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AS SURE AS MY NAME IS BORIS KARLOFF…….
The Balboa Theater, June 2 - 22, 2006
 At last, a deserved tribute to the master of horror who was also a fine actor in serious and comic roles. Karloff was in over 200 films, plus stage plays & TV. We have chosen 26 features that offer one of the largest tributes to Karloff ever presented. Enjoy the great classics & the rarest of discoveries. One price for double & triple bills. Unless otherwise noted *, all prints are 35mm from Studios and Archives.
Special guests to be announced.
We urge you to visit the official website.
SPECIAL EXHIBIT OF RARE KARLOFF MEMORABILIA IN OUR LOBBY THROUGHOUT THE SERIES.
Complete notes and interview with Boris Karloff at AS SURE AS MY NAME IS BORIS KARLOFF — The Interview
Friday, June 2
SARA KARLOFF PRESENTS
A very special night with Boris' daughter Sara Karloff in person. Sara grew up in San Francisco and it is a pleasure to welcome her home to talk about her father, show rare home movies, seldom screened clips, TV shows, trailers and a full evening of surprises. A once-in-a-lifetime event.
Advance tickets can be purchased at our online box office at Brown Paper Tickets.
John Stanley on Sara Karloff in the SF Chronicle: The Monster's Daughter
Saturday, June 3
FRANKENSTEIN
(1931) - The film that launched his long career as the world's premier horror film star. "I was at Universal doing a small part when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Mr. Whale would like to see you at his table.' He was the most important director on the lot. He said he wanted me to make a test for the monster. Well, they liked the test and I got the part." Boris Karloff 71min.
(2:00), 4:40, 7:20
RARITY
THE BLACK ROOM
(1934) - "An enchanting Gothic melodrama that seems to have come to life off the engraved pages of a beautiful old storybook. Karloff gives a virtuoso triple performance as the evil Baron Gregor, his kindly bother Anton and as Gregor posing as Anton." Greg Mank, Hollywood Cauldron. 67 min.
(3:20), 6:00, 8:40
Sunday, June 4
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1935) - The absolute peak of Universal's classic horror, a film that has it all: a fine cast working from a literate script, Whale's excellent direction that mixes his sly humor and pathos into the blend, beautiful camerawork and a lush score by Franz Waxman. 75 min.
(2:50), 5:50, 8:50
RARITY
THE OLD DARK HOUSE
(1932) - Karloff's first starring role as Morgan, the brutish butler. An unending delight of comedy bits from Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey, Gloria Stuart, & the great Ernest Thesiger as Horace Femm, the eccentric master of the house. Preserved by the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center. Funding from The Film Foundation. 71 min.
(4:20), 7:20
Monday, June 5
SCARFACE
(1932) - Howard Hawks directed, Howard Hughes produced gangster classic, with Paul Muni, George Raft & Karloff as the rival gang member who gets rubbed out in a bowling alley. 91min
(2:40), 5:40, 8:40
RARITY
GRAFT
(1931) - Karloff's sinister make-up as the gangster in this Universal film led to his being screen tested for the Frankenstein's monster. 55 min.
(1:30), 4:30, 7:30
Tuesday, June 6
THE BODY SNATCHER
(1945) - Eerie Val Lewton—produced chiller. Karloff at his best as the unscrupulous lower class Edinburgh cabbie who delights in the control he is able to exert over upper class Dr. MacFarlane, whom he supplies with illegally obtained corpses. Karloff's last film with Bela Lugosi, directed by Robert Wise. 77 min.
(1:25), 5:05, 8:35
RARITY
THE WALKING DEAD
(1936) - "When an innocent man is electrocuted, Edmund Gwenn restores him to life and Karloff seeks vengeance on the real killers. Directed by Casablanca's Michael Curtiz. One of the most surprising, moving & truly spiritual horror films of the time." Greg Mank 66 min. *
(3:50), 7:20
THE WURDALAK
(1963) - Stylish exercise in lush color cinematography and vampirism from Mario Bava's Black Sabbath trilogy. 41 min.
(2:55), 6:30, 10:00
(complete BLACK SABBATH shown at 10pm.)
Wednesday, June 7
THE MASK OF FU MANCHU
Sara Karloff in Person at evening show
(1932) - Pre-code brew of sexual perversity & sadistic torture with Karloff as the mad oriental Dr., Myrna Loy as his nympho daughter. 72 min.
(2:00), 4:45, 7:30
RARITY
THE LOST PATROL
(1934) - John Ford directed WWI Arabian Desert drama, with Karloff as a religious fanatic who goes over the edge. 71 min.
(3:20), 6:05, 8:50
Thursday, June 8
THE RAVEN
(1935) - Karloff plays second fiddle to Bela Lugosi's mad Dr. Vollin, who lets out all the stops as a man obsessed at building Poe's torture devices. 62 min.
(2:00), 4:45, 7:30
THE RAVEN
(1963) - An inventive horror parody directed by Roger Corman. Vincent Price, Peter Lorre & Jack Nicholson spar with Karloff as the charming but maniacal Dr. Scarabus—who truly shines in his tour de force duel of magic with Price. 86 min.
(3:10), 5:55, 8:40
Friday, June 9- Thursday. June 15
SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
Lost Classic Stunningly Restored
(1973) "Victor Erice's masterwork — now screened for the first time in 25 years — is set in the days of the dictatorship in Spain, and it's a beautiful and disturbing movie of remote landscapes, dreamy scenes of childhood and the advancing shadow of the state. A young girl, Ana, lives with an older sister and their distracted parents. He father tends to a beehive, her mother corresponds with a lover. It is Ana's 2 major discoveries, one, the Frankenstein movie by James Whale, and then an injured soldier in hiding, that shape the heart of this extraordinary movie. Shot in deceptively serene tones, paced in the rhythms of rural isolation, it exemplifies what Erice calls poetic cinema. It is the poetry an artist finds in the weave of dangerous times." Don DeLillo, Telluride Film Festival 2005 In Spanish w/ English subtitles 95 min
(1:00), 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00
Guardian (UK) article
Friday, June 16
TARGETS
(1968) - An aging horror star's low-budget films can't possibly keep up with the real-life horrors of America in 1968. Peter Bogdanovich directs. 90 min.
(3:15), 7:10
GODS AND MONSTERS
(1998) - Bill Condon's beautifully realized fictional bio of director James Whale's, focusing on his final days & memories of directing Karloff in The Bride of Frankenstein. "To a new world of Gods and Monsters " Dr. Pretorious. 105 min.
(1:10), 5:05, 9:00
Saturday, June 17
FRANKENSTEIN
(1931) - "Sheer genius, one of the most remarkable performances in the history of the cinema" Christopher Lee 71 min.
(2:00), 4:45, 7:30
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1935) - It's Alive! Widely regarded as one of the best horror films ever made. 75 min.
(3:20), 6:05, 8:50
Sunday, June 18
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
(1947) - James Thurber comedy with Karloff terrorizing the daydreaming Danny Kaye by attempting to convince him he is insane. 110 min.
(2:00), 5:20, 8:40
RARITY
THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU
(1942) - Peter Lorre co-stars in this farce modeled on Karloff's Broadway hit, Arsenic & Old Lace. 65 min.
(12:40), 4:00, 7:20
Monday, June 19
THE MUMMY
(1932) - A beautifully atmospheric chiller with Karloff as Im-Ho-Tep, a resurrected Egyptian mummy seeking the reincarnation of his lost love. 72 min.
(1:20), 4:20, 7:20
RARITY
THE GHOUL
(1933) - An Egyptologist, prematurely buried, returns to take his revenge. Long believed lost. 80 min.
(2:50), 5:50, 8:50
Tuesday, June 20
ULTRA RARITIES TRIPLE BILL
THE CRIMINAL CODE
Sara Karloff in Person at evening show
(1931) - Howard Hawks prison drama with Walter Huston gave Karloff his first big break in a showy role he first played on stage. 95 min.
(4:40), 9:20
THE GUILTY GENERATION
(1931) - Gang boss Karloff vies for control of bootlegging operations with his rival Leo Carrillo, while their kids fall in love with each other. 81 min.
(3:05), 7:45
THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG
(1939) — Hanged man brought back to life seeks revenge 68m.
(1:50), 6:30
Wednesday, June 21
THE BLACK CAT
(1934) - Karloff & Lugosi at their feverish peak in this stylish Edgar G. Ulmer directed cornucopia of necrophilia, Satanism, and flaying of human flesh. 66 min.
(2:50), 6:45
THE INVISIBLE RAY
(1936) - First of Karloff's misunderstood scientists, who the world perceives as mad. Outstanding effects work for this early S-F film. 81 min.
(4:05), 8:00
RARITY
NIGHT WORLD
(1932) - A Grand Hotel style drama in a prohibition nightclub owed by gangster Karloff, featuring Mae Clarke doing dances choreographed by Busby Berkeley! 60 min.
(1:50), 5:35, 9:30
Thursday, June 22
SON OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1939) - High-powered horror cast delivers the goods in Karloff's farewell as the monster. Basil Rathbone is the son who revives the creature, Lugosi is Ygor, & Lionel Atwill the one-armed Inspector Krogh. 99 min.
(2:30), 5:35, 8:40
HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1944) - Karloff as the mad Dr. Niemann, hijacks a traveling chamber of horrors with Count Dracula, & then revives Lon Chaney's Wolf Man & Glenn Strange as The Monster. 71 min.
(1:10), 4:15, 7:20
—Notes by Lawrence French (longer notes and interview at AS SURE AS MY NAME IS BORIS KARLOFF - The Interview)
KARLOFF RESOURCES ONLINE
The Official Boris Karloff Website
Terence Rafferty Tribute in the New York Times
Hear Boris speak many of his most famous lines
Karloff Trading Cards
Dozens of Karloff Posters, quotes and other fun
Great selection of poster reproductions
Superb collection of photographs
Selection of books (incomplete) and articles
Fan site
Good overview of career
Thriller episode guide
About Thriller from Gordon Shriver's book THE MAN REMEMBERED
Website for author David Skal who created the excellent A&E "Biography" on Karloff
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