter Bogdanovich. Script: Peter Bogdanovich. Based on a story by Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt. Photography: Laszlo Kovacs. Editor: Peter Bogdanovich.

Art Director: Polly Platt. Associate Producer: Daniel Selznick. Assistant to the Director: Frank Marshall. Makeup: Scott Hamilton. Released by Paramount Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Nancy Hsueh, James Brown, Mary Jackson, Tanya Morgan, Peter Bogdanovich, Sandy Baron, Arthur Peterson, Monty Landis, Paul Condylis, Mark Dennis, Stafford Morgan, Daniel Ades, Timothy Burns, Warren White, Geraldine Baron, Gary Kent, Ellie Wood Walker, Frank Marshall, Byron Betz, Mike Farrell, Jay Daniel, Carol Samuels, James Morris.

The Crimson Cult (1970) (British title: Curse of the Crimson Altar). Director: Vernon Sewell.

Producer: Louis M. Heyward. Executive Producer: Tony Tenser. Script and story: Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. Based on the story "Dreams in the Witch House" by H.P. Lovecraft. Additional Material: Gerry Levy. Photography: Johnny Coquillon. Editor: Howard Lanning. Art Director: Derek Bannington. Musical Score: Peter Knight. Makeup: Pauline Worden and Elizabeth Blattner. Costumes: Michael Southgate. Released by Tigon Pictures (Great Britain) and American International Pictures (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Mark Eden, Barbara Steele, Michael Gough, Virginia Wetherell, Rupert Davies, Rosemarie Reede, Derek Tasnsey, Michael Warren, Ron Pomber, Denys Peek, Nita Lorraine, Carol Anne, Jenny Shaw, Vivienne Carlton.

Isle of the Snake People (1971) (Alternate titles: Snake People and Cult of the Dead). Directors: Juan Ibanez and Jack Hill. Producers: Luis Enrique Vergara and Juan Ibanez. Script: Jack Hill.

Photography: Austin McKinney and Raul Dominguez. Musical Score: Alice Uretta. Released by Azteca Pictures (Mexico) and Columbia Pictures (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Julissa, Charles East, Rafael Bertrand, Judy Carmichael, Tongolee, Quentin Miller, Santanon, Quinton Bulnes.

The Incredible Invasion (1971) (Alternate titles: Sinister Invasion and Alien Terror ). Directors:

Luis Enrique Vergara and Jack Hill. Producers: Luis Enrique Vergara and Juan Ibanez. Script: Karl Schranzer and Luis Enrique Vergara. Photography: Austin McKinney and Raul Dominquez. Special Effects: Jack Tannenbaum. Musical Score: Alice Uretta. Released by Azteca Pictures (Mexico) and Columbia Pictures (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Enrique Guzman, Christa Linder, Maura Monti, Yerye Beirute, Tere Valdez, Sangro Alemez, Sergio Kleiner, Mareila Flores, Greselda Mejia.

Cauldron of Blood (1971) (Alternate titles: Blind Man's Bluff and The Shrinking Corpse) Director and Story: Edward Mann (Santos Alcocer). Producer: Robert D. Wienbach. Script: John Melson, Jose Luis Bayonas, and Edward Mann. Photography: Francisco Sempere. Editor: J. Antonio Rojo. Art Director: Gil Parrando. Musical Score: Jose Luis Navarro and Ray Ellis. Songs: Edward Mann and Bob Harris. Makeup: Manolita Garcia Fraile. Released by Hispamer Films (Spain) and Cannon Films (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Viveca Lindfors, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jacqui Speed, Rosenda Monteros, Ruven Rojo, Dianik Zurakowska, Milo Quesada, Mercedes Rojo, Mary Lou Palermo, Manuel de Blas, Eduardo Coutelen.

The Fear Chamber (1971) Directors: Juan Ibanez and Jack Hill. Producers: Luis Enrique Vergara and Jack Hill. Script: Jack Hill. Photography: Austin McKinney and Raul Dominguez. Musical Score: Alice Uretta. Special Effects: Enrique Gordillo. Released by Azteca Pictures (Mexico) and Columbia-Pictures (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Yerye Beirute, Julissa, Santanon, Carlos East.

House of Evil (1972) (Alternate titles: Dance of Death and Macabre Serenade). Directors: Luis Enrique Vergara and Jack Hill. Producers: Luis Enrique Vergara and Juan Ibanez. Script: Jack Hill.

Photography: Austin McKinney and Raul Dominguez. Musical Score: Alice Uretta. Special Effects: Enrique Gordillo. Released by Azteca Films (Mexico) and Columbia Pictures (U.S.). Cast: Boris Karloff, Julissa, Andres Garcia, Angel Espinoza, Beatriz Baz, Quinton Bulnes, Manuel Alvarado, Carmen Vega, Felipe Flores, Fernando Saucedo.

SHORT FILMS

Screen Snapshots No. 11 (1934) Released by Columbia Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Genevieve Tobin, James Cagney, Eddie Canton, Pat O'Brien, Maureen O'Sullivan.

Universal Newsreel (1934) Released by Universal Pictures. Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi.

Hollywood Hobbies (1935) Cast: Richard Arlen, Buster Crabbe, Clark Gable, Boris Karloff.

Cinema Circus (1937) Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. Director: Roy Rowlan Producer: Louis Lewyn. Cast: Rex Bell, Leo Carrillo, Chester Conklin, Cliff Edwards, James Gleason, William S. Hart, Boris Karloff, Pert Kelton, Olsen and Johnson, Martha Raye, Mickey Rooney, Lee Tracy, Ben Turpin, Rudy Vallee, others.

Information Please No. 8 (1941)Released by RKO-Pathe Pictures. Host: Clifton Fadiman. Panelists: John P. Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Boris Karloff.

Information Please No. 12 (1941) Released by RKO-Pathe Pictures. Host: Clifton Fadiman.

Panelists: John P. Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Boris Karloff, Oscar Levant.

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 6 (1942) Released by Paramount Pictures. Producers: Herbert Moulton and Whitney Williams. Cinematogra pher: Robert C. Bruce. Narrator: Hedda Hopper. Cast: Joan Bennett, Claudette Colbert, Joan Davis, Reginald Denny, June Havoc, Hedda Hopper, Ian Hunter, Boris Karloff, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Pickford, Basil Rathbone, Mack Sennett, Rudy Vallee, Dame May Whitty.

The Juggler of Our Lady (1957) Released by Twentieth-Century Fox/ Terrytoons. Director: Al Kousel. Producer: Bill Weiss. Supervisor: Gene Deitch. Screenplay and story: R.O. Blechman.

Animation: Gene Deitch and Al Kousel. Musical Score: Philip Scheib. Narrator: Boris Karloff.

Today's Teens (1964) Released by Twentieth Century-Fox/Movietone Pictures. Narrator: Boris Karloff.

RADIO

During his career, Karloff made many appearances on radio, some of which may not be accounted for. Therefore, the following is a close approximation of his radio credits.

Hollywood on the Air —Jan. 27, 1934

Fleischmann Hour— Oct. 11, 1934

Shell Chateau— Aug. 31, 1935

Fleischmann Hour—Feb. 6, 1936

Lights Out "Cat Wife"—June 17, 1936

Royal Gelatin Hour—Sept. 3, 1936

Royal Gelatin Hour—Nov. 11, 1937

Chase & Sanborn Hour—Jan. 1938

Baker's Broadcast—Feg Murray, Ozzie Nelson, Harriet Hilliard, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, March 13, 1938

Lights Out—March 23, 1938

Lights Out—March 30, 1938

Lights Out—April 13, 1938

Lights Out—April 20, 1938

Royal Gelatin Hour—May 5, 1938

Royal Gelatin Hour—April 6, 1939

Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge—Dec. 25, 1940

Stars on Parade "The Big Man"—1941

Information Please—Jan. 24, 1941

Inner Sanctum Mysteries—March 6, 1941

Kate Smith Hour—March 7, 1941

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Man of Steel"—March 16, 1941

Hollywood News Girl—March 22, 1941

Inner Sanctum Mysteries—April 16, 1941

The Voice of Broadway— April 19, 1941

Inner Sanctum Mysteries—April 20, 1941

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Imperfect Crime"—May 11, 1941 Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Fall of the House of Usher"—June 1, 1941 Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Green-Eyed Bat"—June 22, 1941

United Press On the Air—July 11, 1941

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Tell-Tale Heart"—August 3, 1941 Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Terror on Bailey Street"—October 26, 1941. Best Plays "Arsenic and Old Lace." Cast: Boris Karloff, Jean Adair, Donald Cook, Edgar Stehli, Evelyn Varden, Wendell Holmes, Joan Tompkins. 1941 Time to Smile Eddie Cantor, Dinah Shore, Boris Karloff—Dec. 17, 1941 Keep 'em Rolling—Morton Gould, Clifton Fadiman, Boris Karloff. Feb. 8, 1942 Information Please—Feb. 20, 1942 Inner Sanctum Mysteries—April 19, 1942

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "Study For Murder"—May 3, 1942 Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Cone"—

May 24, 1942

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "Death Wears My Face"—May 31, 1942 The Charlie McCarthy Show Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Boris Karloff.

Blue Ribbon Town Groucho Marx, Virginia O'Brien, Fay MacKenzie, Boris Karloff—June 3, 1944

Creeps By Night Host: Boris Karloff—Feb. 15, 1944-August 15, 1944.

Camel Comedy Caravan—1944

Duffy's Tavern—Jan. 12, 1945

Suspense—Jan. 25, 1945

The Fred Allen Show—Oct. 14, 1945

Those Websters—Oct. 19, 1945

Hildegarde's Radio Room—Oct. 23, 1945

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Corridor of Doom"—Oct. 23, 1945 Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Man Who Couldn't Die"—Oct. 30,1945. Report to The Nation John Daly, Boris Karloff, Alan Young,Maxine Sullivan— Nov. 4, 1945

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "The Wailing Wall"—Nov. 6, 1945

The Theatre Guild On the Air "Where the Cross Is Made"—Nov. 11, 1945

The Helen Hayes Show "Angel Street." Cast: Helen Hayes, Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke—Dec. 8, 1945

Exploring the Unknown "The Baffled Genie"—Dec. 23, 1945 Information Please—Dec. 24, 1945

Request Performance "The Reconversion of Karloff." Boris Karloff, Frank Morgan, Roy Rogers, Janet Blair, Allan Jones—Feb. 3, 1946 That's Life—Nov. 8, 1946

The Lady Esther Screen Guild Playhouse "Arsenic and Old Lace." Cast: Boris Karloff, Eddie Albert, Verna Felton, Jane Morgan, Joseph Kearns—

Nov. 25, 1946

Show Stoppers—1946

The Jack Benny Show "I Stand Condemned"—Jan. 19, 1947

Duffy's Tavern—May 21, 1947

Lights Out—July 16, July 23, July 30, August 6, 1947

Philco Radio Time—Oct. 29, 1947

The Jimmy Durante Show—Dec. 10, 1947

Suspense "Wet Saturday"—Dec. 19, 1947

Kraft Music Hall, Al Jolson, Boris Karloff, Oscar Levant—Dec. 25, 1947; Guest Star—Sept. 12, 1948

NBC University Theatre "The History of Mr. Polly"—Oct. 17, 1948 The Sealtest Dorothy Lamour Show—Oct. 28, 1948

Great Scenes from Great Plays "On Borrowed Time." Cast: Boris Karloff, Parker Fennelly—Oct. 29, 1948

Truth or Consequences—Oct. 30, 1948

Theater USA—Feb. 3, 1949

Spike Jones Spotlight Review—April 9, 1949

The Theatre Guild On the Air "Perfect Alibi." Cast: Boris Karloff, Joan Loring—May 29, 1949 The Sealtest Dorothy Lamour Show—June 23, 1949

Starring Boris Karloff. Host: Boris Karloff. "Five Golden Guineas," "The Mask," "Mungahara," "Mad Illusion," "Perchance to Dream," "The Devil Takes A Bride," "The Moving Finger," "The Twisted Path," "False Face," "Cranky Bill," "Three O'Clock," "The Shop at Sly Corner," "The Night Reveals."—Sept. 21, 1949-Dec. 14, 1949 Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel—Jan. 30, 1950 Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel —July 21, 1950 Boris Karloff's Treasure Chest—September 1950

The Theatre Guild on the Air "David Copperfield." Cast: Richard Burton, Boris Karloff, Cyril Ritchard, Flora Robson—Dec. 24, 1950

Duffy's Tavern—Oct. 5, 1951

Phillip Morris Playhouse—Feb. 10, 1952

Theatre Guild On the Air "Oliver Twist." Cast: Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Melville Cooper—Feb.

24, 1952

The Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Show—April 13, 1952

Theatre Guild On the Air "The Sea Wolf." Cast: Boris Karloff, Edward G. Robinson—April 27, 1952

Phillip Morris Playhouse "Outward Bound." Cast: Boris Karloff, Edward Hall— June 1, 1952

Inner Sanctum Mysteries "Birdsong For A Murderer"—June 22, 1952 Inner Sanctum Mysteries "Death For Sale"—July 13, 1952

MGM Musical Comedy Theatre "Yolanda and the Thief." Cast: Boris Karloff, Lisa Kirk, John Conte, John Griggs, Wendell Holmes, Eileen Heckart—Nov. 16, 1952

Phillip Morris Playhouse "Man Against Town"—Dec. 10, 1952 Phillip Morris Playhouse "Dead Past"—April 15, 1953 Heritage "Plague"—April 23, 1953

Phillip Morris Playhouse "On Borrowed Time"—June 17, 1953 Reader's Digest—Dec. 16, 1953

The Play of His Choice "The Hanging Judge"—Dec. 1953 (British) Recollections at 30 —Sept. 26, 1956

Easy as ABC "O Is For Old Wives Tales." Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Alfred Hitchcock—April 27, 1958 Reader's Digest Host: Boris Karloff—1956-1969

TELEVISION APPEARANCES

Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (Feb. 7, 1949) NBC

"Expert Opinion." Boris Karloff, Dennis King, Vicki Cummings. Ford Theater (April 11, 1949) CBS

"Arsenic and Old Lace." Boris Karloff, Josephine Hull, William Prince, Ruth McDevitt, Bert Freed, Edgar Stehli.

Texaco Star Theater (April 12, 1949)

NBC

Milton Berle, Boris Karloff, Richard Tucker.

Preview (April 25, 1949) CBS Tex McCrary, Jinx Falkenburg, Boris Karloff.

Suspense (April 26, 1949)

CBS

"A Night at an Inn" Boris Karloff.

Chevrolet on Broadway (May 9, 1949)

NBC

"A Passenger to Bali" Boris Karloff

Suspense (March 17, 1953)

CBS

"The Black Prophet" Boris Karloff, Leslie Nielsen.

Robert Montgomery Presents (March 30, 1953)

NBC

"Burden of Proof" Boris Karloff.

Tales of Tomorrow (April 3, 1953) ABC

"Past Tense" Boris Karloff, Robert F. Simon, Katherine Meskill.

Quick As A Flash (May 7, 1953) ABC

Laraine Day, Leo Durocher, Boris Karloff, June Lockhart. Karloff made a second appearance on this show with Wendy Barrie.

Plymouth Playhouse (also called ABC Album) (May 24, 1953) ABC

"The Chase" Boris Karloff, Philip Truex.

Suspense (June 23, 1953)

CBS

"The Signal Man" Boris Karloff, Alan Webb.

Colonel March of Scotland Yard (Premiered in syndication December 1953) Boris Karloff, Ewan Roberts. Producer: Hannah Weinstein. 26 episodes including "Death in the Dressing Room," "Death in Inner Space," "Error at Daybreak," "The Silver Curtain," "The Case of the Misguided Missal," "Hot Money," "Murder is Permanent," "The Case of the Kidnapped Poodle," "The Stolen Crime," "The New Invisible Man," "The Talking Head," "The Case of the Lively Ghost," "The Sorcerer," "Silent Vow,"

"Deadly Gift," "The Headless Hat," "The Sorcerer," Gift," "Death and the Other Monkey," "The Second Mona Lisa," "The Strange Event at Roman Falls," "The Devil Sells His Soul," and "All Cats Are Gray At Night."

I've Got A Secret (1954)

CBS

The exact date of Karloff's appearance is unknown.

I've Got a Secret (Oct. 13, 1954)

CBS

Karloff was the surprise guest.

Truth or Consequences (Nov. 7, 1954)

NBC

Karloff was a guest on this game show.

Climax! (Dec. 17, 1954)

CBS

"White Carnations" Boris Karloff, Teresa Wright.

Down You Go (Dec. 1954-Feb. 1955) Dumont

Karloff was a panelist on this game show. He was seen on Dec. 17 and 25, Jan.

21 and 28, and Feb. 10 and 24.

The Best of Broadway (Jan. 5, 1955) CBS

"Arsenic and Old Lace" Helen Hayes, Billie Burke, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Orson Bean, Edward Everett Horton, John Alexander, Bruce Gordon. Writers: Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

Producer: Martin Manulis. Director: Herbert Bayard Swope, Jr.

The Donald O'Connor Texaco Show (Feb. 19, 1955)

NBC

Boris Karloff, Sid Miller, Joyce Smight.

The Elgin TV Hour (Feb. 22, 1955) ABC

"The Sting of Death" Boris Karloff, Hermoine Gingold, Martyn Green. Writer: Alvin Sapinsley.

Producer: Herbert Brodkin. Director: Daniel Petrie.

Max Liebman Presents (March 12, 1955) NBC

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" Eddie Albert, Janet Blair, Boris Karloff, Gale Sherwood, Leonard Elliott, John Conte. Writers: William Friedberg, Neil Simon, Will Glickman, Al Schwartz. Associate Producer and Director: Bill Hobin. Producer and Director: Max Liebman.

Who Said That? (April 30, 1955) ABC

John K.M. McCaffrey, Jimmy Cannon, Boris Karloff, Harriet Van Horne.

General Electric Theatre (May 1, 1955) CBS

"Mr. Blue Ocean" Anthony Perkins, Susan Strasberg, Boris Karloff, Eli Wallach, Bramwell Fletcher.

I've Got A Secret (Aug. 24, 1955)

CBS

Karloff was the surprise guest.

The U.S. Steel Hour (Aug. 31, 1955) CBS

"Counterfeit" Boris Karloff, John McGiver, Jessie Royce Landis.

Alcoa Hour (April 15, 1956) NBC

"Even the Weariest River" Franchot Tone, Christopher Plummer, Lee Grant, Boris Karloff, Jason Robards, Jr., Milton Selzer. Writer: Alvin Sapinsley. Producer: Herbert Brodkin. Director: Robert Mulligan.

The Amazing Dunninger (July 18, 1956)

ABC

Karloff guest starred.

Frankie Lane Time (Aug. 8, 1956)

CBS

Boris Karloff, the Edith Barstow Dancers.

The Ernie Kovacs Show (Aug. 13, 1956)

NBC

Boris Karloff, Barbara Loden.

Climax! (Sept. 6, 1956) CBS

"Bury Me Later" Boris Karloff, Angela Lansbury, Torin Thatcher, Henry Jones.

Playhouse 90 (Oct. 25, 1956) CBS

"Rendezvous in Black" Franchot Tone, Laraine Day, Tom Drake, Boris Karloff, Viveca Lindfors, Elizabeth Patterson. Writer: James P. Cavanagh. Producer: Martin Manulis. Director: John Frankenheimer.

The Red Skelton Show (Nov. 27, 1956)

CBS

Boris Karloff, Eva Gabor.

The $64,000 Question (Dec. 11, 18, 25, 1956) CBS

Karloff successfully answered questions in the category of children's stories.

A To Z (1957)

British TV

Karloff guest starred.

Hallmark Hall of Fame (Feb. 10, 1957) NBC

"The Lark" Julie Harris, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Eli Wallach, Denholm Elliott, Jack Warden, Bruce Gordon. Writer:James Costigan. Producer and Director: George Schaefer.

Omnibus (Feb. 24, 1957) ABC

Boris Karloff, William Marshall, Lloyd Bochner, Henry Jones, Cleveland Amory, Jean-Louis Barrault.

Lux Video Theater (April 25, 1957) NBC

"The Man Who Played God" Boris Karloff, June Lockhart.

Kate Smith Hour (April 28, 1957) ABC

Gertrude Berg, Edgar Bergen, Benny Goodman, Boris Karloff, Ed Wynn, Billy Williams Quartet.

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (May 17, 1957)

NBC

Art Carney, Betty Hutton, Boris Karloff.

The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney (Oct. 31, 1957)

NBC

Robert Cummings, Boris Karloff, Gale Storm.

The Gisele MacKenzie Show (Nov. 16, 1957)

NBC

Boris Karloff, Johnny Desmond.

Suspicion (Dec. 9, 1957) NBC

"The Deadly Game" Gary Merrill, Joseph Wiseman, Boris Karloff, Harry Townes, Ian Wolfe, Frank Campanella. Writer: James Yaffe.

What's My Line? British TV

The exact date of Karloff's appearance on England's version of this show is unknown.

The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney (Jan. 8, 1958)

NBC

Karloff guest starred.

The Betty White Show (Feb. 12, 1958)

ABC

Buster Keaton, Boris Karloff.

Telephone Time (Feb. 25, 1958) ABC

"Vestris" Boris Karloff, Torin Thatcher, Rita Lynn. Writer: David Evans. Producer: Jerry Stagg.

Director: Arthur Hiller.

Shirley Temple's Storybook (March 5, 1958) NBC

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Shirley Temple, Boris Karloff, John Ericson, Jules Munshin, Russell Collins. Director: Paul Bogart.

Studio One (March 31, 1958) CBS

"Shadow of a Genius" Boris Karloff, Eva LeGallienne, Skip Homeier, Patricia Barry. Writer: Jerome Rise. Director: Ralph Nelson.

The Jack Paar Show (also called The Tonight Show) April 22, 1958 NBC

Diahann Carroll, Betty Garrett, Boris Karloff, Elsa Maxwell.

Playhouse 90 (Nov. 6, 1958) CBS

"Heart of Darkness" Roddy MacDowall, Richard Haydn, Oscar Homolka, Boris Karloff, Eartha Kitt, Cathleen Nesbitt, Inga Swenson, the Katharine Dunham Dancers. Writer: Stewart Stern. Producer: Fred Coe. Director: Ron Winston.

This Is Your Life (Nov. 13, 1958) NBC

Karloff was the surprised guest of host Ralph Edwards, along with friends and family, including Evelyn Karloff, Sara Jane Karloff, Jack Pierce, and Frank Brink.

The Veil (December 1958) Syndicated

Karloff appeared in and hosted this pilot for an unsold anthology produced by Hal Roach, Jr. Among the episodes were "The Crystal Ball," "The Doctor," "Genesis," and "What Happened to Peggy." They have been broadcast as TV-movies titled Destination: Nightmare and Jack the Ripper.

The Gale Storm Show (Jan. 31, 1959) CBS

"It's Murder, My Dear" Boris Karloff, Zasu Pitts, Roy Roberts.

General Electric Theatre (May 17, 1959) CBS

"Indian Giver" Edgar Buchanan, Jackie Coogan, Boris Karloff, Carmen Mathews.

Playhouse 90 (Feb. 9, 1960) CBS

"To the Sound of Trumpets" Stephen Boyd, Dolores Hart, Dan O'Herlihy, Judith Anderson, Boris Karloff, Sam Jaffe, Robert Coote. Writer: John Gay. Producer: Herbert Brodkin. Director: Buzz Kulik.

DuPont Show of the Month (March 5, 1960) CBS

"Treasure Island" Hugh Griffith, Max Adrian, Michael Gough, Boris Karloff, Barry Morse, Tim O'Connor, Richard O'Sullivan, George Rose. Writer: Michael Dyne. Producer: David Susskind.

Director: Daniel Petrie.

Upgreen, and At 'Em Or A Maiden Nearly Over (Spring 1960) British TV. Richard Attenborough, Jimmy Edwards, Boris Karloff.

Breck Sunday Showcase (April 3, 1960) NBC

"Hollywood Sings" Eddie Albert, Tammy Grimes, Boris Karloff.

The Secret World of Eddie Hodges (June 23, 1960) CBS

Eddie Hodges, Jackie Gleason, Margaret Hamilton, Boris Karloff, Bert Lahr, Hugh O'Brian, Janis Paige. Writers: John Aylesworth and Frank Peppiatt. Director: Norman Jewison.

Thriller (Sept. 13, 1960-July 9, 1962) NBC

Karloff hosted all 67 episodes of this horror/suspense anthology. The five he
acted in are: "The Prediction" (Nov. 22, 1960) with Audrey Dalton and Alex Davion. Writer: Donald S. Sanford. Director: John Brahm.

"The Premature Burial" (Oct. 2, 1961) with Sidney Blackmer, Patricia Medina, and Scott Marlowa.

Writer:William D. Gordon. Director: Douglas Heyes.

"The Last of the Sommervilles" (Nov. 6, 1961) with Martita Hunt, Phyllis Thaxter, and Peter Walker.

Writer: R.M.H. Lupino and Ida Lupino. Director: Ida Lupino.

"Dialogues with Death" (Dec. 4, 1961) Two half-hour stories: "Friend of the Dead" with Ed Nelson and "Welcome Home" with Ed Nelson and Estelle Winwood. Writer: Robert Arthur. Director: Herschel Daugherty. "The Incredible Doktor Markesan" (Feb. 26, 1962) with Dick York and Carolyn Kearney. Writer: Donald S. Sanford. Director: Robert Florey. Producers: Fletcher Markle, William Frye. Associate Producers: Douglas Benton, James Wharton. Executive Producer: Hubbell Robinson.

Hallmark Hall of Fame (Feb. 5, 1962) NBC

"Arsenic and Old Lace" Tony Randall, Mildred Natwick, Dorothy Stickney, Boris Karloff, Tom Bosley, George Voskovec. Writer: Robert Hartung. Producer and Director: George Schaefer.

P.M. East-P.M. West (Feb. 12, 1962) Syndicated.

Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson hosted a tribute to director George Schaefer with guests Maurice Evans, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Boris Karloff, Tony Randall, and Ed Wynn.

Theatre '62 (March 11, 1962) NBC

"The Paradine Case."Richard Basehart, Viveca Lindfors, Boris Karloff, Robert Webber, Tom Helmore, Bramwell Fletcher. Writer: Robert Goldman. Director: Alex March.

The Dickie Henderson Show (June 1962)

British TV

Karloff guest starred.

Route 66 (Oct. 26, 1962) CBS

"Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing" George Maharis, Martin Milner, Lon Chaney, Jr., Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre. Writer: Stirling Silliphant. Director: Robert Gist.

Out of This World (1962) British TV

Karloff hosted all 13 episodes of this science-fiction series.

I've Got A Secret (Jan. 28, 1963)

CBS

Karloff guest starred.

The Hy Gardner Show (March 3, 1963) WOR

Karloff and Peter Lorre guested on this New York talk show.

The Jimmy Dean Show (Oct. 31, 1963)

ABC

Karloff guest starred.

The Today Show (Nov. 8, 1963) NBC

Karloff and Fay Wray appeared to discuss horror films.

Chronicle (Dec. 25, 1963) CBS

Karloff narrated "A Danish Fairy Tale," a documentary on the life of Hans Christian Andersen.

The Garry Moore Show (April 21, 1964)

CBS

Boris Karloff, Alan King, Dorothy Loudon.

The Entertainers (Jan. 16, 1965) CBS

Carol Burnett, Ruth Buzzi, John Davidson, Dom DeLuise, Chita Rivera, Caterina Valente, Boris Karloff.

Shindig (Oct. 30, 1965) ABC

Jimmy O'Neill, Ted Cassidy, Boris Karloff, Bobby Sherman.

The Wild, Wild West (Sept. 23, 1966) CBS

"Night of the Golden Cobra" Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Boris Karloff, Audrey Dalton.

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (Sept. 27, 1966) NBC

"The Mother Muffin Affair" Stefanie Powers, Robert Vaughn, Boris Karloff, Bruce Gordon, Leo G.

Carroll.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Dec. 18, 1966) CBS

Karloff narrated and provided the voice of the Grinch. Animation: Chuck Jones. Adaptation: Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) from his book.

I Spy (Feb. 22, 1967) NBC

"Mainly on the Plains" Robert Culp, Bill Cosby, Boris Karloff, Carl Schell.

The Red Skelton Show (Sept. 24, 1968)

CBS

Boris Karloff, Vincent Price.

The Jonathan Winters Show (Oct. 30, 1968)

CBS

Boris Karloff, Agnes Moorehead.

The Name of the Game (Nov. 29, 1968) NBC

"The White Birch" Gene Barry, Susan Saint James, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Peter Deuel, Ben Gazzara, Richard Jaeckel, Boris Karloff, Bethel Leslie, Roddy MacDowall, Susan Oliver, Lilia Skala Director: Lamont Johnson.

COMMERCIALS

1966: Butternut Coffee, Schaeffer Pens. 1967: Volkswagen

1968: A-1 Sauce, Ronson Lighters. 1960s: Karloff did a British ad for beer.

DISCOGRAPHY

Aesop's Fables, Caedmon TC 1221 Karloff read the following: "The Ant and the Grasshopper," "The Fox and the Lion," "The Oak and the Reed," "The Wolf and the Crane," "The Vain Jackdaw," "The Mountain in Labor," "The Old Hound," "The Cock and the Jewel," "The Man and the Satyr," "The Flies and the Honey-Pot," "Mercury and the Woodman," "The Tortoise and the Eagle," "The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf," "The Ass and the Grasshopper," "The Fox and the Goat," "The Hare and the Tortoise,"

"The Frog and the Ox," "The Fox and the Grapes," "The Dog and the Shadow," "The Crow and the Pitcher," "The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse," "The Travellers and the Bear," "The Gnat and the Bull," "The Lion and His Three Counsellors," "The Eagle and the Arrow," "The Wind and the Sun,"

"The Mice in Council," "The Lion in Love," "The Hare and the Hound," "The One-Eyed Doe,"

"Hercules and the Wagoner," "The Lioness," "The Angler and the Little Fish," "The Farmer and His Sons," "The Country Maid and Her Milk Can," "The Thief and His Mother," "The Goose with the Golden Eggs," "The Old Man and Death," "The Boy Bathing," '"Venus and the Cat," "The Boys and the Frogs," "The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass."

Best-loved Fairy Tales Childcraft, CLP 1206

Classics of English Poetry for the Elementary Curriculum, Caedmon TC 1301 Read by Jeremy Brett, Katharine Cornell, Ronald Fraser, George Grizzard, Boris Karloff, James Mason, Frederick O'Neal, Ralph Richardson, Cyril Ritchard. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," "Breathes There a Man," "Lochinvar," "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," "Incident of the French Camp," "My Last Duchess," "The Owl and the Pussycat," "How Do I Love Thee?" "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "Gunga Din," "The Law of the Jungle," "The Highwaymen."

Come My Laurie with Me/He is There, MOL (45 rpm)

Cymbeline by William Shakespeare , Caedmon SRS 236. (1962) Read by Boris Karloff, Claire Bloom, Pamela Brown, John Fraser, Alan Dobie, Paul Daneman, Walter Hudd, John Dane, Robin Palmer, Wallas Eaton, James Cairncross, Stephen Moore, Harold Lang, Eric House, Eric Jones, Douglas Muir, Richard Dare, Derek Godfrey, Judith South.

The Daydreamer, Columbia OL-6540/05-2940 (1966) Soundtrack from the animated feature.

Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas Leo the Lion , S-901 (1967)Soundtrack from the TV
special.

An Evening with Boris Karloff and His Friends, Decca DL-4833 (1967) Karloff narrated and introduced scenes from Universal's horror classics. Selections are from Dracula, Frankenstein, The

Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man , and House of Frankenstein. Written and produced by Verne Langdon, Milt Larsen, and Forrest J. Ackerman. Original background music by William Loose.

Rudyard Kipling: Gunga Din and Other Poems, Caedmon TC 1193 Read by Nigel Davenport, Ronald Fraser, Boris Karloff, Murray Melvin, Edward Woodward. "The Law of the Jungle,"

"Recessional," "Song of the GalleySlaves," "To Thomas Atkins," "The Way Throughthe Woods," "The White Man's Burden," "A Song of the English,""The Song of the Dead, II," "The Ballad of East and West," "Gunga Din," "The Ladies," "Fuzzy-Wuzzy," "Mandalay," "Tommy," "Danny Deever."

Rudyard Kipling: How the Alphabet Was Made and Other Just So Stories, Caedmon TC 1361

Karloff read "How the First Letter Was Written" and "The Crab That Played with the Sea."

Rudyard Kipling: The Cat That Walked By Himself and Other Just So Stories, Caedmon TC 1139.

Karloff read "The Cat That Walked By Himself," "The Butterfly That Stamped," and "How the First Letter Was Written."

Rudyard Kipling: The Elephant's Child and Other Just So Stories, Caedmon TC 1088. Karloff read

"The Elephant's Child," "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo," "The Beginning of the Armadillos,"

and "How the Leopard Got His Spots."

Rudyard Kipling: How Fear Came, Caedmon TC 1100.

Rudyard Kipling: Toomai of the Elephants, Caedmon TC 1176.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, Pickwick CR-32/reissue SPC-5156. Arranged and produced by Ralph Stein. Script by Sid and Helen Frank. Words and music by Frank and Judy Stein.

Let's Listen Stories, Caedmon TC 1182. Read by Julie Harris, Boris Karloff, Gwen Verdon. Karloff read "Petunia, Beware" and "The Pony Engine."

The Little Match Girl and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Caedmon TC 1117. Karloff read

"The Little Match Girl," "Thumbelina," "The Swine-herd," "The Top and the Ball," and "The Red Shoes." Translated by Reginald Spink.

Mad Monster Party, RCA Soundtrack from the animated feature.

Mother Goose, Caedmon TC 1091. Read by Celeste Holm, Boris Karloff, and Cyril Ritchard. Music by Hershy Kay.

Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev , Childcraft CLP 13, also on Vanguard VRS-1208/VSP-2010/reissue SRV-174. Karloff narrated.

Peter Pan by James M. Barrie, Columbia AOL 4312. Soundtrack from the Broadway musical.

Presented by Peter Lawrence and Roger L. Stevens. Director: John Burrell. Associate Director: Wendy Toye. Recording Director: Robert Lewis Shayon. Incidental Music: Alec Wilder. Musical Conductor: Ben Steinberg. Record Adaptation: Henry Walsh. Narrator: Torin Thatcher. Songs and lyrics: Leonard Bernstein. Karloff sang "The Pirate Song" and "The Plank." Cast: Jean Arthur, Boris Karloff, Peg Hillias, Marcia Henderson, Jack Dimond, Charles Taylor, Norman Shelly, Lee Barnett, Richard Knox, Philip Hepburn, Charles Brill, Edward Benjamin, Buzzy Martin, Joe E. Marks, David Kurlan, Will Scholz, Nehemiah Persoff, Harry Allen, John Dennis, William Marshall, Vincent Beck.

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, Caedmon TC 1121. Karloff read "The Story of the Goblin Who Stole A Sexton."

The Pied Piper and The Hunting of the Snark, Caedmon TC 1075. Karloff read the stories by Robert Browning and Lewis Carroll.

The Pony Engine and Other Stories For Children ,Caedmon TC 1355, CP-1355. Julie Harris, Boris Karloff, David Wayne. Karloff read "The Pony Engine," "The Old Woman and Her Pig," and "The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse."

The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame, Caedmon TC 1074.

Tales of the Frightened, Volume 1, Mercury MG 20815/Stereo 60815 (1963). Karloff read "The Man in the Raincoat," "The Deadly Dress," "The Hand of Fate," "Don't Lose Your Head," "Call at Midnight," "Just Inside the Cemetery," and "The Fortune Teller." Writer: Michael Avallone. Producer: Lyle Kenyon Engel. Assistant Producer: Marla Ray. Editor: George S. Engel.

Tales of the Frightened, Volume 2, Mercury 60816 (1963). Karloff read "The Vampire Sleeps,"

"Mirror of Death," "Never Kick a Black Cat," "The Ladder," "Nightmare!" "Voice from the Grave,"

"Theda is Death," "The Barking Dog," "Defilers of the Tombs," "Terror in the Window," "Tom, Dick, and Horror," "Portrait in Hell," "The Graveyard Nine," "Say Goodnight to Mr. Sporko," "Beware the Bird," "The Phantom Soldier," "Some Things Shouldn't Be Seen," "You Can Take It with You,"

"Children of the Devil." Writer: Michael Avallone. Producer: Lyle Kenyon Engel.

The Three Little Pigs and Other Fairy Tales , Caedmon TC 1129. Karloff read "The Three Little Pigs," "The Three Bears," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "The Old Woman and Her Pig," "Henny Penny,"

"Hereafterthis," "The Three Sillies," and "King of the Cats."

The Ugly Duckling and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Caedmon TC 1109. Karloff read

"The Ugly Duckling," "The Shepherdess and the Chimney-Sweep," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Collar," "ClodPoll," and "The Fir-Tree."

The United States Air Force Band Presents Christmas (1967). Karloff read "Timmy Discovers Christmas," an original story written by Master Sergeant Ed Dawkins. Original music composed by Chief Master Sergeant Floyd Werle and performed by the U.S. Air Force Band. Conductor: Lieutenant Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel. Also featured was singer Nancy Wilson, with the Doodletown Pipers, performing "It's Christmas Time." Executive Producer: Major Jack Oswald. This album, not released
commercially, was distributed to radio stations nationwide.

The Year Without a Santa Claus , Capitol SL 6588 (1968). Narrator: Boris Karloff. Writer: Phyllis McGinley.

BROADWAY APPEARANCES

Arsenic and Old Lace

Author: Joseph Kesselring. Producers: Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Director: Bretaigne Windust. Settings and Costumes: Raymond Sovey. Opened Jan. 10, 1941 at the Fulton. Closed June 1942 after 1,444 performances. National tour. Cast: Josephine Hull (Abby Brewster), Jean Adair (Martha Brewster), Boris Karloff (Jonathan Brewster), Allyn Joslyn (Morimer Brewster), John Alexander (Teddy Brewster), Helen Brooks (Elaine Harper), Edgar Stehli (Dr. Einstein), Wyrley Birch (the Reverend Dr. Harper), John Quigg (Officer Brophy), Bruce Gordon (Officer Klein), Anthony Ross (Officer O'Hara), Victor Sutherland (Lieutenant Rooney), Henry Herbert (Mr. Gibbs), William Parke (Mr. Witherspoon).

The Linden Tree

Author: J.B. Priestley. Producer: Maurice Evans. Director: George Schaefer. Settings: Peter Wolf.

Costumes: Frank Thompson. Opened March 2, 1948 at the Music Box. Closed March 6, 1948 after 7
performances. Cast: Boris Karloff (Professor Robert Linden), Una O'Connor (Mrs. Colton), Noel Leslie (Alfred Lockhart), Barbara Everest (Mrs. Linden), Halliwell Hobbes, Jr. (Rex Linden), Viola Keats (Jean Linden), Cathleen Cordell (Marion Linden), Mary Kimber (Edith Westmore), Marilyn Erskine (Dinah Linden), Emmett Rogers (Bernard Fawcett).

The Shop at Sly Corner

Author: Edward Percy. Producer: Grant Gaither. Director: Margaret Perry. Settings and Costumes: Willis Knighton. Opened Jan. 18, 1949 at the Booth. Closed Jan. 22, 1949 after 7 performances. Cast: Boris Karloff (Descius Heiss), Jay Robinson (Archie Fellowes), Mary MacLeod (Margaret Heiss), Jane-Lloyd-Jones (Joan Deal), Ethel Griffies (Mathilde Heiss), Una O'Connor (Mrs. Catt), Philip Saville (Robert Graham), Emmett Rogers (Corder Morris), Alfred Hyslop (Steve Hubbard), Reginald Mason (John Elliot).

Peter Pan

Author: James M. Barrie. Producers: Peter Lawrence and Roger L. Stevens. Director: John Burrell.

Assistant Director: Wendy Toye. Music and Lyrics: Leonard Bernstein. Orchestrations: Hershy Kay.

Music Coordination and Arrangements: Trude Rittman. Incidental Music: Alec Wilder. Musical Conductor: Ben Steinberg. Settings: Ralph Alswang. Costumes: Motley. Opened April 24, 1950 at the Imperial. Closed Jan. 27, 1951 after 321 performances. National tour. Cast: Jean Arthur (Peter Pan), Boris Karloff (Mr.Darling/Captain Hook), Peg Hillias (Mrs. Darling), Marcia Henderson (Wendy), Jack Dimond (John), Charles Taylor (Michael), Norman Shelly (Nana/The Crocodile), Gloria Patrice (Liza/Tiger Lily), Lee Barnett (Tootles), Richard Knox (Slightly), Philip Hepburn (Curly), Charles Brill and Edward Benjamin (The Twins), Buzzy Martin (Nibs), Joe E. Marks (Smee), David Kurlan (Starkey), Will Scholz (Jukes), Nehemiah Persoff (Cecco), Harry Allen (Mullins), John Dennis (Noodler), William Marshall (Cookson), Vincent Beck (Whibbles).

The Lark

Author: Lillian Hellman. Based on the play L'Alouette by Jean Anouilh. Producer: Kermit Bloomgarden. Director: Joseph Anthony. Music: Leonard Bernstein. Settings and Lighting: Jo Mielziner. Costumes: Alvin Colt. Opened Nov. 17, 1955 at the Longacre. Closed June 1956 after 229
performances. National tour. Cast: Julie Harris (Joan of Arc), Boris Karloff (Bishop Cauchon), Christopher Plummer (Warwick), Ward Costello (Joan's Father), Lois Holmes (Joan's Mother), John Reese (Joan's Brother), Roger De Koven (The Promoter), Joseph Wiseman (The Inquisitor), Michael Higgins (Brother Ladvenu), Theodore Bikel (Robert De Beaudricourt), Ann Hillary (Agnes Sorel), Joan Elan (The Young Queen), Paul Roebling (The Dauphin), Rita Vale (Queen Yolande), Bruce Gordon (Monsieur de la Tremouielle/Captain La Hire), Richard Nicholls (Archbishop of Rheims), Ralph Roberts (Executioner), Leonard Knight (English Soldier), Joe Bernard (Scribe).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ackerman, Forrest J., ed., The Frankenscience Monster, Ace Publishing Co., 1969.

"A Fiery Particle," Time, Nov. 28, 1955. American Theatre Wing, The Tony Award, 1980.

Arliss, George, My Ten Years in the Studios , Little, Brown, & Co., 1940. "Being A Monster Is Really A Game," TV Guide, Sept. 13, 1960. Bennetts, Leslie, "A 40s Classic Returns to Broadway," TheNew York Times,

June 22, 1986.

Bogdanovich, Peter, Pieces of Time, Arbor House/Esquire, 1973. Bojarski, Richard and Beals, Kenneth, The Films of Boris Karloff, The

Citadel Press, 1974.

"Boris Karloff," Current Biography, 1941.

Bronner, Edwin, The Encyclopedia of the American Theatre 1900-1975, A.S.

Barnes & Co., 1976.

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network TV Shows1946-Present, Ballantine Books, 1979.

Burns, Aleene, "Karloff Runs Thriller Biz " Los Angeles Times, Sept. 10, 1960.

Crist, Judith, "In the First Time Out," New York , Aug. 19, 1968. Dunning, John, Tune In Yesterday , Published by the author, 1976. Eames, John Douglas, The MGM Story, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1979.

Evans, Maurice, All This ... and Evans Too! University of South Carolina Press, 1987.

Everson, William K., Classics of the Horror Film, The Citadel Press, 1974. "Frankenstein Finished,"

The New York Times, Oct. 11, 1931.

Gerani, Gary with Schulman, Paul, Fantastic Television, Harmony Books, 1977.

Gifford, Denis, Karloff: The Man, The Monster, The Movies, Curtis Books, 1973.

Gingold, Hermoine, How To Grow Old Disgracefully, St. Martin's Press, 1988.

Ginnakos, Larry James, Television Drama Series Programming: A

Comprehensive Chronicle 1947-1959, The Scarecrow Press, 1980.

Hirschorn, Clive, The Universal Story, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1983. "How They Sweated Out The Chills," TV Guide, May 6, 1961. Humphrey, Hal, "Curtain Call For Mr. Frankenstein," Los Angeles Times,

Oct. 24, 1962.

"James Whale and 'Frankenstein,'" The New York Times , Dec. 20, 1961. Jensen, Paul M., Boris Karloff and His Films, A.S. Barnes & Co., 1974. Kaplan, Mike, ed., Variety Presents the Complete Book of Major U.S. Show

Business Awards, Garland Publishing Inc., 1985.

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Monster," The Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 3, 1962.

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Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Title

Introduction

EARLY STAGES

IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!

AN ACTOR PROSPERS

HAUNTING THE AIRWAVES

THE LAST DECADE

FILMOGRAPHY

Sound Films

SHORT FILMS

RADIO

TELEVISION APPEARANCES

COMMERCIALS

DISCOGRAPHY

BROADWAY APPEARANCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Document Outline

- Title
- Copyright
- Title
- Introduction
- EARLY STAGES
- IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!
- AN ACTOR PROSPERS
- HAUNTING THE AIRWAVES
- THE LAST DECADE
- FILMOGRAPHY
- Sound Films
- SHORT FILMS
- RADIO
- TELEVISION APPEARANCES
- COMMERCIALS
- DISCOGRAPHY
- BROADWAY APPEARANCES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY

Table of Contents

- Title
- Copyright
- Title
- Introduction
- EARLY STAGES
- IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!
- AN ACTOR PROSPERS
- HAUNTING THE AIRWAVES
- THE LAST DECADE
- FILMOGRAPHY
- Sound Films
- SHORT FILMS
- RADIO
- TELEVISION APPEARANCES
- COMMERCIALS
- DISCOGRAPHY
- BROADWAY APPEARANCES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY