Alternate Best Actor 1968: Boris Karloff in Targets

Boris Karloff did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Byron Orlok in Targets.

Targets tells the coinciding stories about an aging Horror film icon who sees himself as a relic, and that of a normal looking man who goes on a killing spree. It's an intriguing and effective film, although it ironically is rather dated, and I would say a better film definitely could be made based on the same idea.

This is what most would consider Boris Karloff's swan song performance. He actually was in a handful more film after this one, but this was definitely a significant one as it really allowed him to reflect on his whole career. Where Bela Lugosi ended his career with Plan 9 from Outer Space as a has been who had faded in obscurity leaving Martin Landau to give the performance of self reflection in Ed Wood. The interesting thing is Karloff got to do it himself as he never became a has been having a career very much to the end of his life. He might not have held the same popularity like the start of his career but he never went the way of Lugosi.

Karloff as Byron Orlok, who is Karloff in every way except for the fact that Karloff was never fed up with the film industry the way Orlok is, of course has a credibility and weight no other actor could have held at the time. Karloff as the film star, who still is playing the heavies of old, is quite an interesting performance that utilizes the whole idea of Karloff as a monster well. One of the interesting parts of Karloff is that despite playing monsters throughout his career he had such a nice and tender voice. Karloff shows very much the man who created the monsters a man, who does not have a monster in him at all.

This film creates the dynamic of going back and forth between the very brutal scenes of the psychotic killer than showing the fairly lighthearted scenes of Orlok. Karloff plays these very well because he really doesn't stress the whole negativity to the film industry too much, and he doesn't show it as something Orlok is in despair about either. Karloff stays fairly light, and very likable as Orlok. In regards to his retirement Karloff portrays it more of Orlok as just not seeing the point of making his types of films. He is very gentle in reflecting this discontent, as it is not something that is constantly troubling him, but he is very firm about this sentiment.

Karloff instead of focusing on just the depressing qualities of the character, actually is pretty good at showing a fonder memories of film career in key moments that show he most certainly does have a love his work, its just the general change in the world that has left him with his feelings of pointlessness. There is a nice comedic touch to his performance as well that lightens up the film a bit from the humorless murder scenes. He has a nice bit of fun in his scenes with Peter Bogdanovich as a young writer whose film Orlok has decided not to do. In their scenes together Karloff has a some good moments just poking at his persona without ever going too far with it either keeping the right tone for his part of the film.

Karloff mostly does this likable work as the slightly tired, but still charming Orlok for most of the film, but there are two scenes where we see him perform. One is in an interview where to make things interesting he tells a scary story, it is a lot of fun to see Karloff in a seconds notice on the scary voice and we see him perform. The other time he does this is when the two stories meet and Orlok directly confronts the sniper. It is a bit of an absurd scene, but Karloff sells it through his portrayal of Orlok once again by bringing out the performance as the monster of old. This really is not an especially complex performance by Karloff but it is a very nicely handled enjoyable performance that acts as interesting reflection on his career.

Alternate Best Actor 1968

And the Nominees Were Not:

Walter Matthau in The Odd Couple

Zero Mostel in The Producers

Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in The West

Boris Karloff in Targets

Leonard Whiting in Romeo and Juliet

Unconquered

I had a blast watching “Unconquered” (1947) the other night. It’s a very enjoyable movie – emphasis on the word movie. It’s not a film, it’s a movie. And not just any movie, but a Cecil B. DeMille movie.

I like DeMille movies enormously. They’re rarely boring and almost always very entertaining. I even enjoy the often tableaux-like staging of his dramatic scenes. With his start in silent films, where a picture was worth a thousand words, DeMille always knew how to stage his scenes for maximum impact.

“Unconquered” takes place in colonial America in 1763, in a period rarely covered by movies, the era between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. It stars Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard in a two-and-a-half hour running time filled with action, romance, narrow escapes, hissable villains and last minute rescues. The budget was about $5 million, a huge amount at the time, and it’s all on the screen.

A better title for the film might be “The Perils of Paulette” for Miss Goddard undergoes enough trails and tribulations for a dozen movies. Her Abby character is placed on trial for murder and is sentenced to be hung, but is given the choice between hanging or being sold as a bond slave in the American colonies. She chooses the latter, and if that weren’t enough, through villainous chicanery she is sold not once but twice as a bond slave.

That’s what happens when your oily bond slaver is played by Porter Hall. DeMille also had Hall play Jack McCall, who shot Wild Bill Hickock (Gary Cooper) in the back in “The Plainsman” (1936). DeMille must have liked his sniveling manner to cast him in such roles. (Most audiences today are familiar with Porter Hall as the twitching psychiatrist Sawyer in the 1947 “Miracle on 34th Street”).

Abby is originally bought by Captain Christopher Holden (Gary Cooper) so she won’t be sold to his enemy Garth (Howard DaSilva). Holden knows Garth is selling guns and tomahawks to the Indians in hopes of instigating a war between the Indians and the white settlers. Holden immediately sets her free but Garth reclaims her as his.

There’s not a lot of physical action in the first half of “Unconquered” but it’s never boring. The Technicolor photography means it’s the shiniest version of colonial America you’ll ever see, but that’s fine with me. It’s not a history lesson, after all, but a rip roaring yarn.

Abby gets ogled by every man she meets – when you look like Paulette Goddard and there aren’t a lot of women around in the original 13, that’s bound to happen. She gets captured by Indians, and is threatened with burning at the stake by the Senecas. The Seneca chief is played by Boris Karloff and the medicine man is played by, of all people, Marc Lawrence. See what I mean, it’s a movie!

There’s an exciting canoe chase, a mad dash across the rapids, a waterfall sequence that has to be seen to be believed and an Indian siege of Fort Pitt complete with showers of fireballs and flaming arrows. Of course there’s only one man who can bring peace to the frontier and that’s Holden. The British Army wants him for desertion (he had to save Abby), but he’s going to do everything he can to save Fort Pitt and quench the uprising, all while falling in love with Abby and trying to settle his old score with Garth.

It all plays out magnificently with a memorable climax involving the last minute rescue of Fort Pitt. More I will not say, but that scene always made an impression on me.

The treatment of the Senecas is not very P.C. They’re presented as monosyllabic savages who accept the surrender of the settlers before massacring them. However, Katherine DeMille has a good role as Garth’s Indian wife Hannah who won’t stand by while her husband paws at Abby.

I couldn’t help but be amused at the sequence where Abby is tied to a stake during her Indian torture sequence. The Indian women come to tear at her clothes, but they don’t get away with much and we get a mere glimpse of leg. That’s the Hays Office for you.

I could only think back to the pre-code DeMille of “The Sign of the Cross” (1932) where young nubile Christian women martyrs were tied naked to stakes in the arena and threatened by gorillas and alligators, to the screeching delight of the Coliseum audiences.

If there was no Hays Office in 1947, I’m sure Paulette would have been barely clad in the stake sequence before her timely rescue by Captain Holden. As it is, by this point, I’m sure Abby was thinking she should have taken the hanging option back in England.

Cooper is a natural in roles like this. His best scenes are at the beginning when he outbids Garth for Abby by adding “and sixpence” to Garth’s bid. With his natural ease and likeability, it’s easy to see why Gary Cooper was one of the biggest stars the movies ever had. I wish there were someone like him today.

The Walking Dead

“The Walking Dead” (1936) offers one of Boris Karloff’s best performances in a nifty little hybrid mixing the horror and gangster genres. Like so many Warner Bros. films from that era, it runs a tight 64 minutes and packs an awful lot of story, incident and character in its short running time. The always snappy 1930s direction courtesy the great Michael Curtiz, evocative shadow cinematography from Hal Mohr, and a chilling music score by an uncredited Bernhard Kaun make this one a winner.

The first half of “The Walking Dead” is pretty much a straight gangster yarn. Ex-con John Ellman (Boris Karloff) is framed for the murder of a judge by a gang who has the city’s police and court systems under their rule. The gang includes Barton MacLane and Joe Sawyer, so you know you’re in a Warner Bros. film. Legal work for the gang is done by the seemingly respectable Ricardo Cortez, at his most smug.

Ellman is innocent which can be proved if two witnesses come forward. They’re played by Marguerite Churchill, leading lady to John Wayne in the epic “The Big Trail” (1930) and future Green Hornet Warren Hull. They’re a pair of lovers working with Dr. Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn), a scientist interested in restoring life to the dead. The couple don’t want to get involved, but conscience compels them to come forward at the last minute. It’s too late and Ellman is executed.

Ellman’s walk to the electric chair is a marvelous sequence. The piano-playing Ellman asks that music accompany him on his final walk. A lone prisoner plays the cello as Ellman, the warden and guards walk slowly to the electric chair. Curtiz uses tilted camera angles and deep shadows to augment the atmosphere. The lonely sound of the cello and the atmospheric lighting really put the sequence over.

Gwenn asks the governor to ship Ellman’s body to him right away to use in his experiments. Like a modern day Dr. Frankenstein, Gwenn uses electricity to restore life to Ellman. It’s interesting to see Karloff, minus the famous Frankenstein monster make-up, strapped to a laboratory table with electricity shooting all around him. Gwenn offers a nice contrast to the intensity of a Colin Clive. Gwenn is no raving mad scientist, but genuinely interested in advancing the cause of science.

Horror elements kick in during the second half, when Ellman tracks down members of the gang as a sort of Heavenly avenging angel. He doesn’t kill the gang members, but approaches them to ask, in Karloff’s best funereal voice, questions like, “Why did you have me killed?”

Being approached by the walking corpse of the man they framed is enough for the gang members to cause their own deaths, like running in fright and straight into an oncoming train. Dr. Beaumont believes Ellman experienced something when dead. Is God using Beaumont as a force to cause the gangsters to feel immense feelings of guilt and remorse? The climax, set in a beautifully atmospheric cemetary, suggests that, with the figures of angels and crucifixes on display.

Karloff is marvelous here. A great actor, he would have made a marvelous silent film actor. He’s one of those actors who can express much by saying little.

“The Walking Dead” again proves there was no genre where Michael Curtiz could not excel. His earlier horror films for Warner Bros., such as “Doctor X” (1932) and “Mystery of the Wax Museum” (1933) are rare for the period in introducing strong horror elements into urban settings. “The Walking Dead” continues that trend and is probably the best of the three.

Re-Discovering "Thriller"

No movie write-up this time, but rather impressions of “Thriller” a 45+-year-old TV anthology show that I’m new to.

Many thanks to the Me-Too television station in Chicago for running “Thriller” on Sunday nights. Many consider “Thriller” to be the finest horror anthology show of all time, and based on a couple of recent viewings, they may be right. Having Boris Karloff as your host is just icing on the cake.

Last night’s episode “The Incredible Doktor Markesan” (first aired on February 26, 1962) starred Mr. Karloff himself, and his portrayal of the title character deserves to be enshrined in the Horror Hall of Fame along side his more famous movie portrayals. Karloff doesn’t slum for a minute here. It’s a great performance. I tried to find a picture of him from this episode but didn’t have any luck. This is the best I could come up with.

Based on a story by August Derleth (a Lovecraft disciple) and Mark Schorer, “The Incredible Doktor Markesan” tells the story of…well, I don’t want to give too much away of the plot. But a thumbnail sketch should suffice.

A young penniless couple, Fred and Molly Bancroft (Dick York and Carolyn Kearney) arrive at the house of Fred’s uncle, Dr. Conrad Markesan, an instructor at the local college. Fred and Molly hope to stay with Uncle Conrad just long enough for them to find jobs at the college while pursuing their graduate work. Conrad’s house looks like every haunted house nightmare you’ve ever had, thick with cobwebs, dust and decay. Markesan is not happy to have them, but says they can stay in the upstairs guest room on the condition they stay in their room from dusk to dawn and not venture forth into the house at all during those hours. We later find out why.

The whole episode had me guessing as to what was happening in that house, so to say more would spoil it. All I’ll say is that Karloff has one of the great close-ups of his acting career when he tells Fred and Molly that he is no longer employed at the university “because of some experiments I was involved in.” After saying that Karloff looks at the camera and gives the ghastliest grin imaginable. I was laughing and shuddering at the same time.

This episode is beautiful to look at, with Benjamin Kline’s cinematography capturing to maximum effect every shadow in the cellar and the fog-drenched cemetery just outside the house.

It was directed by Robert Florey, best known today for directing “The Beast with Five Fingers” (1946) with Peter Lorre, “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1932) with Bela Lugosi and almost directing Karloff in “Frankenstein” (1931). So the man knows Gothic horror and he’s ably assisted by some hideous make-up designs courtesy of Jack Barron, a nerve-wracking score by Morton Stevens and some incredible art direction in that house. I believe Barron was the main make-up man on “Thriller” and he deserves to be better known. He makes Karloff look as decayed as the house he lives in.

This is horror pulp – in the best sense - at its finest. And that last shot! Talk about the stuff of nightmares.

Two weeks ago, Me-Too gave us the “Thriller” episode titled “La Strega” (first aired January 15, 1962), which was also incredibly creepy and unsettling.

Again filmed in glorious black and white, this time by director Ida Lupino, “La Strega” was set in the 19th century Italy, where a young artist named Tonio (Alejandro Rey) finds a beautiful woman named Luana (Ursula Andress) half-drowned in a stream. He brings her home and falls in love with her. (Hey, it’s Ursula Andress. Who wouldn’t?). No pussyfooting around with this episode, Luana quickly tells Tonio she’s got to get away. Her grandmother (Jeanette Nolan) is a powerful witch who does not take kindly to her granddaughter running away from her. La Strega always finds Luana wherever she goes. Tonio scoffs at this, and tells her she can stay with him as long as she wants.

One night Tonio awakens from his sleep and hears a noise in the street outside. It’s an old woman with the ugliest, most malevolently evil face you’ve ever seen, who comes right to his building, into his room, demanding the return of Luana. He refuses, and boy, does he live to regret it.

The moral of the story is if you fall in love with some babe and her grandmother is a witch, don’t play the hero. Even if she looks like Ursula Andress, really, just give her back.

There was one great scene where Tonio paints Luana and the next morning he goes back to resume his painting, but the picture is of the haggard old witch. He screams, rips up the canvas, and throws it into a potbellied stove. The camera moves away from him and slowly tracks toward the stove. Suddenly flames burst out of the stove and the grate opens and there’s the snarling visage of the witch’s familiar, a black cat. Luana starts screaming and the artist looks at the stove in terror. Great stuff.

This was a tremendous episode, with another incredible make-up job done on Nolan. She gives us one of the scariest witch portrayals I’ve ever seen.

The only drawback to the episode was a rather silly black mass sequence, presided over by La Strega, with the extras running around in leotards and hoisting each other in the air. I know there were censorship requirements back then, but if an eighth grade class at a fundamentalist Christian school was asked to stage a black mass, it would look something like this. But the rest of the episode is so strong, it doesn’t detract from the rest of the episode.

“Thriller” only lasted two seasons, and from what I understand, the first episode was heavy on crime and mystery stories, while the second season was more horror-oriented. Me-Too is now running the horror episodes, which means Sunday night is Must-See on Me-Too. I can’t wait to see what’s up next week.

The Boogie Man Will Get You

The background story of “The Boogie Man Will Get You” (1942) is far more interesting than the film itself. Reigning boogie man Boris Karloff was at the end of a five-picture contact with Columbia Studios, where he had essayed a “mad scientist” portrayal in four “B” movie shockers: “The Man They Could Not Hang” (1939), “The Man with Nine Lives” and “Before I Hang” (both 1940) and “The Devil’s Command” (1941).

Before finishing out his Columbia contract, Karloff enjoyed a huge hit playing Jonathan Brewster in the stage production of “Arsenic and Old Lace.” So successful was his portrayal, that Columbia re-tooled his final film from a straight horror thriller into a comedy-thriller to cash in on the stage play.

Instead of sweet old ladies poisoning men with a touch of arsenic in their elderberry wine, Karloff seemingly bumps off traveling salesmen for his experiments to create an army of supermen to aid the Allied war effort. (This sounds like a plotline from a Monogram or PRC horror outing). Helping him is sheriff/justice of the peace/notary public Peter Lorre.

Future Al Jolson portrayer Larry Parks is in here, as is “Miss” Jeff Donnell (as she’s billed in the movie) who’s really cute in a 1940s bobby soxish manner.

Of course, Karloff is always worth watching, as is Peter Lorre, who always enjoyed playing in comedies and wish he had had more opportunities.

It’s not scary at all, and the laughs are few and far between. I laughed once or twice and chuckled a few times. Come to think of it, though, that’s more laughs I enjoyed than with “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Knocked Up” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” combined.

Rating for “The Boogie Man Will Get You”: Two stars.

Long Live Alpha

I love Alpha Video.

Alpha is a wonderful DVD company that puts out very affordable versions of Poverty Row and other Grade B, C, D and even Z movies. The most bottom of the barrel, cheaply filmed, public domain horror, mysteries, westerns, thrillers, 1950s TV shows, etc.

Alpha does a great job with their color covers, and most of all the price is right. They can be mail ordered from the manufacturer for about $5 each. (www.oldies.com).

And that’s about what they’re worth.

That’s not meant as a criticism. Alpha satisfies a yearning in the film collector to watch titles that have remained elusive for years, if not decades. I order many Alphas and while most of them aren’t keepers, for $5 I’m happy to at least have the opportunity to see a particular title.

For example, the other night I watched a silent Tarzan movie, “Tarzan and the Golden Lion” from 1927. Boris Karloff had a supporting role as a native chief. It wasn’t very good, I guess, but where else would I see it? The print quality was more than acceptable, and all in all, it was a pleasant way to spend an hour (58 minutes actually).

Each month Alpha releases about a dozen titles and there are always four or five titles each month that I’ve always wanted to see but never had the opportunity.

Alpha fills a very important void for film collectors. I hope they’re around for a long time.