Boris Karloff
Birthday: 1887-11-23 Place of Birth: Camberwell, London, England, UK
Synopsis
Boris Karloff (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), whose real name was William Henry Pratt, was an English-born actor who emigrated to Canada in 1909. Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939). His popularity following Frankenstein was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or "Karloff the Uncanny". His best-known non-horror role is as the Grinch in the television special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Description above from the Wikipedia article Boris Karloff, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting
Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Crime writer Ian Rankin investigates The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's nightmare in September 1885, Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretches back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, hallucinatory drugs and prostitution all play their part in the disturbing account of Henry Jekyll's double-life, as Rankin's journey takes him into the yeasty draughts and unlit closes of the city that inspired the tale - Edinburgh.
Bela Lugosi: The Fallen Vampire
On Valentines Day, 1931, Universal Pictures released the film Dracula - the first true horror movie. Its worldwide success catapulted the film's lead actor, Romanian-born Bela Lugosi, to overnight stardom. "Bela Lugosi: The Fallen Vampire" traces the life and career of this mysterious man whose name became synonymous with the evil, yet magnetically compelling Count Dracula. Using archival still and film clips as well as interviews with film historians, actors and Lugosi himself, the special chronicles the meteoric rise and then precipitous decline of a talented yet tragic man who forever changed the face of horror films.
Lugosi: The Dark Prince
Film historians, and producer Richard Gordon, talk about the horror movie career of cult star Bela Lugosi.
Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed
Documentary featured on the Classic Monster Collection and Monster Legacy Collection for The Mummy (1932).
100 Years of Horror: The Frankenstein Family
No overview found.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Special Edition
Phil Hartman hosts this retrospective look back at the legacy and making of the classic 1966 holiday special 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Documentary
The making of the story of how a grumpy hermit hatches a plan to steal Christmas from the Whos of Whoville. You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. Bitter and hateful, the Grinch is irritated at the thought of the nearby village having a happy time celebrating Christmas. So disguised as Santa Claus, with his dog made to look like a reindeer, he raids the village to steal all the Christmas things. The village is sure to have a sad Christmas this year.
Macabre Serenade
Relatives of a recently deceased man meet at his eerie castle for a reading of the will. They encounter a sinister piano player who turns out to be a toy maker, and his toys are imbued with murderous intentions.
Isle of the Snake People
The inhabitants of a small, remote island have been practicing voodoo rites and worshipping an evil priest named Damballah for years, but the local law officials generally turn a blind eye to this death cult's bizarre activities. Captain Labesch arrives from the mainland, determined to crack down on the island's lawlessness and clean up the ineffectual, hard-drinking police force. He appeals for assistance from wealthy plantation tycoon Carl Van Molder, who owns nearly half of the island and wields a great deal of influence over the population. Van Molder has made the study of parapsychology his life's work and believes in the secret powers of the mind. He warns Labesch not to interfere with this forgotten island's ancient ways. Also visiting is Van Molder's niece, Annabella, a temperance crusader who wants her uncle to help fund the International Anti-Saloon League. She falls in love with handsome police lieutenant Andrew Wilhelm
Alien Terror
In the late 1800's, Boris Karloff has discovered a way to use nuclear power. He creates a beam weapon and blows up a big rock. Outer space aliens are scared and one alien who looks a lot like James Cameron with a big fake nose only this one isn't fake lands and brings other aliens who take over the bodies of Karloff and his assistant. The assistant is a Jack the Ripper style killer who has done a few nasty murders which have riled the townsfolk. The body-snatched bodies become radioactive and start killing flowers and other stuff (but don't die themselves) and some stuff happens and in the end Karloff destroys the beam weapon equipment (and his lab and house), then the aliens leave and warn us that if anyone ever does it again there will be trouble.
Cauldron of Blood
A blind sculptor works on his magnum opus unaware that the skeletons he has been using for armatures are the remains of the victims of his evil wife and that he is the next target.
Curse of the Crimson Altar
When his brother disappears, Robert Manning pays a visit to the remote country house he was last heard from. While his host is outwardly welcoming - and his niece more demonstrably so - Manning detects a feeling of menace in the air with the legend of Lavinia Morley, Black Witch of Greymarsh, hanging over everything.
Targets
An aging horror-movie icon's fate intersects with that of a seemingly ordinary young man on a psychotic shooting spree around Los Angeles.
Fear Chamber
The frightening Boris Karloff 60s thriller with Karloff as a demented doctor using torture for scientific experiments.
Mad Monster Party?
When Dr Frankenstein decides to retire from the monster-making business, he calls an international roster of monsters to a creepy convention to elect his successor. Everyone is there including Dracula, The Werewolf, The Creature, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and many more. But Frankenstein's title is not all that is at stake. The famous doctor has also discovered the secret of total destruction that must not fall into the wrong hands!
The Venetian Affair
Former CIA man, Bill Fenner, now a downbeat, loner journalist, is sent to Venice to investigate the shock suicide bombing by an American diplomat at a peace conference.
The Sorcerers
The great hypnotist Professor Montserrat has developed a technique for controlling the minds, and sharing the sensations, of his subjects. He and his wife Estelle test the technique on Mike Roscoe, and enjoy 'being' the younger man. But Estelle soon grows to love the power of controlling Roscoe, and the vicarious pleasures that provides. How far will she go, and can the Professor restrain her in time?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Bitter and hateful, the Grinch is irritated at the thought of a nearby village having a happy time celebrating Christmas. Disguised as Santa Claus, with his dog made to look like a reindeer, he decides to raid the village to steal all the Christmas things.
The Daydreamer
A young Hans Christian Andersen goes in search of knowledge in the Garden of Paradise in order to make his studies easier. Each time he falls asleep, he experiences in his dreams the different characters he would later write about in fairy tales including The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and The Emperor's New Clothes.
Die, Monster, Die!
A young man visits his fiancé's estate to discover that her wheelchair-bound scientist father has discovered a meteorite that emits mutating radiation rays that have turned the plants in his greenhouse to giants. When his own wife falls victim to this mysterious power, the old man takes it upon himself to destroy the glowing object with disastrous results.
The Comedy of Terrors
An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.
A Fool's World
Documentary showing perverse and aberrant behavior from around the globe, including such things as sex slavery, dwarf love, Asian brothels and lesbians.
The Terror
Lt. Andre Duvalier awakens on a beach to the sight of a strange woman who leads him to the gothic, towering castle that serves as home to an eerie baron.
The Raven
A magician who has been turned into a raven turns to a former sorcerer for help.
Corridors of Blood
An 1840s British surgeon, experiments with anesthetic gases in an effort to make surgery pain-free. While doing so, his demonstration before a panel of his peers ends in a horrific mishap with his patient awakening under the knife; he is forced to leave his position in disgrace. To complicate matters, he becomes addicted to the gases and gets involved with a gang of criminals, led by Black Ben and his henchman Resurrection Joe.
Black Sabbath
Three short tales of supernatural horror. In “The Telephone,” a woman is plagued by threatening phone calls. In "The Wurdalak,” a family is preyed upon by vampiric monsters. In “The Drop of Water,” a deceased medium wreaks havoc on the living.
Thriller
Thriller is an American anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of self-contained, macabre weird-horror and morbid, hitchockian crime stories, in some of which he also starred.
Frankenstein 1970
The baron's grandson rents the family castle to a TV crew to fund his atomic revival of the family monster.
Grip of the Strangler
A researcher investigating a notorious serial killer who was hanged 20 years earlier seemingly becomes possessed by the long dead strangler.
