Sci-Fi Rewind:The Ghoul (1933)
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It’s October and time for Halloween. Many will be sitting down to watch classic films like 1931’
s Frankenstein and 1941’s The Wolfman. Boris Karloff made an iconic (if racist) portrayal of an
undead creature seeking vengeance in the 1932 classic The Mummy. In 1933, he starred in The
Ghoul, playing an undead creature seeking vengeance. Of course, in order to become undead,
Karloff (playing Prof. Morlant) first needs to die. The film’s first fifteen minutes see him languishing
in bed and whispering his pensive lines about Egyptian prophesies regarding immortality. The
overacting as he reaches to the sky clutching an amulet is truly worth witnessing.
For the next twenty minutes, the film becomes a very typical British film of the early 1930s.
Karloff/Morlant’s upper class relatives get snooty with each other. To maintain its horror status,
people do mince around furtively in the dark.
Then, the ghoul rises, and things get only slightly more interesting. Granted, seeing Karloff
strangle people to death keeps us coming back to classic monster movies year after year. What’s
rare and makes this film stand out among other monster films of this era are its moments of comic
relief. The standout among these is a scene in which Betty, one of the ghoul’s potential victims
waves innocently at the man she loves while Karloff stalks up behind her. He decides she isn’t
worth killing and waltzes out of the room, finally startling her.
This moment of levity is refreshing because it reminds us not to take our monster films too
seriously. Perhaps that’s a controversial thing to say because of the sacred place movies like
Frankenstein hold in our hearts. But in an era when many who portray today’s monsters end up
dying because they were so immersed in their roles, it’s nice to see Karloff, an actor who played
many, many monsters on screen, willing to poke fun at one of his characters.
Naturally, the film has a twist ending regarding the nature of the ghoul itself, but it’s a little too
ridiculous to elaborate here.
Watch The Ghoul this Halloween; you might just scream and chuckle at the same movie.
s Frankenstein and 1941’s The Wolfman. Boris Karloff made an iconic (if racist) portrayal of an
undead creature seeking vengeance in the 1932 classic The Mummy. In 1933, he starred in The
Ghoul, playing an undead creature seeking vengeance. Of course, in order to become undead,
Karloff (playing Prof. Morlant) first needs to die. The film’s first fifteen minutes see him languishing
in bed and whispering his pensive lines about Egyptian prophesies regarding immortality. The
overacting as he reaches to the sky clutching an amulet is truly worth witnessing.
For the next twenty minutes, the film becomes a very typical British film of the early 1930s.
Karloff/Morlant’s upper class relatives get snooty with each other. To maintain its horror status,
people do mince around furtively in the dark.
Then, the ghoul rises, and things get only slightly more interesting. Granted, seeing Karloff
strangle people to death keeps us coming back to classic monster movies year after year. What’s
rare and makes this film stand out among other monster films of this era are its moments of comic
relief. The standout among these is a scene in which Betty, one of the ghoul’s potential victims
waves innocently at the man she loves while Karloff stalks up behind her. He decides she isn’t
worth killing and waltzes out of the room, finally startling her.
This moment of levity is refreshing because it reminds us not to take our monster films too
seriously. Perhaps that’s a controversial thing to say because of the sacred place movies like
Frankenstein hold in our hearts. But in an era when many who portray today’s monsters end up
dying because they were so immersed in their roles, it’s nice to see Karloff, an actor who played
many, many monsters on screen, willing to poke fun at one of his characters.
Naturally, the film has a twist ending regarding the nature of the ghoul itself, but it’s a little too
ridiculous to elaborate here.
Watch The Ghoul this Halloween; you might just scream and chuckle at the same movie.
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Directed by: T. Hayes Hunter
Starring: Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Hyson
Starring: Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Hyson
