Review for The Ghoul

For years this little-seen early British horror classic could only be seen on dodgy transfers, often with burnt-in sub-titles, a cropped image and enough print damage to look like it had been filmed during a snow-storm. Featuring Boris Karloff in a role which neatly straddles both his classic roles in ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Frankenstein’, it was produced very shortly after both of those Universal monster classics.

Stylistically and cinematically it borrows heavily from both, looking every bit like part of the Universal canon, despite its limited budget and English heritage. In fact, the only real give-away that it’s not a Universal horror is the prevalence of its British cast, many of whom seem to still be playing to the back of the room despite this being a film and not music hall – an easy mistake to make today and a much easier one then when talkies were still relatively new. Which indeed they were.

The story goes that Karloff was so disappointed that Universal had refused to pay him more after the huge success of ‘Frankesntein’ and ‘The Mummy’ that he decided to give the UK film scene a go. The net result was ‘The Ghoul’, in many ways a Karloff classic though never quite touching the brilliance of his Universal work.


Made in 1933, just a year after ‘The Mummy’, it has been credited as being the very first British horror talkie, made undoubtedly to cash in on Karloff’s huge international appeal. It also featured the film debut of Ralph Richardson, just adding another tick in the ‘reasons to buy this’ box.
Although you would be forgiven for thinking that the Ghoul is little more than a poor-man’s ‘The Mummy’, as Kim Newman points out in the excellent commentary, Egyptology was hugely popular in Britain at the time. After all, Tutankhamun’s tomb had only been unearthed a decade earlier and since that time, countless digs had been unearthing more and more fascinating insight into the magical mystery of that hitherto all-but-lost lost civilisation.

Egyptologist Professor Henry Morlant (Karloff ) is dying from an un-named but grotesquely disfiguring illness, looking every bit like a Ghoul as he gasps his last wishes from his death-bed. He wants to be buried in an Egyptian tool with a particular Egyptian jewel in his hand in an attempt to live in the next world for an eternity. However, he warns his faithful but moribund assistant that if the tomb is ever disturbed and the jewel taken, that he will return from the dead and wreak revenge. Well, after he dies, naturally everyone respects his wishes and nothing else happens. As if.

Naturally it’s not long before someone breaks into his casket and takes the jewel, hoping to return it to its rightful place in Egypt. Cue Karloff in hideous face make-up, swiping at the air like Frankenstein’s monster whilst limping through frame like ‘The Mummy’.

Whilst Karloff’s performance may owe more to the silent cinematic drama of Murnau and his expressionist cohorts, ably abetted with superb cinematography casting giant shadows in his wake, most other performances are stereotypical boy’s own adventure stuff. Oh -  with the exception of Ernest Thesiger who does so well here that he was lured back to Hollywood with Karloff to play Doctor Pretorius in James Whale's 'Bride of Frankenstein' in 1935.

The film looks unbelievably good, a close match to the superbly re-mastered Universal horror Blu-Rays, and far better than you could imagine a film fast approaching its 85th birthday.

Extra features are slight although there is an excellent and thoroughly entertaining commentary featuring horror film aficionados Kim Newman and Stephen Jones. In truth, poor old Stephen Jones struggles to get a word in edgeways although you can tell that Newman’s commentary is fuelled with enthusiasm for his subject. The only other extra is an image gallery.

BESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswyBESbswy‘The Ghoul’ may be a one-dimensional straight-ahead horror but as possibly the very first British horror, it remains an essential addition to any serious horror movie fan’s collection. This wonderful Blu-Ray edition will do very nicely in that regard.