The Veil

Available complete on dvd, with magnificent picture and sound quality. This quite old anthology tv series of nine episodes plus an extra borrowed from British tv, is quite watchable. The acting styles are a little wooden, but there are some interesting early appearances- Robert Hardy, Patrick MacNee, Harry Bartell and so on.

Supposedly based upon real reports of paranormal reports this certainly predates the X Files. The approach is pure drama with no explanations.

A good addition to any classic tv collection - although it never was shown on tv.

Boris Karloff hosted(and sometimes acted in) this ten-episode series that dealt with ghosts and psychic phenomenon. Never aired because the studio went bankrupt, this is still an entertaining series, due to the talent Of Boris Karloff, an acting legend. Episodes included titles like: 'Vision Of Crime', 'Girl On The Road', Food On The Table', 'The Doctors', 'The Crystal Ball', 'Genesis', Destination Nightmare', 'Summer Heat', 'The Return Of Madame Verney', & 'Jack The Ripper'.(the best of the bunch). Often overlooked by "Thriller", also hosted by Karloff, this can also be compared to "One Step Beyond", and can be viewed on DVD. Worth seeking out for fans of Boris Karloff.

"The Veil", a 1950's pilot series introduced by and starring Boris Karloff, concerned itself with ghostly tales and psychic phenomena. Although it was never taken up as a full series by a major network it still was quite entertaining. It is worth watching because of Karloff's own unique acting style and also because of the topics covered. One gets the impression that if it had been given a run then "The Veil" would have developed into a long running series investigating topics so well covered by future shows such as "The Twilight Zone" and "The X Files". It is a short series that a public television company would find useful in running in order to capture for a time a loyal viewing audience interested in ghostly tales or psychic phenomena. One of its best shows was the one about Jack the Ripper which will certainly get its viewers once again reading up books on this topic. A series well worth watching.

Such a shame this mini-series never aired but luckily it is available on video. It is well worth seeking out - and not just for fans of Boris Karloff but for fans of mystery and horror. There are actually 12 episodes in all but "The Vestris" and "Peggy" are released under the title "Tales of the Unexplained".

These tales are all horror but strongly a part of the mystery genre as well - at least I them to be.

Karloff is in quite a few of these and not just our host of the show - which makes them even better. As usual he's a bit scary in most of them and good as always.

This is a series a would recommend highly for fans of Murder, Mystery, Horror and of Karloff.

9/10.

This seems to be the original 'weird stories based on factual happenings' series, coming a year previous to the mighty 'One Step Beyond' which used a similar format but did it better. The stories are good but some of the acting is a little wooden, but overall it is quite entertaining. Amazing it has been almost unseen since it was made.