One name looms above all others when we think of Frankenstein the misshapen screen monster who has haunted the nightmares of moviegoers nearly a century: BORIS KARLOFF!
Over two hundred years ago—beyond the memory of any living man or woman, although Dracula and the Mummy probably re- member the occasion well—a daring teenager wrote the book, “Frankenstein.” She was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, age 17. In 1887 in London, Charles Edward Pratt was born, a boy who was destined in his early 20s to cross the broad Atlantic ocean and, at the age of 45 and under another name, bring to life upon the screen the shuddersome creation of Mary Shelley.
In the 90 years since Victor Frankenstein (Colin Clive) turned the great ray that first brought life into the world upon the body that had never lived—the body that he pieced together from corpses stolen from hangmen’s gallows and deserted graveyards after midnight—Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein Monster has become a living legend. Almost a baker’s dozen of other actors have at one time and another thru the years played the same role, in movies and televersions; Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr Glenn Strange, Prima Carnero and Christopher Lee among the nearly 13 different men; but whenever fans of Frankenstein gather there is only One True Monster for them: BORIS KARLOFF!
Frankenstein’s Monster made a Man of Distinction out of an obscure ex-truckdriver named Bill Pratt. “what’s that?” you say, if you’ve been paying strict attention up to now. You thought Mr. Karloff’s real name was Charles Edward Pratt? Well, so did we, until somewhere else we read (in the first issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, to be precise!) that his name was originally William Henry Pratt! It was another famous “Bill,” short for William Shakespeare, who first asked the question “What’s in a name?”, and in this case we are now sincerely puzzled. Along with our hundreds of thousands of readers, we would like to know whether Mr. Karloff was born WILLIAM HENRY Pratt or CHARLES EDWARD Pratt. Paging Boris Karloff! Perhaps, Mr. Monster, you will be so kind (if you are that kind of a monster!) to drop a line to our magazine and settle the question once and for all of the name with which you were born? Frankly, we wouldn’t be too surprised if it turned out to be either William Henry or Charles Edward FRANKENSTEIN! In researching this article on the life of Boris Karloff, we uncovered an amazing fact. Not only did he appear in at least 5 other motion pictures before he made his big hit in FRANKENSTEIN, but it is believed that his first film (a silent serial) was none other than a TARZAN picture! TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION! Edgar Rice Burroughs’ great jungle thriller! Yes, if you ever have the opportunity to see a revival of this Tarzan production made in the year 1927, look closely and you may recognize Boris Karloff. (There is no truth to the rumor that he played one of the apes.) In the same year of ’27 he had a part in a funny film called TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS. In 1929 he appeared in the mystery picture, BEHIND THAT CURTAIN. THE CRIMINAL CODE was one of the two movies he made in 1931, then—1932 and the birth of the Monster ! The airborne operating table descended from the dizzying heights where the electrical energies of the thunder and lightning storm had played upon the unliving body shrouded in white sheets … the pale limp hand, severed at the wrist and stitched together, slowly raised itself—alive . . . The Frankenstein monster breathed ! And the audience held its breath. After FRANKENSTEIN, the name of Boris Karloff became known throughout the world. The “Karloff” he had borrowed from an ancestor of his Mother’s, the “Boris” had been chosen as a theatrical first name simply because it appealed to Mr. Pratt and seemed to fit his personality. Boris Karloff became the new Lon Chaney. The same year he made FRANKENSTEIN, Karloff appeared in an entirely different make-up as a scarred and scary, dark-skinned and dumb menace with beetling brows and a great broken nose in THE OLD DARK HOUSE. Charles Laughton, Raymond Massey and Ernest Thesiger were among the actors he gave a bad time in this scream-packed picture. Afraid that audiences would be unable to believe that this was the same Boris Karloff they had fainted from earlier in the year in FRANKENSTEIN, the President of the company (Universal) wrote a message at the beginning of THE OLD DARK HOUSE informing the public that the menacing man was indeed the very same actor.
Karloff’s success snowballed and he became the hottest thing in horror pictures. In 1933 he was cast opposite Bela Lugosi in THE BLACK CAT and played a devil-worshipper with a Satanic haircut. The same year he portrayed THE MAN WHO DARED and THE MUMMY who lived 3000- years. In 1934 Karloff returned to the land of his birth, England, to star in THE GHOUL. Perhaps he revisited Dulwich, where he was born; and if he did, did the townspeople run screaming in terror, or did they have a little dream that a monster walked among them? One wonders, too, what his instructors thought of him now, those teachers at Kings College of London University from whom he had received his final education. What had they taught him to prepare him to so well portray monsters? At any rate, he reported to the studio where, in the company of Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Ernest “Thesiger, he turned in his usual chilling performance. Boris Karloff would probably also have made good as an ice man.
Nineteen thirty-five was a year of great activity for “our hero.’’ Burned and scarred and uglier than ever, Boris returned in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Charles Laughton’s real life wife, Elsa Lancaster, took one look at the reel life monster she was supposed to be the bride of, and let out such a screech that it broke poor Franky’s heart and he blew the whole castle to kingdom come. Next
thing you knew, he was in THE BLACK ROOM. In THE BLACK ROOM the audience got double its money’s worth, for the first time Karloff played two roles: he was Count Gregor, a ruthless killer, who lived in constant fear of his twin brother, Anton, because of an ancient prophecy that predicted that he would be killed by Anton. One by one Gregor lured victims to the chamber of horrors in his castle and there killed them. Gregor thought to thwart his fate by killing his own brother before he could kill him, and this he did and threw Anton into a pit in the Black Room. But by a strange twist of fate, Gregor was killed by his dead brother —by falling on a dagger held in Anton’s stiff hand! In THE INVISIBLE RAY the touch of Karloff’s tiniest finger spelled death for he had become radioactive thru contamination by a meteorite rich in radium. He killed his old pal Lugosi before himself catching fire and going up in smoke. The same year he made. THE MIRACLE MAN. And wound up 1936 with a repeat performance with Lugosi, in Edgar Allan Poe’s THE RAVEN, where he had only one good eye in a half-paralyzed face and twisted body.
After resting a year, Boris returned in 1937 with a series of Asian characterizations. These extended to 1938 and ’39. He was first seen as the diabolical Chinese scientist who aimed at conquering the world in THE MASK OF FU MANCHU, and later as MR. WONG, DETECTIVE and MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN: also as an Chinese soldier in WEST OF SHANGHAI. In CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA, however, he was an Occidental villain. In 1937’s THE NIGHT KEY he was a kindly inventor for a change, who simply had the bad fortune of running afoul of crooks. In ’38 he appeared in THE INVISIBLE MENACE.
Karloff got together with Lugosi again and the result was SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. In Los Angeles members of the world’s oldest science fiction club turned out en masse to see the opening of the new Frankenstein film. Time marches on; Karloff shambles on. He makes DEVIL’S ISLAND, THE LOST PATROL, BRITISH INTELLIGENCE, THE FATAL HOUR, YOU’LL FIND
OUT, BEDLAM, THE CLIMAX and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. In THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG he is Dr. Savaard, inventor of a mechanical heart with which he hopes to bring the dead back to life. As he is experimenting on a volunteer student whom he has “temporarily” killed, the police break into his laboratory and ruin everything. He is condemned as a criminal and hanged for murder. After his death his faithful assistant recovers his body and restores him to life, but his brain has deteriorated in the process and he is no longer the kindly scientist but now a vengeance-seeking killer. In his mad desire for revenge he launches a campaign of terror and before he is through has caused the death of 6 of the jurors who sentenced him to die. When the police finally corner him his daughter is electrocuted in the struggle and he is fatally wounded. Before he dies for the second and last time, he brings his daughter back to life with a mechanical heart and then destroys his invention.
In THE WALKING DEAD his role is similar to that of the last described picture. After having been unjustly killed in the electric chair, he is brought back to life by a fellow experimenter, and spends the rest of the time frightening to death the men who were responsible for his death. In THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES in- stead of Dr, Savaard he is Dr. Kravaal, Leon Kravaal, who has been carrying on research into curing diseases by “frozen sleep.” In a secret underground ice-chamber beneath his own deserted island home, after a 10 year disappearance Dr. Kravaal is found by a young doctor friend. Following instructions found in a note next to Karloff’s body, the scientist succeeds in bringing Karloff and 4 other “guinea pig” men back to life. When Karloff tries to put the 4 men back into suspended animation, they do not sur- vive the freezing process and die, and he turns a curious eye on his young assistant and his girlfriend. The boy and girl resent the idea of becoming popsicles, and fortunately are rescued at the last minute. In BEFORE I HANG, Karloff portrays Dr. John Garth, who is seeking a serum that will keep people forever young. During his experiments to prolong life, he kills a man and is himself sentenced to death. But even in prison, with the help and sympathy of the prison doctor, Dr. Howard (Edward Van Sloan), he continues his experiments. Just before his execution, Karloff gives himself a dose of his crash-created serum. Unfortunately it is from the blood of a murderer. He falls unconscious, and during this time word is received that he will be imprisoned for life rather than having his life taken. When he comes to the serum is seen to be a success, for he is amazingly younger. Dr. Howard asks for the serum for himself, but Karloff, influenced by the murderer’s blood, turns on his benefactor and strangles him. He then kills another prisoner in order to make it look like self- defense. Pardoned, Karloff engages in a series of killings, the victims being those who originally scoffed at his experiment.
His own daughter is finally the one who has to lead the police to her mad Father, and he is killed resisting capture.
Karloff has had much to do with cemeteries. Remember THE BODY SNATCHERS, the Robert Louis Stevenson story where he was a grave robber? And the eerie ISLE OF THE DEAD? And one of his latest, VOODOO ISLAND? But not all of his pictures have been grave. Some have been comical, as THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY with Danny Kaye, DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME, ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE KILLERS, ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE and THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU. On and on the list goes, Karloff lisping, leering, loping, lurking thru ‘THE STRANGE DOOR, THE BLACK CASTLE, THE APE, SCARFACE, BLUEBEARD, JUGGERNAUT. In THE DEVIL COMMANDS (available in pocketbook form as “The Edge of Running Water” by William Sloane) he sought to reach the ghost-world of the dead by a new kind of radio, and in THE MAN WHO LIVED AGA1N he transferred himself into the body of another man.
Once or twice Boris Karloff has left off making monstrous pictures long enough to turn his attention to something else, and that resulted in 1943 in the production of a 317- page book called Tales of Tei^or. In it he gathered together 14 frightening stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Bram (Dracula) Stoker, 0. Henry and other masters of mystery. Included were such spooky stories as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Beast with 5 Fingers,” “The Waxwork.” “The Hound” etc.; all guaranteed by Mr. Karloff to send shivers up and down spines like yo-yo’s. So successful was Mr. Karloff’s venture as a picker of hair-raising stories that in 1946 he put together a bigger volume. Called AND THE DARKNESS FALLS, it featured no less than 69 “masterpieces of horror and the supernatural” in its giant 631 pages with world famous authors like Somerset Maugham, John Collier, Algernon Blackwood, H. P, Lovecraft, etc.
frankenstein — 1970
Still Going strong, though turning 70 Karloff the Great, continued making a whole spate of new horror movies for his legions of admirers and also narrating How The Grinch Stole Christmas as well as voicing the titular character, for which he received a Grammy award. With over 170 movies to his name he passed away February 2nd 1969 aged eighty one.
This Article was first published in Famous Monsters of FilmLand Issue 2 1958.