AN EVENING WITH BORIS KARLOFF & HIS FRIENDS - Boris Karloff
YEAR: 1967
LABEL: MCA
TRACK LISTING: Introduction, Dracula, All About the Monster, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The House of Frankenstein, Finale
IMPRESSIONS: What could be more Halloweenie than the King of Horror talking about the classic golden age of Universal horror?!?! All right, I suppose if they had Karloff sitting on a pumpkin while he was doing it. But hey, maybe they DID! One wishes this album went on a little longer but what we have is a treasure trove of frightful fun. There's no mistaking that style of writing in the script; if one didn't know Forrest J. Ackerman wrote it one could easily guess it was the work of the creator of "FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND" magazine.
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: The whole album
FACT SHEET: AN EVENING WITH BORIS KARLOFF & HIS FRIENDS was recorded at the Magic Castle in Hollyweird, Karloffornia in 1967. Verne Langdon and Milt Larsen produced and Forrest J. Ackerman wrote the script for Boris to perform. The album consists of Karloff's narration interspersed with audio clips from the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s and 1940s which are under discussion.
This was a favourite of mine when it first appeared - at a time when I'd hardly seen any of the films it featured. Of course its got BK himself which made it extra special at a time when Brit fans were starved of most of the old movies.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine how much you liked this album back when it appeared; with no other way to experience these movies - certainly no video tapes or dvds - this must have been solid gold! I only wish I had owned a copy back when I was a kid but I only got the album in the last ten years. As someone who also grew up before the age of home video - someone who could only experience these movies when (and if) they happened to play on TV on Dr. Shock's Mad Theater or Horror Theater - I can relate to how rare and precious these kind of albums were.
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