The first Boris Karloff guest appearance onLights Out…
Karloff plays a professor who has never experienced a dream in his entire life. When he finally
does, it’s a doozy: the increasingly recurring appearance of a naked bestial demon-woman who
droningly incites him to “KILL…KILL….” Oboler pulls out all the stops for Karloff’s first guest
appearance onLights Out, fully exploiting the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique and
developing the nightmare-invades-reality concept to an appropriately grim conclusion.
McCambridge doubles as the dream-fataleand Karloff’s girlfriend-slash-victim. Could be
regarded as an antecedent to L. Ron Hubbard’s novelFearwhich debuted in the pages of
Unknownthe following year. Incorrectly listed in some catalogs as “Daryl Hall’s Thoughts.”
March 23, 1938“The Dream”
unusual technique that has been developed in the Lights Out program,
will be the first starring vehicle for Boris Karloff…”]
Arch Oboler.
Templeton Fox, Bob Gilbert, Raymond Edward Johnson, Boris Karloff,
Mercedes McCambridge, Arthur Peterson.
[
April 20, 1943“Kill”
‘Kill’…centered around the thoughts of a man as he goes on trial for his
life, for murder. The question that arises in his mind is whether man is
prompted to kill by a force within himself, or by evil in the world…”]
Arch Oboler.
Arch Oboler (director).