Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster

Note re credited Interviewees. Although all the named interviewees are credited in Boris Karloff The Man Behind the Monster (some of them under an apologetic Thank you credit) only about half are actually seen or heard in The Man Behind the Monster. This was because the film was originally planned as a 4 hour piece but was subsequently finished as a 98minute doc, Interviewees appearing in "Boris Karloff The Man Behind the Monster" are Guillermo Del Toro, Roger Corman, Sara Karloff, John Landis, Kevin Brownlow, Sir Christopher Frayling, Stephen Jacobs, Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Stefanie Powers, Jack Hill, Leonard Maltin, Ian Ogilvy, Peter Asher, Orson Bean, Sharyn Moffett, Peter Bogdanovich, Christopher Plummer, Gregory W. Mank, David J Skal, Valerie Yaros, Ron Perlman, Ron Simon, Donald F. Glut, Jaymz Bee, Cortlandt Hull, Mark Voger, Neil Pettigrew, Thomas Hamilton, Ron MacCloskey.

Having filmed 100+ hours of interviews, many who didn't make it to Boris KArloff: The Man Behind the Monster were included in "Boris Karloff: The Rest of the Story" - available on the Blu-Ray & DVD only. In addition to the above, it features: Caroline Munro, Lee Grant, Renée Glynne, Virginia Bates (aka Wetherell), Derek Malcolm, Diane Aubrey, Jack Diamond, Miles Kreuger, Donnie Dunagen, Norman Jewison, Nehemia Persoff, H.M Wynant, Bernard Coleman, Daniel Haller, Gord Shriver, Ruth Shiel, John Elliot.

Interviews which were filmed or recorded and didn't make it into either film for various reasons included - Stuart Hersh, Rick Goldschmidt, Linda Clough Jones & Craig Causten, Kevin Clement, John Waxman, Kirk Hammett (Zoom interview) & Gudrun Ure.

The DVD & Blu-ray included additional interviews with Kevin Brownlow, Anthony Pratt (BK's great nephew) & Tony Bilbow (who filmed Karloff's last interview)

Universal did not "buy" the rights to "Frankenstein"--the novel had long since been in the public domain.

NB - While the above note is correct, in April 1931 Universal did buy the film production rights to the 1927 PLAY of Frankenstein by Peggy Webling and this was a key source of inspiration for the film released later that year. In the documentary this was originally elaborated on at some length, including Hamilton Deane's connection to the role - but the need to shorten the running time to a workable length led to the removal of most of the sequence - hence a mistake by omission.

Features His Majesty, the American (1919)