BORIS KARLOFF: THE MAN BEHIND THE MONSTER (2021)

Studio:      Shudder/Shout Studios
Director:    Thomas Hamilton
Writer:      Thomas Hamilton, Ron MacCloskey
Producer:  Thomas Hamilton, Ron MacCloskey
Stars:     Paul Ryan, Sara Karloff, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Christopher Hayling, David J. Skal, Gregory Mank, Leonard Maltin

Review Score:

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Summary:

Classic movie clips and interviews with filmmakers and fellow actors recount the legendary career of horror icon Boris Karloff.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Born William Henry Pratt, Boris Karloff changed his name due to prejudice toward his Anglo-Indian heritage as well as concerns about associating acting with his family, who were additionally scandalized by Karloff’s abusive father Edward and a murder committed by Karloff’s brother George. Having become fascinated by the theater at age nine, Karloff went against his family’s wish for a career in political diplomacy to pursue acting in Canada. Karloff worked regular jobs in the meantime until moving in 1920 to Hollywood, where he found work as an extra.

After landing his first full role in the silent film “The Deadlier Sex,” Karloff’s career stalled because he only appeared in throwaway movies. Despite advice from Lon Chaney in addition to positive praise from Lionel Barrymore on the set of “The Bells,” Karloff was forced to return to construction jobs in between films. During this time, Karloff married his fourth wife Dorothy Stine in 1930.

Karloff’s big break came in “The Criminal Code,” where Howard Hawks singled out Karloff for his unique look. When James Whale took over “Frankenstein,” Karloff took the role originally intended for Bela Lugosi and his performance cemented Karloff’s star status. However, Karloff’s objection over the brutality of the controversial scene where The Monster kills Maria led to contention between Karloff and Whale for the rest of the shoot.

The Great Depression spurred studios to mandate pay cuts for actors. As a result, Karloff became a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild to ensure fair financial treatment for unionized performers.

Karloff’s first onscreen pairing with Bela Lugosi, who joined Karloff in SAG, came in “The Black Cat,” which was considered grisly at the time for its implications of Satanism and necrophilia. Karloff’s success continued in 1935 with both “The Black Room” and “Bride of Frankenstein.” Unfortunately, the subsequent implementation of The Hays Code created a decline in horror productions, forcing Karloff to take smaller character roles to continue working. With his box office appeal diminishing, Warner Brothers tried canceling its contract with Karloff until he agreed to a reduction in pay.

Horror films experienced a revival around the time of “Son of Frankenstein” in 1939, which coincided with the birth of Karloff’s only daughter, Sara. Karloff continued making multiple B-movies during this period, but was growing bored of playing similar roles repeatedly.

Broadway producers convinced Karloff to appear onstage in “Arsenic and Old Lace” in a role created specifically for him. Although the play was successful, Karloff’s contract prevented him from appearing in the film adaptation as well as another film version of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Karloff realized he was typecast after “House of Frankenstein,” but his career surged again thanks to appearances in three Val Lewton films. Although Lewton initially balked at including Karloff in his horror productions, which Lewton viewed as being more artistic than typical B-movies, the two men ultimately enjoyed a fruitful collaboration.

The popularity of horror films declined again at the onset of World War II. Karloff’s increasing mobility issues, which stemmed from a bad back, put the actor in constant physical pain. After divorcing Dorothy in 1946, Karloff immediately married his next wife Evelyn Hope Helmore. Karloff drifted away from Hollywood in favor of live theater, but television airings of his classic horror films in the 1950s led to new audiences rediscovering the aging icon.

Karloff’s career highlights from the 1960s include hosting the television series “Thriller” along with notable horror productions from Roger Corman, who created “The Terror” out of random scenes shot with Karloff to fill leftover shooting days from Karloff’s “The Raven” contract. Karloff found further fame through his voice work on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Although he had to fight through intense physical pain and worsening emphysema, Karloff continued to make memorable performances such as an appearance with Vincent Price on Red Skelton’s show and in Peter Bogdanovich’s “Targets.” Karloff died in 1969.

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Review:

“Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster” engaged me at the outset because the documentary doesn’t set itself up as a typical time tunnel biography. Nonfiction films love slow zooms into fuzzy old black-and-white photos. We can usually count on starting with a steady diet of sepia tones while a narrator recites a Wikipedia’s worth of facts beginning at birth and continuing all the way into the subject’s early adulthood.

Not here. “The Man Behind the Monster” begins in 1963 with Mario Bava’s “Black Sabbath.” Historian Sir Christopher Hayling notes how Karloff, who was 75 years old and in poor health at the time of filming, still possessed an uncanny power to immediately morph into a larger-than-life presence the moment he melted into a role. Guillermo del Toro then chimes in with his appreciation for the performance, pointing out the influential parallel that connects Karloff and “Black Sabbath” directly to del Toro’s debut feature “Cronos.”

As the film flows into Karloff’s more-than-memorable voice work in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and atypical turn in Peter Bogdanovich’s 1968 thriller “Targets,” we’re already reminded of the wide scope and far-reaching impact of Boris Karloff’s legendary career. Although he’ll forever be inextricably synonymous with Frankenstein’s Monster, there is of course much more to the real man, and also the many imaginary men (and one woman) he brought to life onscreen. “The Man Behind the Monster” accordingly operates under an assumption that of course viewers already know who Boris Karloff was, and we simply can’t wait to jump into the deep trenches of his extensive filmography. That’s what the movie continues to do after opening credits, rewinding to cover Karloff’s show-stealing breakout in Howard Hawks’ “The Criminal Code” before going straight into specifics about the origin of “Frankenstein.”

Wouldn’t you know it though, not long after I made these notes, the film backtracks at the 30-minute mark to cover biographical basics, complete with slow zooms into fuzzy old black-and-white photos. After all, no retrospective could be considered complete without at least some family background, particularly when it involves complications created by an Anglo-Indian heritage, an abusive father, and the scandal of a brother standing trial for murder. “The Man Behind the Monster” thus embarks on a retracing of steps to recount how William Henry Pratt went against wishes for a career in political diplomacy to become a struggling Hollywood actor, as well as a Canadian farmhand in between.

When I say this section “covers biographical basics,” I do mean basics. Wikipedia lists six marriages for Karloff while “The Man Behind the Monster” puts the total number at five. Whether it was five or six, the movie glosses over almost half of them with a single line of narration that merely says, “two more marriages failed in the interim.” That’s one way to cover ten years of Karloff’s personal life, I guess.

As such, I’m not sure “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster” truly lives up to its subtitle since the film leans a lot more on the movies than it does on the man. The final third more or less spins into a chronological listing of Karloff’s later roles accompanied by associated clips. Interviewees then reflect upon particular performances, often adding amusing anecdotes about Karloff’s intrusively squeaky leg brace or studio suits concocting charts with supposed secret formulas for financially successful productions. Maybe such things happened. Maybe they’re merely urban legends.

That’s often the way things have to be for films about folks who’ve been dead for over half a century, or would be 134 years old if they weren’t. Since some of the footage was shot over the course of several years, “The Man Behind the Monster” manages to get a couple of kind words out of late actors like Dick Miller, Orson Bean, and Christopher Plummer, who died in 2019, 2020, and 2021 respectively. The last living people who knew Karloff personally don’t exactly have vivid memories of their time together, so there is a limit on how many details can really be dug up at this point.

Whenever a documentary tackles a figure as revered as Boris Karloff, an air of awe usually leads to a lighter look at someone who was undoubtedly more complicated than the mythic idol many put on a pedestal. That’s only a conflict with pivotal historical figures however, not an immortal cinema icon, which is how “The Man Behind the Monster” presents Boris Karloff, and how fans want to see him anyway.

The way I measure a documentary like this is by how much immediate sway it has on upcoming viewing choices. By that I mean, how many of this person’s movies am I now champing at the bit to see? In the case of Karloff, it would be quite a lot. Even if it comes up short on the elucidation side of things, “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster” succeeds at inspiring renewed appreciation for the actor, as viewers will certainly come away anxious to load up their entertainment queues with familiar classics and overlooked essentials alike. Based on his depiction in the documentary, I can’t imagine anything else that might bring Boris Karloff a bigger smile.

Review Score: 75

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