cult film freak: boris karloff

Showing posts with label boris karloff. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 5/25/2026 / No comments / barton maclane , boris karloff , edmund gwenn , gangster , henry hull , horror , joe sawyer , marguerite churchill , michael curtiz , ricardo cortez , science-fiction , thirties

BORIS KARLOFF & MARGUERITE CHURCHILL IN 'THE WALKING DEAD'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqIZDNsBF_0iGXOSVlx8Tr7LrPpmjmFTDiDJjKd_ci6yNGlJFwmyFDm8E-Fs2kmc_cabAqd-r9mc1bCBXMCa1Avg9wXU9KfuCmfdzhmMxznRH7WNI_cqE79s_IPsqb4koO6PnSCJAUGDQ5njfbNE8VtX-HgaEk9Z3P1r-adkfjgM6J8NBsb0qtXVC9c1g/s2106/Screen%20Shot%202026-05-26%20at%2010.08.42%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1396" data-original-width="2106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqIZDNsBF_0iGXOSVlx8Tr7LrPpmjmFTDiDJjKd_ci6yNGlJFwmyFDm8E-Fs2kmc_cabAqd-r9mc1bCBXMCa1Avg9wXU9KfuCmfdzhmMxznRH7WNI_cqE79s_IPsqb4koO6PnSCJAUGDQ5njfbNE8VtX-HgaEk9Z3P1r-adkfjgM6J8NBsb0qtXVC9c1g/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202026-05-26%20at%2010.08.42%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Boris Karloff and Marguerite Churchill in THE WALKING DEAD </u><u>Year: 1936 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>With all the ingredients of a 1930's Warner Brothers Gangster Flick including villain-actors Barton MacClane and Ricardo Cortez, here working in backrooms to set up murders and double-crosses to keep their crime syndicate from further courtroom bulwarks, the casting of Boris Karloff not only adds an element Universal Monster from his then-recent FRANKENSTEIN legacy, but after he's brought back to life from being falsely imprisoned and executed, scientist Edmund Gwenn actually utters the line, "He's Alive!" <br><br>This while surrounded by two somewhat innocuous but perfect-looking lab assistants: insanely gorgeous ingenue Marguerite Churchill and handsome boyfriend Warren Hull, both backing Karloff's John Elman, originally a meek and not very crime-savvy musician that the mobsters set-up/wrongfully accused of killing their own targeted judge... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

barton maclane, boris karloff, edmund gwenn, gangster, henry hull, horror, joe sawyer, marguerite churchill, michael curtiz, ricardo cortez, science-fiction, thirties

BORIS KARLOFF & MARGUERITE CHURCHILL IN 'THE WALKING DEAD'

Boris Karloff and Marguerite Churchill in THE WALKING DEAD Year: 1936 Rating: **** With all the ingredients of a 1930's Warner Brothers ...

DIRECTOR MARIO BAVA'S HORROR ANTHOLOGY 'BLACK SABBATH'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT97x-LVq0eqdMLDuL7B7QkEFdKFfMn4Cnx7ps0WuBmy3G5NW5Jdp-dvwsIMWJCYarygZzdqFnZHfiak5blfhS2b85WD_GUHTW4DQN8YCL11DzUn3AH81byJ_P6-itbY1EEHIAK7inEBiH2g8A730pXx39m0z_gDui_Jyt3qYTyh9oLC0c_DNXBXRoi62k/s2060/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-25%20at%204.40.52%20PM%202%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="2060" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT97x-LVq0eqdMLDuL7B7QkEFdKFfMn4Cnx7ps0WuBmy3G5NW5Jdp-dvwsIMWJCYarygZzdqFnZHfiak5blfhS2b85WD_GUHTW4DQN8YCL11DzUn3AH81byJ_P6-itbY1EEHIAK7inEBiH2g8A730pXx39m0z_gDui_Jyt3qYTyh9oLC0c_DNXBXRoi62k/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-25%20at%204.40.52%20PM%202%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Mario Bava's BLACK SABBATH Year: 1963 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The legacy of the feature film BLACK SABBATH on a Birmingham, England marquee across the street from where a band called Earth was rehearsing has heightened upon the death of lead singer Ozzy Osbourne... <br><br>Originally a 1963 horror-anthology more suitably titled THE THREE FACES OF FEAR (translated from I TRE VOLTI DELLA PAURA), narrated and co-starring veteran actor Boris Karloff directed by Italian horror-auteur Mario Bava, who brings the Victorian era into a darker, gloomier fashion than even the competing Hammer... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

boris karloff, horror anthology, italian, jacqueline pierreux, lidia alfonsi, mario bava, mark damon, michèle mercier, rika dialyna, sixties, susy andersen

DIRECTOR MARIO BAVA'S HORROR ANTHOLOGY 'BLACK SABBATH'

Mario Bava's BLACK SABBATH Year: 1963 Rating: *** The legacy of the feature film BLACK SABBATH on a Birmingham, England marquee across t...

PAUL MUNI IN HOWARD HAWKS ORIGINAL MOB-EXPOSE 'SCARFACE'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-AlF1UyZaNRyjZyxBIp2VGgdaCneEBycw9MXeYteOmrTxJxuF7hcN23-XgBqlH6HNam-4GM26FNPCOxuJFjU5sybsw53fTBOf2um2_3wBGYN_zha2qK5ximxRjJTtUNTTjAMXXRDWlzdBlcGYHzXk9QdxrIvW1FeJ4t6qMumQ9lNv5vrrGMZMFQ4T6B0L/s2320/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="2320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-AlF1UyZaNRyjZyxBIp2VGgdaCneEBycw9MXeYteOmrTxJxuF7hcN23-XgBqlH6HNam-4GM26FNPCOxuJFjU5sybsw53fTBOf2um2_3wBGYN_zha2qK5ximxRjJTtUNTTjAMXXRDWlzdBlcGYHzXk9QdxrIvW1FeJ4t6qMumQ9lNv5vrrGMZMFQ4T6B0L/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: SCARFACE Year: 1932 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Howard Hawks' SCARFACE is like a <i>Cliff's Notes</i> for a book that's yet to be written... and that's not only relating to the many-decades-later remake starring Al Pacino, but something like, say, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/10/R20s.html">THE ROARING TWENTIES</a> where James Cagney (who had ironically starred in the previous years' inspiration <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/09/cagney-begins.html">THE PUBLIC ENEMY</a>) takes over a prohibition-syndicate to runs things his way, and that features a comic-relief crony... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p>There it's Frank McHugh, here there's a bumbling, completely out-of-place Vince Barnett while <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/10/R20s.html">ROARING</a> tough-second Humphrey Bogart's role is played by his <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/07/DriveBelowTheHiddenRoadblock.html">THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT</a> brother, providing George Raft a resilient, slow-burn gunman that should have had far more importance and screen-time...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, ann dvorak, boris karloff, exploitation, george raft, howard hawks, karen morley, mobster, osgood perkins, paul muni, thirties, vince barnett

PAUL MUNI IN HOWARD HAWKS ORIGINAL MOB-EXPOSE 'SCARFACE'

Title: SCARFACE Year: 1932 Rating: *** Howard Hawks' SCARFACE is like a Cliff's Notes for a book that's yet to be written... an...

RALPH BYRD AND BORIS KARLOFF IN 'DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwbdb3rEe_86-sn3Gk7DAfzl8gukP9o4zx3OFxzfO0QRogq_VV0HxQ1CoUtbuUN7IfSIRKCfPWy-n4TR1wRVBK0dV_lJSTlXfBbLna0NQoVwUx5GC7HBojTYaZr0L9T_l6LnwR7LUtddsqeDg3NTGkENXeWuUBaPOuBIeR2EROL0exikPtS_hAbc2U11T/s2184/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-02%20at%204.12.45%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1318" data-original-width="2184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwbdb3rEe_86-sn3Gk7DAfzl8gukP9o4zx3OFxzfO0QRogq_VV0HxQ1CoUtbuUN7IfSIRKCfPWy-n4TR1wRVBK0dV_lJSTlXfBbLna0NQoVwUx5GC7HBojTYaZr0L9T_l6LnwR7LUtddsqeDg3NTGkENXeWuUBaPOuBIeR2EROL0exikPtS_hAbc2U11T/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-02%20at%204.12.45%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME Year: 1947 Rating: **1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Despite the legendary Boris Karloff playing Gruesome, this is the last and weakest of the RKO four-picture series... mainly because it goes for physical comedy over dark noir-like aesthetic and frightful violence: the story taking place mostly in the daylight without the same amount of eerie shadow-play of its predecessors...<br><br>The silliness mainly derives from the weapon that Gruesome and his haphazard two-man posse (compared to effectively creepy inventor Skelton Knaggs)  use: gas pellets that freeze bank customers as the gang moves in...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

action, anne gwynne, boris karloff, crime, dick tracy, forties, franchise, horror satire, ralph byrd, skelton knaggs

RALPH BYRD AND BORIS KARLOFF IN 'DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME'

Title: DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME Year: 1947 Rating: **1/2 Despite the legendary Boris Karloff playing Gruesome, this is the last and weakest...

RIP THE FIRST TRUE MOVIE GEEK DIRECTOR PETER BOGDANOVICH

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVfo6mIzA1qgfJEId2lJBw1LFZSkY0Lqb3ks3i_pPzRsH4t-OlC0TxEMOHzs864wPct8pcKA4T-XFD48wDxr1KDOHOTUIALVpgzl0B6Icg9UYg1nEu0LkiiSK9gNykCQbEgKC-eDLCg8jGSwhM97f1IuOX55tjVU8QvRSTRJyxpkEN_RICsPu6ZNbGPg=s1074" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1074" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVfo6mIzA1qgfJEId2lJBw1LFZSkY0Lqb3ks3i_pPzRsH4t-OlC0TxEMOHzs864wPct8pcKA4T-XFD48wDxr1KDOHOTUIALVpgzl0B6Icg9UYg1nEu0LkiiSK9gNykCQbEgKC-eDLCg8jGSwhM97f1IuOX55tjVU8QvRSTRJyxpkEN_RICsPu6ZNbGPg=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Bogdanovich directs himself in SAINT JACK circa 1979</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The late <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/05/StJack.html">PETER BOGDANOVICH</a> started out writing <i>about</i> films before making them, and, predating the cinema-loving likes of John Landis, Joe Dante or Quentin Tarantino, he was the first bonafide retro-minded movie geek wherein his debut TARGETS is one of the first pop-culture-referencing semi-meta vehicles (both Boris Karloff and Peter basically playing themselves using different names)... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And he befriended the very legends he wrote about from groundbreaking auteurs Howard Hawks to John Ford to Alfred Hitchcock to Sam Fuller (who he's named after in TARGETS) and most famously Orson Welles... </p><p><span></span></p>

boris karloff, memorial, peter bogdanovich, seventies, sixties

RIP THE FIRST TRUE MOVIE GEEK DIRECTOR PETER BOGDANOVICH

Peter Bogdanovich directs himself in SAINT JACK circa 1979 The late PETER BOGDANOVICH started out writing about films before making them, ...

CLOCKWORK BEAUTY VIRGINIA WETHERELL IN 'THE CRIMSON CULT'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Smoking hot Virginia Wetherell in The Crimson Cult YEAR: 1968 </u></td></tr>
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Only wish this review could be more than a celebration of a beautiful blonde Brit who played the ultimate temptation in Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE... Virginia Wetherell as the naked "Actress" who enters a well-lit stage and eventually just stands there, robotic and sublime, while Malcolm McDowell's "cured" Alex can't lay his hands on her dynamic breasts before retching at the mere site and thought of it...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>from Clockwork Orange</u></td></tr>
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For a more human side to Virginia there's THE CRIMSON CULT, a haunted house/manor b-movie starring Christopher Lee as basically the same character he was in THE WICKER MAN, only far less interesting while his secret dominion partakes in a midnight celebration of killing the representation of a witch.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Virginia Wetherell as Eve</u></td></tr>
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Buried lead and the film's pre-possessed Renfield is Mark Eden, whose line, "Of course she does... She's an artist" finishes David Lean's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, and here he's the pawn in a twist that's not worth spoiling or, for that matter, even mentioning...<br>
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It does have to do with a coven of witches once led by horror fixture Barbara Steele in green makeup and a strange headdress, only she's merely seen in hallucinatory dreamlike flashbacks, and her BLACK SABBATH co-star and overall legendary veteran actor is Boris Karloff, a professor who's nicer than he seems... or is he?<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwQIijUZe7E89Reyj8QOBw-9PMdXEdKOOo1bDGdMysMSSZaQF4guIPbRcm0SX2X61I7UaYCTT0rY-PmW3k-1erlYhTKmUYEmgBEKJPuiTII8_ZpCAWkN4zQCqxwZhSwfirDsr2rFLwbrV/s1600/999+2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="283" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkwQIijUZe7E89Reyj8QOBw-9PMdXEdKOOo1bDGdMysMSSZaQF4guIPbRcm0SX2X61I7UaYCTT0rY-PmW3k-1erlYhTKmUYEmgBEKJPuiTII8_ZpCAWkN4zQCqxwZhSwfirDsr2rFLwbrV/s320/999+2.jpg" width="193"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>As "Actress" In Clockwork Orange</u></td></tr>
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At one point, in the beginning, as Eden's Robert... in search of his brother who had vanished in that vicinity... is being led by our central CLOCKWORK ORANGE ingenue Virginia Wetherell... the future epic epitome of wanton, hypnotic, heavenly and devilish yet futile desire... through the spooky manor...<br>
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Before the professor shows his wheelchair ridden self, Eden quips about the dark surroundings, breaking a verbal fourth wall: "It seems like Boris Karloff will show up at any minute."<br>
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Virginia's Eve character is not only the ingenue but carries most of the plot through overall vulnerability, winding up in predictable peril as only the hero, a good actor who's rather sluggish and would be far better fit as a second or third banana, can save her... And their budding romance is more interesting early on as she'll deliberately, perhaps even strategically, shy away from his rather clumsy if cliché advances...<br>

barbara steele, boris karloff, christopher lee, horror, mark eden, michael gough, sixties, virginia wetherell