Karloff on Live TV

 

 (imdb)

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE-1962-Live presentation by Hallmark of the classic play about the wacky Brewster family. In Brooklyn, the Brewster sisters (Dorothy Stickney & Mildred Natwick) poison lonely old men. They think they're doing a service and have their nutty brother Teddy (Tom Bosley) who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt bury the corpses in the Panama Canal (the basement). Their other nephew Mortimer (Tony Randall), a theater critic in love with Elaine (Dodie Heath), discovers their grisly hobby and plans to have "Teddy" committed after he discovers their latest victim in the window seat. Enter long lost brother Jonathan who thanks to drunken plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein (George Voskovec) resembles Boris Karloff (of course, it's more than a resemblance, the real Karloff plays him). Besides having a body in the trunk of his car, Jonathan also decides it would be the right time to kill Mortimer. 

It's great to see this live TV production (shortened from the play) especially since Karloff was not in the movie version. Randall's Mortimer is a little more subdued than Cary Grant but still holds his own. Czechoslovakian born stage actor George Voskovec had played the mild-mannered Juror #11 in 12 ANGRY MEN (1957).

Directed by George Schaefer who made many TV movies after this.

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The Caretaker

 

 (wikipedia)

THE CARETAKER-1963-Harold Pinter's play adapted for the screen by the playwright himself and directed by Clive Donner. The three cast production has a soft spoken lonely man Aston (Robert Shaw) with a history of mental illness helping a grubby manipulative old man Jenkins (Donald Pleasence)) by letting him stay in his cuddled run down room at their family house. Also there is Aston's brother Mick (Alan Bates) who torments Jenkins. You might not go for the story that much but the acting is fantastic! Pinter has a brief cameo (the only other role). 

Along with Pinter and Donner, the stars also helped produce it (and received no pay). However, when additional funding couldn't be obtained a group of investors (including Richard Burton and Peter Sellers) was organized. Shaw and Pleasence had both been in the original stage production.

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Early Talkie

 

 (imdb)

THE NINTH GUEST-1934-8 people are invited to a mysterious party given by someone known only as "The host". The group includes two political rivals who hate each other, a snooty society dame (Helen Flint) and a doctor (Samuel Hinds). The only levelheaded guest is an author (Donald Woods). "The host" talks to them via a special radio and says they all will die. They begin to be killed one by one with the killer being revealed in the finale.

 It's a pre-code talkie based on a play that resembles Agatha Christie's “Then There Were None” which was written later. Genevieve Tobin and Vince Barnett co-star. Unsung director Roy William Neill would go on to make THE BLACK ROOM (with Karloff), FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN and the lion's share of the Univeral Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone.

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Junkie Jive

THE CONNECTION-1961-Some junkie Jazz musicians (including saxophonist Jackie MacLean) wait around an apartment for their dealer Cowboy (Carl Lee, later he had a role in SUPERFLY) to come with their junk. Meanwhile the whole thing is being filmed cinema verite' by a director Jim (William Redfield) and his unseen cameraman JJ (the voice of Roscoe Lee Jones). The group discuss various topics for the camera and a Salvation Army “sister” shows up to “save” them. They also jam and later Jim shoots up and becomes an addict. 

THE CONNECTION was the first feature film by Shirley Clarke, a former choreographer who prior to this made only short films. Controversial at the time it was made, now it just seems like a relic but considering it's presented as “found footage” (a genre all the rage today) it is ahead of it's time. Based on a play by Jack Gelber who adapted it for the film. The same year director Clarke won an Academy Award for a short about Robert Frost.

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