Dr. Boddiker's Movie Morgue

Karloff’s last film is another threadbare Mexican disaster. Karloff invents a ray gun that attracts a flying saucer, bringing with it mind control and murder. About as bad a movie as you will ever see. How Karloff keeps his dignity is a small miracle. The movie viewing version of a root canal.

The only positive thing that can be said about this dull mess is that Karloff emerges unscathed. He’s a researcher in the dark arts who comes to the aid of a young man searching for his brother. Christopher Lee gives a sour performance, as if he’s holding his nose the entire time. Throw in Barbara Steele in blue makeup and a huge horned headpiece, plus ridiculous s&m nudity and you have a really goofy, boring waste of time.

Bottom of the barrel junk. At the end of his life, Karloff made several films with a Mexican production company, filming his scenes in Los Angeles. All the films were released after his death, and that’s probably for the best. Here he’s a scientist who discovers a strange rock under a volcano that requires human blood. Yes, that’s the actual plot. A depressing experience, and one to avoid.

One of the few films directed by the tortured young filmmaker Michael Reeves, this features Karloff as a scientist who had discovered a way experience life through other younger people via mind control. Karloff has limited mobility due to his age, but it doesn’t interfere with his thespic abilities. Really a strong, dark film that still manages to disturb even today.

A delightful horror spoof with Karloff and Vincent Price as dueling sorcerers. Peter Lorre gets a lot of laughs as Price’s sidekick and a young Jack Nicholson looks wide-eyed throughout. Perhaps tiring of his Edgar Allan Poe series, Roger Corman decided to give humor a try and hit the bullseye. Everyone involved gives it their all, although Nicholson is pretty green. Too much fun to miss.

More a historical medical drama than horror, this contains a fine late career performance from Karloff as a doctor trying to find the answer to painless surgery. He soon becomes addicted to the drugs he experiments with, leading to his unfortunate association with Francis DeWolff and the very creepy Christopher Lee as a pair of “Burke and Hare”-style body snatchers. Worth a look.

The worst Frankenstein film Karloff was ever associated with. After a promising opening sequence, the movie quickly loses steam as a film company making a horror film tries to shoot at Castle Frankenstein under the scowling eye of Karloff as the latest descendant in the family line. As expected, Karloff is up to no good, attempting to revive his grandfather’s creature. With a slack pace, uninteresting supporting cast, and a “paycheck” performance from Karloff, this soon becomes the cinematic equivalent of watching paint dry.

How the far the mighty had fallen. Buoyed by the success of “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”, the comedy team was pushed into “meeting” the Killer, the Invisible Man, the Mummy, and even the Keystone Kops, with diminishing returns. The well was just about dry by the time this mess came around. Karloff looks like he’d rather be anywhere else and it shows. Fortunately for him, the role of Hyde is played by stuntman Eddie Parker with a horribly cheap looking mask. Really a waste of all involved.

Belated, half-hearted attempt by Universal to revive Gothic horror in the atomic 1950′s. Karloff is a personal doctor to villainous Stephen McNally. Richard Greene comes knocking of McNally’s door looking for some missing friends, only to get more than he bargained for. Slow moving and deadly dull, Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr. provide the only interest.

Inspired by the box office of “Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman”, Universal figured “the more the merrier”, leading to the first of their “monster rally” films. Escaping from prison, Karloff kills and steals the identity of George Zucco’s traveling sideshow owner, as well as his prize possessions, the corpse of Count Dracula. Discovering the frozen bodies of the Frankenstein monster and Lawrence Talbot, aka the Wolfman, he plans to destroy his enemies with the help of his newfound “helpers”. While not up to the classic level of past entries in the series, this is a lot of fun, with a great cast that includes Lon Chaney, Jr., Lionel Atwill, Elena Verdugo, John Carradine, and Anne Gwynne. Only one entry remained before Abbott and Costello closed it all out with “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” in 1948.