Search - The Ghoul on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1933 DVD Release: 08/26/2003 Format: DVD - Black and White - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 20 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Horror, Thriller, Gothic Film

The Ghoul was Boris Karloff's first British horror film. Karloff is cast as Egyptologist Professor Morant, who on his deathbed insists that he be buried with a rare jewel that was once part of an Oriental idol. It is Morant's belief that the gem will one day restore him to life, a contingency which terrifies the Professor's weaselly assistant Laing (Ernst Thesiger), who hopes to get his mitts on the jewel himself. In due time, Morant dies and is buried -- minus the jewel, which has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. All of this leads to a spooky denouement in Morant's cemetery crypt, designed in the manner of the ancient Egyptians. The romantic subplot is handled by Anthony Bushell as Morlant's nephew Ralph and Dorothy Hyson as Betty, while comedy relief is ladled on by Kathleen Harrison (Kaney) as a man-chasing spinster. Long believed lost (all prints were supposed to have been destroyed when the film was remade as the 1962 horror comedy No Place Like Homicide), The Ghoul resurfaced in Europe in the early 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Boris Karloff - Prof. Morlant
Cedric Hardwicke - Broughton
Ernst Thesiger - Laing
Dorothy Hyson - Betty Harlow
Anthony Bushell - Ralph Morlant

This is easily the best looking and best sounding DVD of an early-'30s movie that this reviewer has ever seen. Starring Boris Karloff, T. Hayes Hunter's 1934 horror film has had a notoriously ill-starred history for most of the second half of the 20th century. It was considered a lost film for decades and, by sheer luck in the '70s, one decent source was found: a 35 mm print in a Prague film archive with Czech subtitles burned into it -- and even that print didn't have good sound or a perfect picture. (Eventually, there were prints prepared from the Czech source that were blown up so that the subtitles were out-of-frame). The October 2003 MGM DVD of The Ghoul solves all of those problems and is an absolute revelation. It looks better than any print of the movie seen in perhaps half a century, with incredibly sharp detail in every shot and rich contrasts even in the dark scenes. At 26 and 29 minutes into the film, events on a darkened, fog-shrouded London street are entirely viewable despite being realistically dark; everything here looks as good as the gorgeous original stills taken on the set. And then there is the loud, fully realized soundtrack (a first for an early-'30s British movie), on which even the successive solo passages for English horn, clarinet, and oboe at 22 minutes into the action are heard in stunning intimacy and clarity; and when the bodies start turning up in the second half of the movie and the music becomes evocative of horror, the percussion and horns sound like they're in the next room with the door open. This disc allows one to appreciate the movie properly for the first time in 50 years and, except for the lack of any bonus material, the release is a successful rival to the Universal DVD restorations of Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, et al. The film itself is somewhat reminiscent of both The Mummy and The Old Dark House, with Karloff very effective in his scenes and heading an excellent cast that includes Ernst Thesiger and Ralph Richardson. The chaptering is extremely generous and the makers have provided French, Spanish, and English subtitles, all accessible through a simple two-layer menu that opens automatically at start-up. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide