He played iconic roles like Frankenstein's monster and Imhotep (aka The Mummy), but Boris Karloff also instilled life in so many other intriguing characters, including Morgan in The Old Dark House, coming to Blu-ray (in a 4K restoration), DVD, and digital platforms this October from the Cohen Film Collection:
Press Release: Charles S. Cohen, Chairman and CEO of Cohen Media Group, today announced that the landmark thriller THE OLD DARK HOUSE, starring Boris Karloff, will be released by the Cohen Film Collection on Blu-ray, DVD and digital platforms on October 24, 2017. The home video release features the dazzling new 4K digital restoration that was screened to wide acclaim at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
Based on J.B. Priestley's popular novel Benighted, this legendary classic was directed by James Whale in the fertile period between his Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. In THE OLD DARK HOUSE, Whale puts a surprising spin on horror film conventions even as he is creating them, adding black humor and sexual perversity that was eye-opening in 1932.
A quintessential dark and stormy night brings a group of travelers to a forbidding mansion in the Welsh countryside, where they find themselves at the mercy of the strange, and possibly dangerous, Femm family. Boris Karloff is, as always, unforgettable, here playing a mute, menacing butler. The superb cast also includes Gloria Stuart, who would star in James Cameron's Titanic 65 years later, Melvin Douglas (Ninotchka, Being There), Charles Laughton (in his first Hollywood film), Raymond Massey (Abe Lincoln in Illinois, East of Eden) and Ernest Thesiger (Bride of Frankenstein).
THE OLD DARK HOUSE continues to intrigue and delight audiences and critics. Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid called it "essential Halloween viewing ... It's the ultimate haunted-house movie, and the ultimate spoof of them at the same time." Leonard Maltin called it "outstanding melodrama ... a real gem." Time Out London said, "Alongside The Bride of Frankenstein, [it's] Whale's greatest film, a masterly mixture of macabre humor and effectively gripping suspense."
Bonus features on the Blu-ray and the DVD include: a new interview with Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris Karloff; the featurette "Curtis Harrington Saves THE OLD DARK HOUSE"; a feature-length audio commentary track by actress Gloria Stuart; a feature-length audio commentary track by James Whale biographer James Curtis, and the 2017 rerelease trailer.
About Cohen Media Group (www.cohenmedia.net)
Formed in 2008 by Charles S. Cohen, an executive producer of multiple Academy Award nominee Frozen River, the COHEN MEDIA GROUP, LLC (CMG) produces and distributes select films throughout North America. Current and upcoming CMG releases include Lorraine Levy's The Other Son (winner of the Grand Prize and Best Director prize at the 2012 Tokyo International Film Festival); French director Francois Ozon's thriller In The House (San Sebastian Film Festival's winner of the Golden Shell and Best Screenplay award; Spain's official entry to the Academy awards, Blancanieves; Fernando Trueba's The Artist and the Model, starring Jean Rochefort and Claudia Cardinale; and Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri's The Attack, based on the international best-selling book by Yasmina Khadra. CMG's Cohen Film Collection (formerly the Rohauer Collection) includes some 700 cinema landmarks, including films by D.W. Griffith, Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks, as well as foreign classics like Luis Bunuel's Tristana.
Image note: Above image not taken from 4K restoration.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
