Evening star., 1944-10-29

II you want to scare any Holly
wood actor right out of his socks
just tap him on the shoulder and
say: "Boo-you're typed!'
That'l do it. Every star entertains
an unholy fear of getting in the rut
doing the same routine over and
over again in every picture.
Paul Henreid, for instance, is
screaming today that he wants to
be undone from that great lover"
business or he'll quit Warner Bros.
Lee Tracy says that fast talking
stuff is out, even if he has to keep
on selling real estate.
Laird Cregar means that he's not
villain, but real nice kindly gent;
he's served notice on Goth Century
Fox that it's comedy hereafter or
he's through.
And that makes the subject of
our interview today all the more
UNIQUE and interesting. He's been
typed ever since coming to Holly
wood. He's thrived on it, And every
night he prayS to the Great God of
the Movies to keep him typed, now
and forever more.
Why, my goodness sakes," said
Charles Edward Pratt, better known
as Boris Karloff, Il wouldn't know
what to do with myself if they sud-
denly told me to stop soaring peo-
pie. That's my life work. l could do
nothing else for a living. enjoy it.
To my notion, it's the silliest sort of
nonsense in the world for an actor
to protest against being typed as a
certain character"
He's Now a Convalescent.
Karloff, who has frightened more
people in darkened movie houses
than all the screen menaces put to-
| gether, is now convalescing in his
Beverly Hills home after a long and
serious siege in the hospital.
Actually, as kindly soul as ever
raised prize orchid or patted little
children on the head, Karlof will
soon be back at the work he loves
RKO shelved one picture as result
of his illness and when he returns
to that lot again, probably about
November Is, it will be to star in
THE Body Snatchers."
Karlof wasn't always typed. Dur
ing his early days he played every
sort of role, meanwhile hoping that
some producer would realize how
hateful he was in celluloid and stick
him in that rut he found to be paved
with gold dust.
1T wasn't until I started getting
lucky enough to be cast as the vii
lain in The Criminal Code and
Five Star Final that producers be-
gan to think of me when they had
horror parts" he told me. Those
two roles put me among actors called
to test for the monster in 'Franken-
stein, Followed that part l was in
and you know what happened
Thereafter when any film maker
had role calling for some mis-
shapen monstrosity, he automatically
said: Boris Karloff looks just like
that-lets get him And anybody
who doesn't think that's very salts
flying situation should have his head
examined. Call it typing if you like
but it's okay with me-"
About his stage role in arsenic
and Old Lace" Karloff said: TT is
like dying and discovering that all
the stories about Heaven are abso-
lutely true" When Howard Lind
say and Russell Grouse first called
Karloff to see If he'd do a play on
Broadway, his answer was an en-
phatic NO"
Il tried to explain to them II
would be suicide for me to play the
starring role in Broadway pro-
duction," he recalls. Il had wor
some popularity in film roles but
after all, SO far as Broadway is con-
cerned, was still a provincial actor
I told the boys I'd give my right arm
to be in a Broadway play in which
my role would be third or fourth in
Importance. I didn't understand
their looks of glee until they read
me the play, and realized the two
star roles were those of the two ole
aunts. Then I jumped at the
| chance"