boris karloff

The following is our contribution to Frankensteinia's Boris Karloff Blogathon.

Starting with The Man They Could Not Hang, Columbia released four mad scientist films starring Boris Karloff in an eighteen-month period between 1939 and 1941. The other films in the series were The Man with Nine Lives, Before I Hang, and The Devil Commands. As a tribute, I created a short video to illustrate the general shared tone of the films and their similarities in structure, casting, theme, and direction.

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To celebrate the 122nd birthday of horror legend Boris Karloff, the blog Frankensteinia (an Internet destination recommended without hesitation to anyone with the slightest interest in horror) is running a Boris Karloff Blogathon all this week. Over 100 sites, including Classic-Horror.com, have pledged to make a Karloff-centric post between today, November 23rd and Sunday, November 29th. Check out the first day of Karloff posts, including a special thank you message from Sara Karloff, Boris's daughter.(read more...)

When it comes to horror DVDs, September and October have always been like an early Christmas for me, except that I have to buy for myself. Still, new releases of interesting genre titles have always been abundant in the autumn, and this year is no different. With much difficulty, we've winnowed down the list of our most anticipated releases to just six, which we present below, in order of release.(read more...)

Lionsgate Home Entertainment will release a new special edition of Rankin-Bass's horror-themed animated movie Mad Monster Party on September 8th, 2009, according to DVDActive. The DVD, which has a suggested retail price of $14.98, will include a featurette (Groovy Ghouls: The Making of Mad Monster Party), the theatrical trailer, and two sing-alongs.

Baron Von Frankenstein (voice of Boris Karloff) has decided to retire as the head of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters.  But first, he must inform the other monsters about his plans.  How to deliver the news?  How else - through a Mad Monster Party!  Von Frankenstein’s guests include a who’s who of Halloween favorites, including The Werewolf, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and more. But who among them is fit to be the new head of the monsters?

It appears that the Karloff/Lugosi box set that Warner Home Video promised back in March is a sure thing, as they have officially announced the release of Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics on October 3rd, 2009. The set will contain four films -- The Walking Dead (Michael Curtiz, 1936), Frankenstein 1970 (Howard W. Koch, 1958 - presented in anamorphic widescreen),You'll Find Out (David Butler, 1940), and Zombies on Broadway (Gordon Douglas, 1945). Special features will include two commentary tracks: one on The Walking Dead with Gregory Mank (author of Hollywood Cauldron, an excellent book which devotes a full chapter to the film) and another featuring Tom Weaver and actress Charlotte Austin discussing Frankenstein 1970. Suggested retail price for Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics is $26.98.

In their annual chat with the Home Theater Forum, representatives from Warner Bros. Home Video announced that a Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi DVD box set was being prepped for a Halloween release. The four movies in the set will be The Walking Dead (Michael Curtiz, 1936), You'll Find Out (David Butler, 1940), Zombies on Broadway (Gordon Douglas, 1945), and Frankenstein 1970 (Howard W. Koch, 1958 - presented in anamorphic widescreen). The information appears in the chat transcript just over halfway down the page.(read more...)

This is apparently ancient news (from February), but I completely missed it. I'm posting it now in case anybody else shares my lack of timeliness. As part of a press release about Warner Bros.'s 85th Birthday, Warner Home Video announced that a new classic horror box set would be forthcoming in the fourth quarter of this year (between October and December).(read more...)

Karl Freund's 1932 classic The Mummy, featuring Boris Karloff and Zita Johann, will be released in a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD set on July 8th, 2008, as part of the Universal Legacy Series. The set comes out just a month before the theatrical release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (a sequel to Stephen Sommers' 1999 Mummy remake). According to DVDTimes.co.uk, Freund's original will be presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio with the soundtrack in mono.(read more...)

In 1932, Universal released its first horror film after Frankenstein. It was titled Murders in the Rue Morgue and it was loosely based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. Murders in the Rue Morgue was the second film that Universal released starring Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi plays the mad scientist Dr. Mirakle. Dr.(read more...)

The success of Dracula caused Universal to believe that a second horror film would be remarkably profitable. The next logical film to make would be an adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." The film was released in December of 1931.(read more...)