Shadowman (as IA Officer): "You're a good detective." Jack's Partner: "You wanna know about my partner, Jack Vincent." Or is it an allegory, I can never remember the difference." Shadowman (as IA Officer): "The chase? Excellent metaphor. ![]() Jack's Partner: "Yeah yeah, I know, can we just cut to the chase?" Shadowman (as IA Officer): "Please understand that you yourself are not under any suspicion at this time. Because they've been paid off, or because they're too damn scared? I'm not sure what to believe anymore." There's all these rumors about human sacrifice and freaky shit that even the police won't investigate. They say you can hear them chanting sometimes, from beneath the city. Asking around, I've heard more than a few whispers about this Ancient Order and the Keepers. Even though they're scared, or maybe because they are. Well, even if what he said was more than a little crazy, I'm not sure he was. How good and evil were battling right on our doorstep, and that the only thing holding back the forces of the apocalypse was. He told me that when he was a boy, his uncle would get drunk and start talking about how a 'dark force' cast its shadow over the city. For some reason, the fruit seller was much more talkative, even if what he said was more than a little crazy. If you ask me, something definitely ain't right here." When I tried to press him on it, he just lowered his head and ignored me. He said a similar thing happened in New England in 1882. I spoke to one guy in his 80s, a fruit seller, at a local market. It looks weird, and smells even weirder, but nobody's really said anything. In the dark, damp alleys, there's a strange kind of fungus growing. Then, the mold showed up, all over the city. Just last week there was a meteor shower, a freakin' meteor shower! And everybody acted like it was no big thing. Even though no one seems to wants to talk about it, something is definitely off about this city. I know you sent me here to write a piece about the city's bustling nightlife and theater scene, and the characters that inhabit it, but things are getting kinda strange. So, I'm here, finally, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Morg City. Lorre, who's in his slim Maltese Falcon period, is as sly and peculiar as ever of course, he and Karloff would team up again for more horror-comedy in the 1960s: The Raven and Comedy of Terrors.Reporter: "Hey Mr. Larry Parks and "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom co-star. ![]() An Arsenic and Old Lace vibe prevails (Karloff had been starring in the stage production), and the labored comedy has Karloff and Peter Lorre using boarders at an early-American hotel as subjects for experiments. The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942) goes the comedy route, spoofing Karloff's image as a white-haired gentleman who should not be allowed to run experiments in the basement. These cheaply-made films are solid enough programmers of the era, and surprisingly literate-although it would be a stretch to call them scary. However, using a murderer's blood in the secret serum proves a fatal mistake. Before I Hang (1940) opens a similar vein, with Karloff once again sentenced to death and this time conducting experiments in prison (aided by Edward Van Sloan, filmdom's original Van Helsing). The hanging isn't a problem, not when the doctor's assistant has the process down pat, and now Karloff can take elaborate revenge. Savaard has perfected a re-animation process, but the police arrest him before he can revive a student-and so the doctor is sentenced to death for murder. The Man They Could Not Hang, from 1939, is a solid mad-scientist picture. Director Roy William Neill later did Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Karloff is in terrific form, and the film features a secret chamber (complete with torture pit) that provides just the right Gothic oomph. One is good, one bad, and happily enough, the bad brother has the upper hand. The best (and best-looking) film in the set, 1935's The Black Room, is a wonderfully lurid costume romp with Karloff in a dual role: twin brothers who inherit a baronage but live under a family curse. ![]() Although it is called the Icons of Horror Collection, the "horror" is more macabre mood than monster mash. Four of these mostly low-budget pictures are gathered in this two-disc set-which, if not a collection of classics, is nevertheless a real boon for Karloffians. At Columbia, Karloff etched a handful of good mad doctor roles (notably The Devil Commands, available on a separate DVD) and other oddities. Boris Karloff made his fame during the great horror cycle at Universal Pictures in the 1930s, but he also flaunted his iconic status at other studios.
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