Tales Of The Frightened

Boris Karloff was arguably one of the best horror actors of his time, and a great story teller as well. All of the stories are told in a matter-of-fact, easy-to-understand, yet chilling manner, with which Mr. Karloff is famous for. Many of the stories start with a question in the first few sentences, which invite the listener to suspend disbelief, and become involved...totally involved...in the stories given.

These recordings are considered by many collectors to be among the best ghost story albums from this time. Karloff does a masterful job of narrating, creating an eery atmosphere that few others could match. He has a reassuring, grandfatherly quality, but manages to come across as foreboding at the same time. These stories aren't designed to scare the living hell out of you, opting more for the "Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits" approach.

None of these stories are disappointing. All will give you thrills and chills...and perhaps a bad dream or two. I wish more of them had happy endings...but they all do make you think.

Expanding one's consciousness by reading of things most probably undreamed of by most people, is the "raison d'etre" for most ghost stories, as far as I'm concerned. And there is most truly, much "food for thought", in all the stories told...

A good horror story, well-told, leaving the listener and their imagination to fill in the details. No excess blood. No excess gore. Just a story that allows a person to think on good, and on evil, and why there is a difference, and what that difference is...

There is actually a lengthy tale behind how these recordings came to be, but I'll do my best to summarize the story for you. Apparently sometime in the late '50s/early '60s there was a syndicated radio feature titled "The Frightened", which didn't really get off the ground. No one seems to know exactly how many episodes of this series were broadcast, and none of the original recordings exist. The radio viginettes were written by Michael Avallone and read by Boris Karloff. A magazine of the same name served as a tie-in, with each issue containing one of the viginettes

This was a collection released in two albums (vols 1& 2) in 1963 by Mercury Records and was a companion to the book entitled "Boris Karloff Presents Tales of the Frightened". The book was written by Michael Avallone (1924-1999) a prolific writer of thrillers, detective stories, TV and Movie tie-in books (which were needed before DVD).

So sit back, relax and enjoy these wonderful stories by one of the great horror masters of all time...and ponder this question..."Are You One Of The Frightened?"....




Volume 1:
1. The Man in the Raincoat
2. Don't Lose Your Head- starts at 05:03
3. The Hand of Fate- starts at 09:38
4. The Deadly Dress- starts at 14:19
5. Call At Midnight- starts at 19:01
6. Just Inside the Cemetery- starts at 23:52
7. The Fortune Teller- starts at 28:50

Volume 2
8. The Ladder- starts at 33:54
9. Never Kick A Black Cat- starts at 39:00
10. The Vampire Sleeps- starts at 43:45
11. The Mirror Of Death- starts at 48:38
12. Voices From The Grave- starts at 53:37
13. Nightmare- starts at 58:30

None of these stories are disappointing. All will give you thrills and chills...and perhaps a bad dream or two. I wish more of them had happy endings...but they all do make you think.

Expanding one's consciousness by reading of things most probably undreamed of by most people, is the "raison d'etre" for most ghost stories, as far as I'm concerned. And there is most truly, much "food for thought", in all the stories told...

A good horror story, well-told, leaving the listener and their imagination to fill in the details. No excess blood. No excess gore. Just a story that allows a person to think on good, and on evil, and why there is a difference, and what that difference is...

There is actually a lengthy tale behind how these recordings came to be, but I'll do my best to summarize the story for you. Apparently sometime in the late '50s/early '60s there was a syndicated radio feature titled "The Frightened", which didn't really get off the ground. No one seems to know exactly how many episodes of this series were broadcast, and none of the original recordings exist. The radio viginettes were written by Michael Avallone and read by Boris Karloff. A magazine of the same name served as a tie-in, with each issue containing one of the viginettes

This was a collection released in two albums (vols 1& 2) in 1963 by Mercury Records and was a companion to the book entitled "Boris Karloff Presents Tales of the Frightened". The book was written by Michael Avallone (1924-1999) a prolific writer of thrillers, detective stories, TV and Movie tie-in books (which were needed before DVD).

Year of Release: 1963 Label: Mercury (MG 20815 / MG 20816) Genre: Ghost Stories / Spoken Word