In England, Karloff made two films for producer Richard Gordon, who had been a major fan of the actor since childhood, both directed by Robert Day. THE HAUNTED STRANGLER (1958) involved a writer who becomes possessed by a notorious Victorian serial killer and CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (1958), co-starring Christopher Lee, saw Karloff as a doctor who becomes addicted to the anesthesia he has discovered. Gordon had wanted Karloff to star in a version of Dracula, which the actor agreed to on the condition that he “not imitate Bela.”

Around this time Karloff and his sixth and final wife, Evelyn, decided to permanently relocate to the United Kingdom. Here Karloff would reside for the rest of his life, though he still made frequent trips stateside for work. His first residence upon returning to his country of birth was Cadogan Square in London. This placed him near the residence of another horror icon in the form of Christopher Lee and the two often mixed socially.

In 1960, in the wake of televised anthology programs such as THE TWILIGHT ZONE and ONE STEP BEYOND, Karloff was offered the opportunity to host a series of his own in the form of THRILLER. It initially concentrated on mystery and suspense themes in the vein of its NBC sister series ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, but after a handful of episodes began to veer into all-out horror, largely drawn from the pages of the legendary 1930s pulps. Karloff would appear at the start of each story to expound upon the themes of the week’s story and introduce the players. He also starred in five of the episodes himself, including the excellent The Incredible Doktor Markesan, based on a story by the left hand of Lovecraft himself, August Derleth. Here Karloff portrays the crazed Dr. Konrad Markesan, who develops a method of resurrecting the dead. He utilizes this scientific miracle to force the duly zombified professors who scorned his theories to apologize to him nightly! The series produced many other classic episodes such as The Return of Andrew Bentley with John Newland and Reggie Nalder, The Hungry Glass with William Shatner and The Cheaters with Henry Daniell. Sadly though, THRILLER would last only two seasons.

Karloff signed on with American International Pictures, who had been turning out highly successful Edgar Allan Poe features starring Vincent Price starting in 1960. THE RAVEN (1963), Roger Corman’s comedic take on his Poe films, combined the talents of Karloff and Price, bringing in Peter Lorre for good measure in a tale of warring wizards. It was during production of THE RAVEN too that Famous Monsters editor emeritus Forrest J Ackerman was able to make a set visit for his readers and interview the stars. For THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963), another rollicking farce, the three were joined by Basil Rathbone as well. Karloff went to Italy to host BLACK SABBATH (1963), an anthology film directed by Mario Bava. Karloff stars in the film’s best sequence as well, as a Serbian peasant who returns to his home as a bloodthirsty “wurdulak”. AIP’s DIE, MONSTER, DIE (1965) was an adaptation of Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space with a change of setting from Massachusetts to the English countryside, while THE SORCERERS (1967) marked a noteworthy association between Karloff and Michael Reeves, the future director of WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968). Karloff sent himself up by giving voice to a puppet molded in his own image in MAD MONSTER PARTY? (1967) as Baron Boris von Frankenstein, an appellation which effectively fuses actor and role into one.

One factor that had played a role in Karloff relocating to England was the ever increasing crime rate the United States was beginning to experience. Incidents of violent crime escalated dramatically throughout the 1960s and would only get worse from there. In addition, this time period saw the onset of widespread public awareness of the “assassin” such as Lee Harvey Oswald, the “mass murderer” such as Charles Whitman and the “serial killer” such as Albert DeSalvo. Director Peter Bogdanovich wanted to make a statement on this state of affairs and, in the tumultuous summer of 1967, made TARGETS which would be released a year later. The film examines the lives of two unrelated individuals, Byron Orlok (Karloff) an aging Hollywood horror star disgusted by the meaningless violence around him and yearning to return to his native England, and Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly), a mild mannered Vietnam veteran who one day and without warning murders his entire family before embarking on a campaign of mayhem across Los Angeles. Throughout the film Bogdanovich juxtaposes the Gothic villainy that Karloff/Orlok embodied in his screen roles against the heartbreaking real-life tragedy of

random violence, the likes of which we still grapple with to this day. “My kind of horror isn’t horror anymore!”, protests Orlok. TARGETS would not prove to be Karloff’s final film but it is, in the words of Denis Gifford, “the perfect obituary and the only horror film completely to bridge the gap between the horror that was golden and the horror that is today.”



 Karloff’s career would be rounded off with CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR (1968) in England, a Lovecraft-inspired tale of witchcraft blended with accents of psychedelica co-starring Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele, and finally four Mexican features produced by Luis Enrique Vergara. At this point suffering from late stage emphysema and mostly confined to a wheelchair, Karloff was forbidden to travel to Mexico City on account of the altitude. His scenes for all four features were shot in Hollywood by Jack Hill and later incorporated into the Mexican-shot footage. The results of this were ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE, HOUSE OF EVIL, THE TORTURE ZONE and THE INCREDIBLE INVASION, the latter being Karloff’s final feature film. Of these THE TORTURE ZONE is probably the most interesting but it is somewhat disheartening to see Karloff end his legendary screen career in these rather tawdry exploitation items.

Karloff died less than a year after filming his scenes for the Mexican films. He left behind a legendary body of work but perhaps more importantly he was remembered by his co-stars and collaborators as an unfailingly gracious and gentlemanly presence. His performance as the Frankenstein Monster will never be matched and his name will no doubt, for centuries to come, still be recalled fondly and with great respect.