Boris Karloff stands tall as one of film history’s most iconic performers, particularly within the horror genre. Foremost known for portraying some of the most iconic monsters in film history, from his work as Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankenstein, Imhotep in The Mummy, or voicing The Grinch himself, Karloff had a few distinctive attributes that made him one of the most memorable stars of the era. Beyond his intimidating glare, corresponding intensity, and charismatic presence, Karloff commanded the screen even when he wasn’t caked in world-class monster makeup.
When Universal’s 1938 double-bill of Dracula and Frankenstein blew up the box office, Universal upped their horror production. It prompted Columbia Pictures to sign Karloff to a five film contract, but without a monster movie FX budget, they had to get a little clever. They opted for a series of films featuring Karloff as an obsessive mad scientist. In a few years' span, Karloff played the resurrection-obsessed Dr. Henryk Savaard in The Man They Could Not Hang (1939), the cryogenics-obsessed Dr. Leon Kravaal in The Man With Nine Lives (1940), and the age-obsessed Dr. John Garth in Before I Hang (1940) before landing on 1941’s The Devil Commands.
