The Ghoul

5/24/2014

Almost his last words were a threat to return from the dead. In my opinion, he was mad! A tricky one to review in some ways, for someone like myself who loves to submerge himself in anything Noir, Expressionistic or Gothic. There's also the added impact value here of the cast list, with Karloff, Hardwicke, Thesiger and Richardson making a quadruple list of British treasures. While of course there's the not so small fact that the film was sort of lost for decades, and even when it surfaced it was the victim of some awful transfers onto home entertainment formats. So it has been like discovering a Holy Grail of Karloff movies to finally have it available with a very good transfer. The Ghoul is very uneven and it takes the slow-burn approach to the extreme, even rendering much of the fi

6/13/2022

Boris Karloff is "Prof. Morlant" - an ageing Egyptologist who insists that when he dies, he is to be entombed Pharaonic style - and woe betides anyone who doesn't comply with his wishes (he even requires that the key to his vault be left on the inside of the door!). Shortly after his demise, we see a hooded figure remove something from his tomb before the arrival of the two people who are the heirs to what is left of his once substantial fortune; closely followed by a passing parson (Ralph Richardson), an enigmatic Egyptian "Mr. Dragore" (Harold Hath) all under the watchful eye of the dead man's seemingly untrustworthy solicitor "Broughton" (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and his former, club-footed, manservant "Laing" (the star of the film for me: Ernest Thesiger). It transpires that the thing tha