Boris Karloff

The earliest surviving film to feature the character Charlie Chan, directed by Irving Cummings and produced by Fox Film Corporation. Warner Baxter stars as Col. John Beetham, a man under suspicion in a complex murder mystery. Lois Moran plays Eve Mannering Durand, whose husband's death sets the investigation in motion. Boris Karloff appears as Beetham's sinister manservant in an early role before his horror fame. Charlie Chan, played by the Chinese American actor E. L. Park, gets one mention early in the film and then makes only a few momentary appearances after 75 minutes. Park was the first Chinese American to play Charlie Chan on screen. Producer William Fox chose this film to open the palatial Fox Theatre in San Francisco on June 28, 1929. The film is in the public domain.

Mystery · Crime · Thriller

The fourth and final RKO Dick Tracy feature, and the only one to star Boris Karloff. A convicted killer called Gruesome gets his hands on a canister of experimental nerve gas that freezes anyone who breathes it mid-action, and uses it to stage a bank robbery in which the customers and staff stand paralyzed while the vault is cleaned out. Tess Trueheart witnesses the robbery and barely escapes, bringing Dick Tracy onto the case. Ralph Byrd, who had played Tracy in the Republic serials, returns to the role here. Karloff's presence gives the picture a jolt of real menace that the series had lacked, and the gas gimmick is a neat piece of B-noir plotting. Released in 1947, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Crime · Mystery · Thriller

The third entry in Monogram's Mr. Wong series, with Boris Karloff in the unlikely role of the gentlemanly Chinese detective James Lee Wong. A Chinese princess visiting San Francisco to buy warplanes for her country is murdered in Wong's own home, and the trail winds through Chinatown tongs, shady ship brokers, and a counterfeiting ring. Marjorie Reynolds co-stars as wisecracking reporter Bobbie Logan, with Grant Withers as the eternally exasperated Captain Street. Karloff's quiet, courtly Wong remains one of the odder delights of the Poverty Row detective series. The film's copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Mystery · Crime

Tarzan returns to his jungle estate to find his home pillaged and his wife abducted by a band of Arab slavers, and sets out across the wilderness with a golden lion at his side to rescue her. James Pierce stars as the ape-man, with Boris Karloff in a supporting role. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Adventure · Action

Boris Karloff plays Dr. Bernard Adrian, a gentle small-town physician still grieving his wife and daughter's deaths from polio, now experimenting with spinal fluid to cure a paralyzed young woman. When a vicious circus ape escapes and is shot, Adrian sees a grim shortcut to the human material he needs — and the killings that follow are blamed on the ape itself. A Monogram horror cheapie that gives Karloff an unusually sympathetic mad scientist. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Mystery

A silent crime-horror film directed by James Young, based on the 1867 French play Le Juif Polonais by Erckmann-Chatrian. Lionel Barrymore stars as Mathias, an innkeeper who murders a wealthy Jewish merchant for his gold on New Year's Eve, then is haunted by the sound of sleigh bells and ghostly visions. Boris Karloff appears in an early role as a sinister mesmerist who arrives to torment Mathias with supernatural visions of hell. The film blends murder melodrama with Gothic horror, and Karloff's menacing presence, years before Frankenstein made him a star, hints at the iconic monster roles to come. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Crime · Silent

Often called the first British horror film of the sound era, The Ghoul stars Boris Karloff as Professor Morlant, a dying Egyptologist who demands to be buried with a sacred jewel he believes will grant him eternal life. When the gem is stolen from his tomb, Morlant rises from the grave to reclaim it, stalking the heirs and hangers-on who have gathered at his gloomy estate. The cast is a remarkable roll of British talent: Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Hyson, and Ralph Richardson in his feature film debut. Produced by Michael Balcon for Gaumont-British and directed by T. Hayes Hunter, the film was considered lost for decades until a print surfaced in the 1980s. It is in the public domain in the United States.

Horror

A young officer in Napoleon's army, separated from his regiment, follows a mysterious woman to the castle of an elderly baron and uncovers a story of murder, guilt, and a witch's curse. The Terror is famous less for its plot than for how it was made. Roger Corman shot Boris Karloff's scenes in a few days using leftover sets from The Raven, then sent a string of directors, including Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, and Jack Hill, to film the rest around them. Jack Nicholson, then a young actor on Corman's payroll, plays the lead. The film fell into the public domain because it was released without a copyright notice. It is a rambling, atmospheric curiosity that captures a group of future major filmmakers at the very start of their careers.

Horror