The 2009 Boris Karloff Blogathon officially begins tomorrow!
Blogs all over the world will be posting about the life and art of one of filmdom's most famous fiends, Boris Karloff. So far over 100 blogs have signed up – click here to see a complete list of participating blogs at the Frankensteinia site. Here at SCARED SILLY: CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD HORROR-COMEDIES, we'll be taking a look at some of "Uncle Boris"'s funniest features.
To get you psyched for the festivities, we've been offering some bonus Boris clips leading up to the official blogathon launch - rarities including newsreel footage, TV commercials, variety show appearances and more!
Here’s a Scared Silly bonus, or more precisely, an “horror-onable mention.” It’s a scene from the 1934 film “Gift of Gab,” a movie that doesn’t really qualify as a full-fledged horror-comedy, but is of major interest for this scene featuring an early teaming of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (their second after "The Black Cat" earlier that same year) in a spoof of a murder mystery radio skit.
Well, technically the monster men are not "teamed" here, but they do appear in the same skit. And note Karloff's top hat and cape - a foreshadow of his later, similar get-up as the title fiend from "Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde."
In addition to the Karloff/Lugosi appearance, there are two other points of interest: this was once thought to be a “lost” film that was ultimately found within the last few years; and the Three Stooges were originally cast in the film but dropped when they signed with Columbia to do what would become a decades-long series of classic short subjects (reportedly they were replaced with look-alikes).
Here's the Boris/Bela scene:
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