The Boris Karloff Blogathon : The Day After

There’s still some tea left. Enough for another sip.

I still have a few late, lost, misplaced or last minute links to post, and really good ones, too, so let’s linger, shall we, and allow ourselves a few more minutes, perhaps a few hours still, in Boris’ gentle company.

Midday Update: Links still trickling in, another handful posted just now. I’ll be taking a bit of a break this evening and I’ll return with my wrap-up post tomorrow.

And do tell me if you’ve enjoyed your week with Boris. The comments section is yours to play with.

In an AWESOME contribution if there ever was one, Micha Michelle proposes an imaginary Things to Make and Do With Boris activity book!

Get out your construction paper, your glue sticks, ask Mom if you can use the scissors, and follow Micha’s easy, step-by-step instructions!

First up, Boris Karloff Finger Puppets! Micha even provides ready-made models with interchangeable heads. Just print, cut, stick your digits through the holes and make Boris dance!

Project Number Two is the No-Clothespin Theater. Cut out the characters, set them into a diorama, and you’ve got your Frankenstein Flaming Windmill playset! Again, there are readymade characters you can download. Just be sure to print out extra copies of the Disgruntled Villagers With Torches. You can never have too many Disgruntled Villagers With Torches.

Thanks, Micha, for an inspired, and insanely fun post! And thank you for helping me wrap up the Blogathon in great style!

Boris jabs with a needle, and Bela gets hypnotized. See a poster and some nice stills from Black Friday on Classic Movie Monsters.

Quick notes and an original trailer for The Body Snatcher (1945), on Panic on the 4^th of July.

Karloff a go-go: Halloween Shindig 1965 is a blog entirely devoted to the search for the missing minutes of Boris performing Monster Mash on TV.

Writer John Rozum has posted some nice photos of Boris in various situations, and a set with makeup genius and friend Jack Pierce, including a rare 1939 color photo of Boris in Frankenstein Monster getup.

The Frankenstein Monster as family curse… A review of Son of Frankenstein (1969) by Joshua Reynolds, on Hunting Monsters. Also up on Joshua’s blog: Boris and Jack Nicholson square off in The Terror (1963). Click and watch the entire film.

As sure as his name was Boris Karloff… Thriller, on Need Coffee dot com.

My friend Tony Espinosa has Karloff images all over the place, if you’re willing to click and scroll around his blog, Draculand, and his tumbler, Vade retro me satana.

Paul Castiglia sneaks in a bonus Blogathon post, in praise of Mad Monster Party?, the puppet animation classic that had Boris, perfectly caricatured in three dimensions, as the host of a joyous monster getogether. You could say that Boris was sampled twice, first as Baron Boris von Frankenstein, voiced by Boris himself, and as Frankenstein’s Monster.

Reviewed on Scared Silly.

Boris goes around the bend and way over the top in The Lost Patrol, a pedal to the metal performance analyzed on Hell on Frisco Bay.

Bill Adcock was a busy contributor to the Blogathon. He wraps it up on Radiation-Scarred Reviews.

Superb, Boris-inspired art by J. Mendez and Jen Lobo, up on The Ladies and Gents Auxiliary. See It Comes to Life!

Billy Pratt was born in England, Karloff the Uncanny was born to movie stardom in the United States, but Boris Karloff was born in Canada. Kitty LeClaw posts Canada Loves Boris Karloff, on Killer Kittens From Beyond the Grave.

Karswell posts another Karloff-inspired Frankenstein comic book story by the great Dick Briefer, this one from the ‘funny monster” period, called How I Conquered a Terrible Plague! On The Horrors of It All.

Boris goes bowling for bullets in the original Scarface (1932), a scene highlighted, along with quotes from Targets director Peter Bogdanovich, in a fine Karloff tribute posted on The Sheila Variations. Read Shocked by Unkindness and Never Less Than Polite.

The Boris Karloff Blogathon : Day Seven

There’s a fresh pot of tea on, just for Boris, here on the set of Son of Frankenstein, as we begin the last day, the final chapter of the Boris Karloff Blogathon.

Enjoy.

It’s safe to say that all of us who have congregated here this week are fond of Boris Karloff. We’ve celebrated his life and his career because we admire him and, yes, many of us could even say that we love Boris Karloff. Greg Ferrara does, too, and he says so, but his intelligent, mature essay is not about love or sentimentality. It’s not about our hearts. It’s about Boris Karloff’s heart.

You must read The Heart of an Actor: Why I Love Boris Karloff, on Cinema Styles.

There’s something on the cover of Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery No. 32 that no other comic book could show. There’s also something missing. Something that every other comic book carried on its cover.

Steve Senski discusses Gold Key’s Boris Karloff comics, and the Comics Code in The Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead, on Heart in a Jar.

Filo Loco posts a picture of Boris wearing an early, unused version of the makeup for the original Frankenstein, and he has a little Karloff-related contest going, with chocolate for a prize! On the always savory Deadlicious.

Even Paul Castiglia, our esteemed expert on Hollywood’s horror-comedies, over at Scared Silly, can’t quite make sense out of the nonsensical The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Then again, it’s an AIP Beach movie starring Boris Karloff. Maybe it’s not supposed to make sense! Worth noting that this one has the obligatory Harvey Lembeck as Eric von Zipper, it’s got Nancy Sinatra, and Basil Rathbone. It also has Susan Hart in an invisible bikini, and it’s got a gorilla named Monstro. Told you. It doesn’t make any sense.

Stacia, at She Blogged by Night, loves the concept, digs the corpse-powered lab (who wouldn’t?), but wasn’t all that impressed by Boris’ 1941 Mad Scientist programmer The Devil Commands, and she spells out why.

Daedalus Howell namechecks Boris, and comes up with some fun results, including a Salvador Dali connection, and stars in a sidewalk. A Karloff by Any Other Name.

A Karloff quote, courtesy of Todd Franklin, at Weird Hollow.

Newspaper ads for Karloff movies. Excuse the cliché, but they sure don’t make newspaper ads like those anymore! Visit Scenes from the Morgue.

A selection of Karloff stills and colorful lobby cards on John’s Forbidden Planet.

When my makeup is off, I’m really quite cute… Boris and Bela sing! Listen to “We’re Horrible, Horrible Men”, on Ormsby’s Cinema Insane Blog.

In The Man Who Changed His Mind (UK, 1936), Karloff has found a way to download — so to speak — the brain’s “thought content”, sort of like brain swapping without the messy surgery. Robert Ring explores the precepts of the mad scientist genre, and how this particular film deals with issues of morality and the nature of evil. A fascinating review, on Sci-Fi Block.

Writer Ryan Harvey makes a case for Imhotep, the sorcerer “whose love has lasted through eternity, but whose humanity has left him” as Karloff’s finest performance. Read Uncanny, on Realm of Ryan.

If, for some inexplicable reason, you’ve never actually seen Frankenstein, you can now do so online, courtesy of Dravens Tales.

William Henry Pratt came from England to Hollywood by way of Canada, landing in Montreal, heading out to Toronto and, from there, stepping across the country, heading west. Somewhere along the way — on a train, as he recalled — Billy Pratt became Boris Karloff. Read The Cold Canadian Air, on Orange and Black.

We know Boris Karloff through his work, and we understand his work — much as we have here this past week — through the words of writers, essayists, critics, film historians and experts who have shared their expertise in print.

John Cozzoli, the generous host of the elegant Zombos’ Closet of Horror, goes looking for Boris in the pages of a shelf-full of books for us. Read Chapters on Boris the Uncanny.

Hal Astell is that most readable of critics: He really loves the films he covers, and he communicates his enjoyment. Hal offers up his smart and entertaining reviews of three Karloff classics…

First up is The Black Room (1935), with Karloff in a rare dual part, shining, obviously, as the more evil of the twins. Best line, splashed across the original poster: Kiss Him and Die!

Next is The Boogeyman Will Get You (1936), a comedy “as joyous as it is improbable”, with Karloff’s shenanigans gleefully supported by Peter Lorre. Best line, spoken by Boris: “You almost ruined my electric helmet!”

Then there’s Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), with Boris as a baritone gone bonkers, and Warner Oland using his wits and then advanced technology to snare him. Best line in this one: “This opera is going on tonight even if Frankenstein walks in!”

If you came for the Karloff reviews, you’ll want to stay for all of Hal’s reviews, on his blog, Apocalypse Later.

Mike Jones introduces us to Kaibutsu-Kun, The Little Monsters, stars of manga, recordings and anime. There’s a tiger-like werewolf, a flying monkey in a top hat Dracula, and Frankenstein’s box-headed Monster, who growls and grunts like Boris did. You have GOT to watch the trailer. Godzilla puts in a cameo!

Also from Mike, aka Michael Sensei, is a look at bobble-head toys, including a Boris Mummy and a Boris Furankenshutain! On the always fun My Two Yen Worth.

A striking monochrome painting of The Monster, captured in acrylics as he makes his first baleful appearance. On Rouble Rust.

Reanimated Rags honors “Boris Karloff's gender-bending, undead glam-mummy fashion metamorphosis”. A celebration of that dreamboat Imhotep, turkish slippers, harem pants, and black kohl eyeliner. What a fun post!

Though it wasn’t the very last film he made, Targets (1968) remains, unarguably, “the one movie that serves as a fitting epitaph” for Boris Karloff. So writes Steven Senski, about Karloff’s self-referential Byron Orlock, “a part that cleaves so close to the truth as to be bittersweet, if not downright sorrowful.”

Read Epitaph, a wonderful contribution, on this last evening of the Blogathon. On Heart in a Jar.

There’s a wealth of great posts up on Adam Gott’s superlative Cool-Mo-Dee. You can click through and explore, or follow me as I spotlight the highlights!

First up, print material, and a fantastic find! Here’s a 1941 article from Liberty magazine called Houses I Have Haunted, attributed to Boris himself. I suspect it was ghosted by a PR man but, anyway, it’s LOADED with material that has been quoted ever since, including his first viewing of Frankenstein, a story about the 1940 All-Star Baseball game, and a line about playing Santa Claus at a Baltimore hospital during tryouts for Arsenic and Old Lace that has since become something like an urban legend claiming that Boris played Santa in Baltimore for sick children every year thereafter.

Here’s another rarely seen print article: A 1946 “Movie of the Week” feature from Life magazine about Bedlam, with great photos. And also from Life, here’s the complete March 15, 1968 issue that celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with Boris and a birthday cake on the cover.

Boris Karloff and Saturday Morning offers up some Karloff animated fun, including a couple of must-sees, The Daydreamer and Juggler of Our Lady. Old Time Radio fans will enjoy episodes of Duffy’s Tavern and Creeps By Night, and you can hear Boris narrate Rip Van Winkle.

Boris on TV is on view. See episodes of Tales of Tomorrow: Past Tense, Colonel March of Scotland Yard, and Thriller!

Plenty of movie treats on Cool-Mo-Dee: There are trailers for Black Sabbath and Frankenstein 1970 (made in ’58), and complete, full-length movies: There’s British Intelligence from 1940, two Mr. Wong programmers, The Fatal Hour and Doomed to Die, and one of Boris’ final features, The Incredible Invasion. Rarely seen, here’s Boris’ Indian adventure, Sabaka, and, my personal recommendation: The Ghoul, Boris’ first British feature, from 1933. It's genuinely hair-raising in spots, and it’s got Ernest Thesiger.

And finally, a couple of fun posts: Boris doing a cocktail mix ad, and for vintage horror fans, an unofficial Mummy Soundtrack album you can download.

All of it, up on Cool-Mo-Dee! Thanks, Adam, for a fabulous week’s worth of contributions!

Karloff’s Frankenstein films have been reviewed, analyzed and poked at over and over again, so it’s very refreshing to read a new review of Son of Frankenstein by someone who didn’t, until recently, that the film even existed! No baggage here, no preconceptions. Just a fresh, new appraisal. On Things That Don’t Suck.

Mike Segretto did his homework and came up with 20 Things You May Not Have Known About Boris Karloff, another wonderful post from Psychobabble.

I hope this great still of the pre-Frankenstein, turbaned Boris sends you racing over to Shadowplay — one of my favorite haunts — where critic and filmmaker David Cairns turns his amused attention to the 1929 talkie, Behind The Curtain, a rare Charlie Chan film with an actual Asian actor in the lead role. The biggest mystery in this film is how Boris becomes “an Anglo-Indian actor with a Russian name pretending to be a white man pretending to be an Indian”.

Great stuff here. Read Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain!

On companion blogs: There are wonderful movie and backstage shots of Boris up on Peeping Tom, and a quote from Boris on taste and censorship, on Lost Eyeways.

Penny-pinching Karloff fans will envy Rhonny Reaper. Here’s a great thrift store find, on the appropriately named Dollar Bin Horror.

Fernando Rojas has been making short Karloff comments on Twitter!

I love the incongruous title card from Targets, showing Boris in a scene from The Terror. Ivan G. Shreve tells the story, in great detail, of the making of Targets. It’s an important review of an important film. On Thrilling Days of Yesteryear.

My first blogathon experience, a couple of years ago, was participating in the Slapstick event held by Thom Ryan at Film of the Year. I loved working with a theme and a deadline, and thanks to the enthusiastic encouragement of our genial host, I found myself writing my first long form piece, an overview of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

I am enormously happy to have Thom participate in my own blogathon adventure, and I’m delighted to bring you his contribution, a beautiful essay about Boris Karloff’s out of character narration of The Emperor’s Nightingale. “Given the eerie power of Karloff's tombstone voice,” writes Thom, “it is remarkable that his narration fits this children's picture like a velvet glove.”

Read His Monster’s Voice, on Film of the Year.

For many of us, in many ways, Boris Karloff has been a part of our life. Mother Firefly shares her own private and precious memories of Boris, on Faster Pussycats!

Of his cartoon, Dave Lowe wrote me, saying, “It's a nostalgic scene of my world growing up in the 70's in memory of Karloff, Ackerman and all the great things I loved in those days (and still do)”. I'm sure many of us see ourselves in this one, too. Go look, on Para Abnormal.

Four Boris records for download: There are two volumes of Tales of the Frightened, recordings of Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, and the legendary An Evening with Boris Karloff and His Friends:, scripted by Forry Ackerman. On The Captain’s Ramblings.

One last doodle from David Kirwan, cross-posted on his blog and tumbler.

Bill Adcock saved his favorite film for last, the sublime Bride of Frankenstein. A big-hearted essay, on Radiation-Scarred Reviews.

As a highly original tribute to Boris, Max, of The Drunken Severed Head, posts an original play, Too Many Creeps, written by writer, actor, filmmaker and all around horror horror film expert Ted Newsom. It’s a clever and affectionate valentine to the great horror stars. It has Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, and others. Ed Wood is in it. And it features the last “what if” collaboration between Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

Part One of Six is posted now, in honor of the Boris Karloff Blogathon.

The image here announces one of the most troubling homecoming ever.

Curt Purcell explores the genre-breaking vampire short, The Wurdalak, one of three stories in Black Sabbath. “Karloff,” he writes, “just had a way of being iconic, and Bava had a way of crafting searingly iconic images, and together they conjure some truly unforgettable moments.” If you’ve never seen The Wurdalak, this review will make you want to, and you’ll be richer for it. On The Groovy Age of Horror.

The Boris Karloff Blogathon : Day Six

Boris and Colin Clive share a quiet moment, away from the hubbub on the castle laboratory set of Bride of Frankenstein.

Day Six! Let’s go!

“In Bedlam, we see Boris Karloff playing the most despicable and evil character he ever portrayed during his career.”

Steve Miller contemplates the glorious villainy and the dastardly goodness of Bedlam, on The Boris Karloff Collection.

Something that has surprised me about the Blogathon this week is the lack of Frankenstein film reviews. The character, of course, is often mentioned, it’s an inescapable reference, but we’ve explored many Karloff films here, and no Frankensteins!

Bill Adcock remedies the situation on the spot, with his consideration of Boris’ final Monster turn in Son of Frankenstein. On Radiation-Scarred Reviews.

Orrin Grey, who still insists he’s a skeleton, makes his wrap-up post, with a list of his favorite Blogathon entries from the past week. On Who Killed Orrin Grey?

Fun post on Six-Shooter: A look at the Boris Karloff Collector Figure from Amok Time. Comes with three interchangeable heads!

Two posts from Filo Loco: First, a look inside the Film Classic Library book of Frankenstein, edited by Richard J. Anobile. An indispensable series, in the pre-computer and DVD freeze-frame and screen capture days of the mid-70’s.

Also on Deadlicious, a selection of oddball Frankentoyz. Love ‘em!

No sooner had The Raven gone out in 1963 that AIP quickly followed with The Comedy of Terrors, reuniting, the ads said, our “favorite creeps”. Vincent Price and Peter Lorre play an Abbot and Costello duo of murderous undertakers, with Boris enjoying himself as a cackling, out-to-lunch grandpa, and Basil Rathbone thrown in to chew whatever scenery was left over. Old school comic Joe E. Brown and the “abundantly blessed” Joyce Jameson round out the main cast.

Paul Castiglia sorts it all out for us, on Scared Silly.

Gold Key comics used to really stand out on the racks because of their fully painted covers, as opposed to the flat, four-color jobs with black ink outlines you saw on all the other comic books. Gary Lee posts a gallery of great covers from Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery. On Gary’s Goods.

John Rozum has some short and snappy Karloff-related posts up on his blog, just click around. And check out his superb Karloff collage.

A full filmed bio: Draven posts the documentary Boris Karloff, The Gentle Monster in five parts, on Dravens Tales.

Boris Karloff always said he wanted to keep going ‘till the end. He didn’t need the money, it’s just that acting was what he did. Fighting emphysema and arthritis, he troopered on, popping out of his wheelchair to the set whenever the director yelled, “Action!”. His next to last job, in April 1968, was shooting four films worth of material in three busy weeks in Los Angeles, with the rest of it to be filmed later, on Mexican soundstages.

Gareth Walters reports on the trials of filming Fear Chamber, on The Amazing Movie Show.

I love the tea reference in Dave Lowe’s Karloff cartoon, on Para Abnormal.

A beautiful shot of the stunning waterfall set from Bride of Frankenstein (1935), one of the Karloff/Frankenstein images I posted today on my picture blog, Monster Crazy.

By 1945, Boris was a favorite guest on radio variety shows, and always good-humoredly willing to poke fun at himself. Listen to him spar with “America’s No. 1 Quip Master”, comic Fred Allen, on Hilarity Ensues, posted on Orange and Black.

He was not just a horror star, he was, first and foremost, a damn fine actor. Writer David Rattigan appreciates Karloff’s subtle handling of over-the-top characters. With a fine clip from Targets. On Rattigan Writes.

My friend Max’ Drunken Severed Head blog is devoted to everything horrible, including Max’s jokes. It’s a giddy celebration of monsters and Halloween, oddball news and everything cockeyed in pop culture. But for all the kamikaze brilliance and the inspired silliness on display, sometimes Max has a brief episode of lucidity, as if his meds just kicked in.

We’re treated to one of Max’ magical moments today as he shares a true and truly touching story. Read The Day Boris Karloff Came Back From the Dead, Just for Me.

Thank you, Max.

A Dave Kirwan caricature of the older, Thriller and Invisible Bikini era Boris, cross-posted on Kirdoodle, blog and tumbler versions.

Boris as Santa? More Karloff quotes, illustrated with stills, on Weird Hollow.

Frankenstein’s Monster awoke to a life of misery. The actor who played him awoke to celebrity status. Thoughts, posted on This Woman’s Work.

Today’s art interpretation, by J. Mendez, is a Friendly Boris, a Monster in daytime. On The Ladies and Gents Auxiliary.

I was always found this ad for GE clocks a bit disturbing, with Karloff posing sans his trademark bushy brows, and his hair badly drawn in. A little detecting and I found that this originally ran in Life magazine, in August of 1937. Bingo! Boris was then filming West of Shanghai in which, as Warlord Fang, he sports thin, painted-on eyebrows and a tall forehead.

This is just one of the wonderful ads featured in Mike Segretto’s hilarious article about Boris The Pitchman. Read Boris Sells Out!, on Psychobabble.

Ed Howard tackles the “fascinating and problematic” 1932 thriller, The Mask of Fu Manchu, addressing the film’s racism and lurid sexual undercurrents. It’s a top-notch analysis of “an utterly bizarre movie”, on Only the Cinema.

What are the facts behind “The Strange Case of the Monster’s Home Run”? Deadly Movies investigates! A fun and fond look back Boris’ participation in the legendary All-Star Charity Baseball Game of 1940.

Grab a hold of something. Here’s Nate Yapp’s monumental contribution, a video tribute to Boris Karloff's Mad Scientist roles, set to “Frontier Psychiatrist” by The Avalanches.

I want to thank Nate for allowing me to post the video here. Visit Nate’s Classic-Horror.com for more details about it.

Thanks, Nate. This one is a mind-blower!

Boris and Bela go head to head! Jeannette Laredo evaluates the two horror stars and their collaboration in The Raven and The Black Cat. Read Clash of the Titans on the scholarly and beautifully designed Monster Land.

Of all the films he made in a movie career spanning six decades, Boris Karloff was also in a little number called Frankenstein. “Look closely at this film”, writes Bill Adcock. “This, along with DRACULA (also 1931) marks the birth of American horror cinema.” On Radiation-Scarred Reviews.

Bill Ryan examines Karloff’s career as a movie mad scientist, a resuscitator and a relentless enemy of death, and how prolonging life in these films ends up, well, costing lives. The Man They Could Not Hang and Before I Hang, deconstructed on The Kind of Face You Hate.

Karloff and director Mario Bava shared a mutual admiration. Peeping Tom reports (in Italian) on the making of Black Sabbath on Lost Eyeways and posts wonderful behind the scenes photos on his tumblelog, Peeping Tom.

On Fear Fragments, an overview of Boris’ amazing career, from the 1995 A&E biography. Read The Gentle Monster.

Possibly the best of the Charlie Chan movies, it’s especially memorable for having Boris Karloff belting out opera tunes in a cat-eared skullcap and a sequined mask. Ivan G. Shreve Jr. turns a spotlight on Charlie Chan at the Opera, on Thrilling Days of Yesteryear.

There’s an unusual Karloff triple-bill playing on Need Coffee dot com. There’s John Ford’s The Lost Patrol, with Boris giving one of his best performances as a religious fanatic. You can see the notorious Mask of Fu Manchu, and then there’s The House of Rothschild, an historical drama, with Karloff essaying one of the most monstrous characters he ever played, Baron Ledranz, a vicious, despicable anti-Semite.

Stay up tonight and watch some Karloff movies!

The Boris Karloff Blogathon : Day Five

It may have taken a gazillion volts to kaboom The Monster to life, but all it took to keep him going was a cup of tea.

It’s Day Five of the Boris Karloff Love Fest, and here are your links for today… Enjoy!

From Filo Loco, à Paris, a Frankenstein stamp created by Sardon.

Kate, the Merciless Mistress of the Tenebrous Empire, navigates the troubled rapids of transgressive cinema with the sure hand of a devotee, the critical astuteness of an unimpeachable connoisseuse, and that most precious talent of all, humor. Kate’s blog is a personal favorite of mine, an indispensable daily stop, and I urge you to discover its dangerous delights (as in “nunsploitation”, among other disreputable genres).

I’m delighted with Kate’s very personal and highly original contribution to the Blogathon, a visual survey of Karloff’s Career, as Told Through Tiny Paintings. On Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire.

Bill, of Radiation-Scarred Reviews, loves his Mummy. Beautifully written and enormously satisfying, Bill’s review of the 1932 Karloff classic not only singles out Boris’s restrained performance and his unique ability “to project a quiet menace and instill a scene with a real sense of dread¨, but also pays much deserved homage to director Karl Freund.

The Brides of Boris… Brittney-Jade Colangelo writes, “I figured I'd give Ol' William Henry Pratt some recognition as far as how he wooed us women.” Meet The Uncanny Women of Boris Karloff on Day of the Woman.

OK, now listen up…

Is there’s anybody out there who doesn’t get it?

Is there’s anybody who can’t understand what compelled over one hundred bloggers to congregate here this week and celebrate the life and the career of Boris Karloff? Is there anyone who can’t make sense of our affection for this actor, our love for this man?

May I simply point you to Richard Harland Smith’s essay …and last but not least, thanks for Boris Karloff.

Read it, and you’ll understand.

In Black Sabbath, the film that gave the metal band its name, Boris Karloff played his first and only vampire role, The Wurdalak, bathed in the near fluorescent colors favored by director Mario Bava. Shonen King posts a collection of startling screen caps, on Black Sun.

When Roger Corman shot his version of The Raven (1963) as a comedy, he knew he could count on the joyful complicity of its principals — veteran actors and friends —Karloff, Vincent Price and the irrepressible Peter Lorre. Paul Castiglia, horror-comedy specialist, rates the film as “a first-class romp” in which “Karloff’s beautifully understated performance… is nothing short of brilliant”.

Paul’s comprehensive review is posted on Scared Silly.

In the US, the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, and wouldn’t you know it, that was the inspiration for The Lightning Bug’s review of, well, Black Friday, a snappy little gangster film with a brain swap angle, courtesy of Dr. Boris. Bela Lugosi puts in n appearance “as a mobster with a Hungarian accent”. It’s up on The Lightning Bug’s Lair.

Rob Kelly dips into the vault for his final illustrated contribution, a Frankenstein banner done for a long lost blog. On Rob Kelly Illustration.

Before audiobooks, we had Spoken Word records, and Boris owned the vinyl horror franchise. Here’s Volume Two of Tales of the Frightened. Six short tales, including The Vampire Sleeps, Never Kick a Black Cat and Nightmare! Listen, on The Captain’s Ramblings.

And before Spoken Word records, we had Radio Drama. And Karloff mastered that form as well. Orange and Black looks back on Boris’ short association as host and star of Creeps by Night, with audio of one of its few surviving episodes, The Final Reckoning, originally broadcast on May 2nd, 1944.

I’ve got some images sampled from various Blogathon contributions up on my picture blog, Monster Crazy.

Artist David Kirwan continues his series of Karloff caricatures, cross-posted on his blog and his Kirdoodle tumbler. Today's offering: Ardath Bey!

A sinister, silent Karloff, captured in a collage by J. Mendez, on The Ladies and Gents Auxiliary.

Boris Karloff’s performance as the Frankenstein Monster was instantly iconic and has permeated pop culture ever since. In the early Forties, artist Dick Briefer used Karloff’s silhouette and manners as the template for his comic book Monster. Briefer’s extraordinary Frankenstein series would switch back and forth, at various stages of its evolution, between humorous kiddie-oriented adventures (one episode guest-starring that Hollywood horror actor, “Boris Karload”), and a gruesome, dead serious horror comic version.

In an indirect but unmistakable homage to Karloff, my friend Karsell, over at The Horrors of It All, has posted two outstanding episodes from the Briefer horror era: The grisly Rebirth of the Monster, and Voyage of Death, originally published in 1952.

Halloween’s come and gone, Thanksgiving is over, now we prepare for winter. The Frankenstein Monster plans to enjoy the upcoming season, according to cartoonist and illustrator TS Rogers. On Teaessare.

James, at Behind the Couch, has a wonderful week’s worth of posts up. I’ll be stepping through and peppering you with links all evening (or you can go and see the whole thing in one shot!).

First up, a nice Birthday message, followed by Brides and Broads, a survey of Karloff’s most memorable leading ladies, all accompanied by superb photos.

I’ll jump back Behind the Couch later on.

Here’s an interesting change of pace. Claire Napier looks at the 1999-2001 reboot of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, with references to the original Karloff movie of 1932. On Illustrator Claire.

There’s a fine collection of audio clips from Inner Sanctum, on Peeping Tom’s tumbler, and an essay about Karloff’s literary tastes, with Karloff quotes in English, on Lost Eyeways.

Friends, you’ve got some serious reading to do tonight, with some truly outstanding contributions coming in.

James Gracey offers up Dark Dignitaries, a chronicle of the remarkable collaboration between Boris Karloff and RKO producer Val Lewton. It’s an in-depth, detailed account, and a pitch perfect evaluation of three very unconventional horror films — and films that Karloff was very proud of — that still fascinate today.

Dark Dignitaries is a first-class, thought-provoking read, offered in three parts: Isle of the Dead, The Body Snatcher, and Bedlam. On Behind the Couch.

Even as a young actor, Karloff was usually cast as the villain of the piece, his gaunt looks no doubt influencing the casting. After he played The Monster, his career went stratospheric and he was forever typecast as Hollywood’s premiere boogieman. When he came to Broadway, in Arsenic and Old Lace, it was to play a murderer, and his screen name was a punch line.

Boris had the chops, amply demonstrated even when saddled with just another superficial mad doctor part, but there were very few opportunities for him to play non-villainous roles. One such occasion came in 1955, when he was invited to join the cast of The Lark, to play Bishop Cauchon opposite Julie Harris as Joan of Arc. The part would earn him a Tony nomination and remain his personal favorite among the hundreds he had played.

Steven Senski reports, in great, revelatory details, on the making of The Lark. It’s a superlative contribution, and a reference piece for anyone interested in Karloff’s career.

Read The Bishop on Broadway, on Heart in a Jar.

Hammer Films expert Holger Hasse reveals a passion for Old Time Radio, offering a detailed overview of OTR collecting and an appreciation of Boris Karloff’s incredibly prolific radio career. The article is accompanied by a monumental checklist of Karloff’s radio appearances, with links whenever a recording is available online. It’s a wonderful resource, worth bookmarking, found on Hammer and Beyond.

Rounding up James Gracey’s contributions for today, via Behind the Couch, here’s a very nice collection of Candid Karloff photos, and a Creepy Karloff Moment, examining the very brief and utterly unforgettable scene when Karloff comes to dusty life, at the expense of a young archeologist’s sanity, in the opening sequence to The Mummy (1932).

When the Karloff-hosted anthology series, Thriller, appeared on NBC, in 1960, it’s 60-minute format was a an opulent departure from usual brisk, half hour episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Presents. A sometimes awkward mix of horror and suspense dramas, the series was short-lived, but some of its episodes, like The Cheaters and The Incredible Dr. Markesan are fondly remembered as startlingly scary television fare.

Ivan G. Shreve Jr. has a look back at how Thriller came together, and discusses the suspect circumstances of its demise. Read As sure as my name is Boris Karloff, on Thrilling Days of Yesteryear.

Frankenstein-inspired art and a link to a website devoted to it, on Wouldn’t You Like to See Something Strange?

There’s a nice collection of Karloff video clips up on Poe Forward’s Poe Blog. My favorite, which I hadn’t seen yet, is a knockout clip from Smart Money, one of 16 films Boris made in the Frankenstein year of 1931. Watch as he plays a loose-limbed, toothpick-chewing, two-bit gangster rubbing shoulders with Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney. Great stuff!