Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster (Movie Review)

If you combine the association of Robert Englund to Freddy Krueger and the iconic lumbering visage of Jason Voorhees you will get a fraction of the impact that Boris Karloff has had with his role as Frankenstein’s Monster.  I was born fifty years after Boris Karloff first played Frankenstein’s Monster and the character still has had a large impact.  When I made a family tree for an elementary school project my father insisted we have a branch for good old uncle Frank on the Stein side of the family.  Even as I type this I am using a Frankenstein-themed mousepad and have three Frankenstein’s Monster figures on my shelf.

The new Shudder exclusive documentary Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster attempts to give context to the man and review his filmography with interviews by Gullermo Del Toro, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Dick Miller and John Landis.  As a tribute to the working man the documentary does an excellent job painting him as a class act.  He supports the creation of Screen Actors Guild at the risk of his own career.  As his body was failing we hear about how he would rise to the occasion time and time again.  He was surprised with an appear on This Is Your Life and you can see that the humble man is shocked by the idea of so much attention and praise being heaved on him.

As a tribute to Boris outside of his work the film is lacking.  We are given background about his upbringing in England but not much personal information outside of struggle to become and actor.  There are updates on his growing number of marriages but not much else.  His daughter Sarah discusses his legacy as an actor but avoids talking about him as father.  I wonder what he did in free time, what his go to drink order is.  I appreciate if his family wanted to keep such information private however that makes the title of the documentary feel misleading.

The structure of the first third of the movie is bewildering.  The narration starts with his later films, then talks about his role in Frankenstein, then talks about family of origin only to start back at the beginning of this career in the silent film era.  I have never had narrative whiplash from a documentary before.  Speaking on a technical level, the blue/green composition looks atrocious during the interviews.  In the one segment with Christopher Plummer they dont even bother to add a background.  If this was an indie film from a small distributor I would be kinder but with Shudder picking this up I would expect them to help iron out these wrinkles.  If you are a fan of old flat top and Uniserval Monster movies there is plenty to enjoy here.  If you are looking for a deep character study of a man with an iconic carrer you will be left yearning.