Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Thomas Hamilton
With few exceptions, the people who make the scariest movies tend to be
among the nicest you could meet, and it's often said that horror movie
sets are the most relaxed while those of comedies are the most
stressful. Epitomising this dichotomy is Boris Karloff, who
almost exclusively played villains on screen while being known as the
perfect gentleman off screen.
Director Thomas Hamilton's documentary,
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster, is a tribute to both sides of Karloff. It highlights his iconic work
in the horror genre while also emphasising just what a decent bloke the
actor really was. Indeed, it was Karloff's humble nature that made his
monsters so human. Karloff was self-conscious about his Anglo-Indian
looks, which saw him bullied in school, and his stammer and lisp, which
ironically gave him that most distinctive of voices.
As is to be expected given the depth of his filmography, some of his
roles are given deeper examinations than others. The movie that made him
a star, James Whale's Frankenstein and its arguably
superior sequel Bride of Frankenstein, form the crux of the documentary. In the Monster we have the ultimate
Karloff role, a villainous beast that deep down possesses a heart of
gold. An anecdote that highlights Karloff's soft-hearted nature concerns
his horror at the inclusion of the infamous scene in which the Monster
drowns a little girl in a lake. Karloff was among those who fought to
have the scene excised. As one of the doc's talking heads points out,
removing the drowning ironically implies that the Monster may have
subjected the child to a far worse fate.
While Frankenstein and its followup are understandably
allotted much time for discussion, Hamilton's film manages to cover a
lot of ground. Unless you’re a committed Karloff obsessive you're likely
to have your curiosity peaked about some of the actor's lesser known
films that are spotlighted here – this is one to watch with a pen and
paper or your Letterboxd "to watch" list close to hand.
With his featured talking heads, Hamilton has assembled just the right
bunch of people you want to hear talking about a star of Karloff's
vintage. Famous cinephile filmmakers like
Joe Dante, John Landis, Roger Corman and
Guillermo del Toro are on hand, as are noted critics and film
historians like Leonard Maltin, Christopher Frayling and
David J. Skal. Of course, no examination of Karloff would be
complete without the aid of his loving daughter Sara, who adds
personal anecdotes to the Hollywood trivia. The inclusion of the
recently passed trio of Dick Miller, Christopher Plummer and
Peter Bogdanovich add the doc an extra layer of pathos. It's
refreshing to watch a film doc in which none of the talking heads feel
the need to crack jokes, and the absence of anyone under the age of 60
is noticeable. These are all people who have either worked with Karloff
or have been in love with his work for decades, and their accumulated
knowledge is invaluable to Hamilton's doc.
There's one particularly touching moment in which Bogdanovich recalls
shooting Karloff's famous monologue from his 1968 film
Targets. It was 2am and the actor was knackered but managed to get through the
speech in one unbroken take. On completion the young crew applauded
Karloff, which prompted the actor's then wife to remark how long it had
been since a crew clapped for Karloff. Forgotten by his own generation,
Karloff had been adopted by a new crop of adoring young filmmakers.
Hopefully Hamilton's film will introduce a new generation to the legacy
of the actor born William Henry Pratt.
