Screenings from the Collection

Karloff for Halloween

Saturday, October 29, 2011
to Sunday, October 30, 2011
New York and Los Angeles

FREE for Paley Center Members
Included with general admission 

Nothing says “Halloween” like Boris Karloff, so equated was the great actor with the  horror genre, his long and busy career including such memorable creations as the Frankenstein Monster, the Mummy, and a variety of mad doctors and creepy scientists. Continuing in this vein on television, he excelled in delivering both genuine chills and more lighthearted fare sending up his image; the Paley Center presents a little of both. 

Saturday, October 29, 2011

NY: 2:45 pm
LA: 12:30 pm

Hallmark Hall of Fame: Arsenic & Old Lace

Although Boris Karloff missed out on re-creating his classic Broadway role in the movie version of Joseph Kesselring’s black comedy, television rectified that by giving him a chance to reprise his interpretation of the psychotic Jonathan Brewster on three separate occasions. In his third and final visit to the part, he is joined by Tony Randall as his excitable brother, Mortimer; Tom Bosley as “Teddy Roosevelt”; and George Voskovec as Karloff’s nervous accomplice in crime. Dorothy Stickney and Mildred Natwick play the sweet little old ladies who feel it is their mission to serve lonely gentlemen arsenic in their elderberry wine. Includes commercials. (1962; 90 minutes)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

NY: 2:45 pm
LA: 12:30 pm

Route 66: “Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing”

Tod and Buz (series stars Martin Milner and George Maharis) are thrown for a loop when their first duty as newly hired “convention liaisons” at a hotel involves catering to legendary horror actors Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Lon Chaney, who are clandestinely planning a return to show business with their signature portrayals of “old-fashioned” monsters. (1962; 50 minutes)

NY: 3:35 pm
LA: 1:20 pm

Thriller: “The Incredible Doktor Markesan”

A pre-Bewitched Dick York and his wife (Carolyn Kearney) pay an unexpected visit to his uncle, an eminent professor. However, something is definitely off about the esteemed doctor … Karloff gives a supremely creepy and (re) animated performance as a disgraced scientist keeping a terrible secret. An episode from the anthology series Boris hosted and occasionally appeared in for two seasons on NBC. (1962; 50 minutes)