Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Mad Monster Party? with Boris Karloff

It's the perfect day to sort through your Halloween movies and watch your dvd of Mad Monster Party? starring Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller. Today is the death anniversary of Boris Karloff (February 2, 1969) and what could be more fun than remembering him by watching the stop-motion Halloween special from 1967 by Rankin/Bass Productions.

Boris Karloff is one of the icons of horror films. Made famous by playing Frankenstein, Karloff went on to play many evil monsters in film. Most kids today would recognize him for his voice in The Grinch, but it's about time they were introduced to Mad Monster Party, I think. By all accounts Karloff was a kind, gentle man. According to a Wikipedia article, every year he dressed up as Santa Claus and visited disabled children at a hospital in Baltimore.

Mad Monster Party? is a campy cult classic and a madcap monster mashup. In fact, the screenplay was written by a Mad Magazine creator and a Mad artist was instrumental in creating some of the characters. I haven't watched it in years, but I intend to rectify that today. The dvd is still available for purchase and you can stream it from various places if you look around.

Here is a preview if you're not familiar-


Make sure you grab a cocktail and put on a feather boa before you hit play.

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