On his death bed, Egyptologist Professor Henry Morlant orders his servant to wrap a valuable jewel in his hand and place a statue of Anubis along with his body in the family crypt. His hope is that Anubis will accept the diamond and allow Morlant to pass through to the afterlife. When someone steals the jewel from his tomb, Morlant rises from the dead just as he predicted he would and seeks his revenge. The heirs to his estate, Ralph Morlant and his cousin Betty Harlon and her friend Miss Kaney arrive at the estate just as their uncle rises from his grave. With the assistant of the butler, the local minister Nigel Hartley, the elder Morlants solicitor Mr. Broughton and an Egyptian, Aga Ben Dragore, they try to make sense of what is happening and determine who among them has stolen the jewel. An Egyptologist returns from the dead to take revenge on those who have violated his tomb. You'd think that folks would realize that it doesn't pay to get Boris Karloff ticked off! Well, this British film was made way back in '33, so I suppose that the characters in "The Ghoul" have some excuse. In this film, Karloff plays an Egyptologist who, on his deathbed, instructs his servant to bury him with a jewel that will confer immortality on his soul. Said servant later pilfers this gem from Karloff's corpse, and so Boris comes back from the dead, and boy, is he P.O.ed! Unfortunately, what sounds in synopsis to be a zinger of a horror movie turns out to be a rather middling affair. The picture has a slow start, and drags whenever Karloff isn't on screen. The direction of the picture is fairly stiff and unimaginative, but what's worse is the fact that there's an abundance of lame comedy. Nothing torpedoes a film faster for me than lame humor. On the plus side, we have some beautiful B&W photography, shown to good advantage on this crisp-looking DVD, and some wonderful acting support. Ernest Thesiger, perhaps best known for his turn in "The Bride of Frankenstein" two years later, is excellent here as Karloff's servant; Cedric Hardwicke is his usual hissable self; and Ralph Richardson, here in his debut film role, supplies a nice surprise ending. The makeup job on Karloff is also first rate and, well, ghoulish. Still, despite all this, I found the film a disappointment. Viewers would be well advised to rent out a later British Karloff vehicle, "The Man Who Changed His Mind," a real minimasterpiece, instead. This one is for Karloff completists only. This spooky early outing for Karloff has a number of good qualities and also lesser qualities to distinguish it from other offerings. For a start, the film retains a haunting atmosphere which peaks at the scenes where Karloff rises from his tomb. However, it is let down by a slow pace which only picks up towards the end of the film. Sadly, the film quality has deteriorated over the years, and therefore 'jumps' regularly, and also crackles a lot which ruins the appeal of it somewhat and also dates it. A lot of the scenes are in the dark which makes things difficult to see.<br/><br/>The plot is the classic 'group of people congregate in house and are attacked by killer' story which has been the basis of other classics like THE CAT AND THE CANARY and THE OLD DARK HOUSE. The cast is good all round. Boris Karloff was following in the horrific footsteps of his classic FRANKENSTEINand once again wore makeup for the monster role, and very effective decayed makeup it is too. Ernest Thesiger is his usual repulsive self as the selfish servant, and the two are given good support from a variety of British actors including Cedric Hardwicke. Ralph Richardson also turns up in an early role. A ghostly drumbeat helps to keep things moving along in this atmospheric tale, and the only thing which ruins it is the bad quality of the film stock. If you can get past this aspect though, then you will find yourself enjoying this classic creaky chiller.
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295 weeks ago