100 Years of Horror (TV Series) Boris Karloff (1996) User Reviews

Boris Karloff

[Leofwine_draca · 8/10 · 8 April 2017]

100 YEARS OF HORROR is a 26-episode TV series made in 1996 and featuring the delightful Christopher Lee as host, his sonorous narration exploring the history of horror cinema in the 20th century. Each themed episode contains plentiful clips from the films mentioned along with brief interview footage seemingly culled from other documentaries as well as TV shows and the like.

Like the previous episode of this show, BORIS KARLOFF is themed around the horror actor and features multiple clips taken from various points in his career alongside interview footage and clips of other actors discussing his legacy. Christopher Lee is in a good position to narrate, having worked with Karloff himself, and the likes of Sara Karloff and even Hugh Hefner add engaging commentary.

Boris Karloff

[Michael_Elliott · 24 September 2010]

100 Years of Horror: Boris Karloff (1996)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another fun entry in the series with this one taking a look at the career of Boris Karloff. We learn, from his daughter, that Boris ran away from home to become an actor and struggled for many years before catching a break with FRANKENSTEIN. This here would lead to countless horror roles including THE MUMMY, THE INVISIBLE RAY, THE BODY SNATCHER and others but unlike Lugosi, Karloff had the good fortune to branch out into other genres and work with people like Cecil B. DeMille and John Ford.

Ralph Bellamy, Roger Corman, Jack Hill, Dick Miller, Hugh Hefner, Sara Karloff, Richard Matheson, Robert Wise and host Christopher Lee all add their feelings on the legendary star who pretty much worked every genre and succeeded in each genre. Once again die-hard fans aren't going to learn anything new but it's still good hearing from so many people that worked with him. Jack Hill's brief story about the four Mexican pictures Karloff made to end his career was nice to hear about and Matheson talks about Karloff switching roles with Basil Rathbone in THE COMEDY OF TERRORS. We also get some brief talk about what should have been his final film, TARGETS.