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Post by ireallyamsomething on Jun 28, 2021 7:31:37 GMT
I've seen quite a few Karloff films this year and it felt to me that even with somewhat B-movie or cheesy material, he brought a certain gravitas and emotion to the roles. It's fairly rare that I see a film primarily for an actor (as opposed to a director) but I found myself seeking out more Boris Karloff films as I found his presence to be quite magnetic.
Of course he has a few films and performances which are considered iconic but I don't often see his name alongside great actors in general. So I thought of this question - do you consider Karloff to be a legend exclusively for genre films or an overall acting legend?
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Post by pupdurcs on Jun 28, 2021 7:38:41 GMT
I'd say he's considered more of a genre specific legend than a general acting legend. Like Tony Todd or Robert Englund, but probably at the very top of the tree compared to them. As said, he doesn't often come up in conversation in general terms when we talk about the great actors in history. Now whether he should is another question, but I'm just going on what I think perception is.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 28, 2021 7:51:13 GMT
When I was little pacinoyes (lots of energy, very cute, bratty) he had a big effect on me because I saw a movie where in the credits his name came up as just "Karloff" and I thought that was the coolest thing Basically no horror movie actor ever gets out of the stigma but as anybody who reads my posts knows - horror rules when done right and guys like Karloff, Price, Lee, Cushing are just great, period to me. Whether anybody gets it or not ........ I always say put the best actors ever - Brando, DePac, Nicholson etc. in Vincent Price's roles and they would either drag the material down or have it come off as beneath them - maybe not all the time but a lot of the time.........that applies to Karloff too........ what he did wasn't easy..... Love him...... Man liked his coffee too........always a good sign
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Post by pupdurcs on Jun 28, 2021 8:00:57 GMT
I think Christopher Lee is primarily known as a horror movie actor, who is also considered a general acting legend (maybe not quite GOAT tier, but I think he gets rated way more in general than many other horror icons). Obviously it helps that he had a few iconic roles in non-horror films (Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun, Sauraman in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy etc). But the bulk of his legend was defined by his long term work with Hammer Horror as Dracula and things like The Wicker Man.
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Post by TerryMontana on Jun 28, 2021 9:39:01 GMT
I've only seen him in his horror films but I believe he's an acting legend overall. The history he made is bigger than a simple horror movie star.
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Post by stephen on Jun 28, 2021 14:42:38 GMT
Dude was a legend regardless of what Martin Landau would have you believe. Hell, his very best performance isn't even a genre film: The Lost Patrol. The guy had immense presence and could do so much with so little. Yes, he's more known for his genre work, but why do we need to have that delineation?
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SZilla
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Post by SZilla on Jun 28, 2021 17:14:25 GMT
It's an interesting question for sure, but also one that's a bit harder to pinpoint exactly. Karloff is undeniably linked to the Horror genre, with his performances as the Frankenstein Monster and the Mummy both immortalized into the public conscious as THE versions of those monsters, not to ignore the bevy of other fine horror performances he gave. However, he certainly had the gravitas as an actor no matter the genre, and we can see this in non-horror performances such as Lost Patrol as well as in his horror roles. There's so much more to his performance in Frankenstein than just a lumbering brute - there's a scared, lost child in there searching for acceptance. But I'll move past his skill, as I think this question is more targeted to how either the general public or Hollywood perceives Karloff rather than his talent level. It's true that actors of today don't really namedrop Karloff, but it's interesting to look at how the generation that came directly after Karloff saw him. He was a mentor to the likes of Jack Nicholson in his early roles and young innovative filmmakers like Peter Bogdanovich cast Karloff in one of his greatest roles in Targets, a movie that could be classified as horror on paper, but features Karloff in the hero role to great effect. Karloff found success in a particular genre during a period where it was almost impossible not to be typecast, and while the films (highly successful as they were) may have been perceived as B-rate fare, the best of the bunch have continued to live on and are still some of the most watched films of the 30s & 40s. So to answer your question, I think it's a bit of both. He's clearly a Horror legend, indisputably so, but I do think he transcends that niche. Definitely more so than a Tony Todd or Robert Englund. I like stephen 's viewpoint. Why split hairs? Do we consider Errol Flynn solely an Action legend or John Wayne solely a Western legend or Chaplin a Comedy legend or are they simply just legends? They may not be "actor's actors" like Fredric March and Peter O'Toole were back in the day or DDL/Oldman/Hopkins are today, but they're undeniably legendary actors of cinema, no matter how we slice it.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Jun 28, 2021 18:23:06 GMT
I think Christopher Lee is primarily known as a horror movie actor, who is also considered a general acting legend (maybe not quite GOAT tier, but I think he gets rated way more in general than many other horror icons). Obviously it helps that he had a few iconic roles in non-horror films ( Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun, Sauraman in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy etc). But the bulk of his legend was defined by his long term work with Hammer Horror as Dracula and things like The Wicker Man.Lee also kept up his horror credentials until to the end of his career and life, by appearing in small roles in Tim Burton movies, sometimes to the point of parody.
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Post by ireallyamsomething on Jun 29, 2021 10:05:44 GMT
Dude was a legend regardless of what Martin Landau would have you believe. Hell, his very best performance isn't even a genre film: The Lost Patrol. The guy had immense presence and could do so much with so little. Yes, he's more known for his genre work, but why do we need to have that delineation? Yeah, I agree about his screen presence - that was sort of the point of my question - is he considered one of the acting legends in general? Because, seeing more of his work lately, I felt that he should be; it seemed he is not often included when people name great actors, which may be because of certain actors being pegged into a genre or even the silly old criticism of 'they are just playing themselves')
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