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Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster
Synopsis
Beginning just before his debut as Frankenstein’s creation, this documentary compellingly explores the life and legacy of a cinema legend, presenting a perceptive history of the genre he personified. Karloff's films were long derided as hokum and attacked by censors, but his phenomenal popularity and pervasive influence endures, inspiring some of our greatest actors and directors into the 21st Century – among them Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Roger Corman, and John Landis, all of whom and many more contribute their personal insights and anecdotes.
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Theatrical
17 Sep 2021
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USA
Digital
27 Jan 2022
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USA
USA
More
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”You're a monster, Mr. Grinch”
I watched this on the big screen and might I say, I think my small heart grew three sizes this day.
A loving love letter to the life and career of one of the best and maddest mad scientist there ever was.
HOWEVER BEWARE: This doc commits some horrendous crimes against the art of green-screening and viewer discretion is strongly advised.
”If anything goes wrong the responsibility is yours for forcing this upon me.”
Cinematic Time Capsule – 2021 Ranked
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Very good, especially for a documentary I only heard of when it dropped on Shudder a few days ago. As I've seen a decent amount of films in my lifetime featuring Boris Karloff yet only knew a small amount of his life story, a 99 minute piece about his life was exactly what I needed.
It's for the most part standard fare. Many clips of him are shown, whether it's in cinema or on television, augmented by many photographs. Various experts discuss his career, typically a famous person in the industry. This included the likes of: Bogdanovich, Dick Miller (which reveals that this has been in the works for the past several years), Corman, del Toro, Perlman, Joe Dante, the…
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Boris Karloff was a master of horror, not to diminish his incredible gifts as an actor in all genres, but he always gave a performance that lifted the films and helped legitimize the Universal Horror period as a beloved time in film history. With saying very little dialogue the Frankenstein films, he conveyed an incredible performance that made the monster both equally feared and sympathized with.
Karloff loved acting and never looked down on a role, yet he knew how talented he was and never felt fully satiated with the roles he was given over his career.
With the casting late in his career in Peter Bogdanavichs Targets, it gives a happy conclusion to a man always looking for more and a cherry on his career. It was an incredible career and this documentary does him justice
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Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster is an excellent doc for providing a fairly complete picture of its subject as actor and man. After opening with BoKa’s breakthrough in sound films, it goes back to his often painful early life (dead pa, mentally ill ma, taunting classmates because of his Anglo-Indian looks), his long struggle to find work as a stage actor in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, and his days playing mostly bit parts in silent films, often supplementing his meager income through manual labor. His big break finally came when Howard Hawks cast him as the villain in The Criminal Code, where his appearance resembles the look he would often have in horror films.
Thomas Hamilton…
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After being taken by surprise the other night when KARLOFF popped up in the original "Scarface", I realized that there were some serious gaps in my knowledge of the man's cinematic exploits. I've probably watched him in at least 50 films, along with every episode of his old television series "Thriller" and he always brought an indefinable sense of kindness, decency, pathos, and class to his roles, even when playing a gruesome monster.
This documentary does a fine job of laying out his career and personal life from end-to-end and I learned quite a lot about the man that I was hitherto unawares of. I was particularly interested to learn that he had Indian ancestry in both his maternal and…
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Lots of good info on Boris presented by everyone you'd want to hear from.
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Why does the title for this documentary make it seem like this is some kind of Netflix style true crime accounting? Regardless, this was a really fun retrospective look at the career of one of the most iconic actors to have ever lived. Much like Vincent Price there's no such thing as a bad/boring Karloff performance. If there is I have yet to witness it. The doc itself was fairly lighthearted, there weren't any blistering revelations about the man other than confirming that he was what he seemed, which was that he was a genuine, good-natured man that took pride in his work and status as a horror icon.
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A charming, informative, well-made documentary about the life of a horror icon and a legendary actor, and the dedication that he had for his craft. Chronicling his early life and career with a good balance between interviews, archival footage & images. Awesome stuff.
Shudder Exclusives & Originals Ranked
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Boris Karloff is my favorite screen performer. For me, he can spark life in trivial stories, and he truly excels when given a multi-layered tale. Through the years, I’ve read so many books and articles, have attended multiple conventions to listen to people who knew him (and met his daughter, Sara Karloff, and Donnie Dunagan who was young Peter in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN), and watched or listened to multiple interviews about him.
In short, I’m a sponge when it comes to information about Boris Karloff.
I did enjoy the documentary, BORIS KARLOFF: THE MAN BEHIND THE MONSTER. Frankly, I didn’t learn anything new from it, but it would be an excellent introduction to the performer or…
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Pretty sure the backgrounds during the interviews were made in Microsoft Paint. 😂 Loved seeing Guillermo wax poetic over Karloff.
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HAPPY BDAY BORIS BABY I LOVE YOUUUUUU 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
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Somewhat dry but enjoyable documentary about the brilliant and fascinating actor. The presentation is fairly flat, but I definitely learned a lot about Karloff that I didn’t know, and it’s always fun to hear people like Roger Corman and Guillermo Del Toro and Joe Dante talk about anything, all making this worthwhile.
