The first film I ever saw starring Boris Karloff (that I was aware of) was The Old Dark House (1932) in one of my film genres classes in college. It was creepy and atmospheric and simply amazing! We were actually studying the films of James Whale and so I also got to watch Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man, to name a few. Needless to say, Karloff and Whale became a huge influence on me through both my college years and led to my focus on horror films in college. I actually ended up writing several papers on Whale and his films. Over the years as I watched and enjoyed more films from Karloff, he led me to other such great influences as Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Basil Rathbone, Elsa Lanchester, and many more. As I got older I met more and more people knew who had no idea who Karloff was much less had seen any of the films he was in. My fear was that Karloff was being one of the forgotten great talents of film history whose career spanned sixty years. Therein lays the purpose of the Boris Karloff Tribute Weekend! It isn’t a means to make money off an amazing talent but a means to remind audiences of what an amazing talent he truly was. I’m not charging anything for this event. It’s entirely free! In addition to the amazing selection of films already made available for free on You Tube I’m also conducting a Watch Group screenings where you can watch some of his films with me. I hope that I can get audiences to either go back and remember these great films and/or expose them to what a great talent Karloff was and his contributions not only to the horror and sci-fi genre but also film history as well. Karloff isn’t the only talent whose contributions have been forgotten through time and therefore I hope that I will be able to continue doing these Tribute Weekends in honor of other great individuals. So, I hope you all join me on November 13-14 and if not feel free to enjoy all the free films on You Tube. Kevin Powers |