Great juxtaposition of cinematic horror with the real-life horror of gun-toting psychos.

Bogdanovich knew in 1968 that America has a problem with guns. I'm not sure if this was meant as a strictly political text, maybe it's just my modern eyes. The Karloff sections here seem like a misjudgement--there's just very little to care about and it never seems to gel like I think it was meant to. Maybe a better idea on paper, because the action sequences definitely overshadow everything else.

You are literally smoking weed if you rate this any less than 9. Read a book.

Boris Karloff manages to deliver one of the most down-to-earth and yet still some how grandiose performances I have ever seen. You are hanging off of his every word, just his cadence left my jaw on the floor. This is the only movie I have seen Boris Karloff in that wasn't a Universal Monster film, and I was mesmerized. "Once upon a time, many, many years ago, a rich merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the marketplace to buy provisions. And after a while, the servant came back, white-faced and trembling, and said, "Master, when I was in the marketplace, I was jostled by a woman in the crowd, and I turned to look, and I saw that it was Death that jostled me. And she looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Oh, Master, please, lend me your horse, that I may ride away from this city and escape my fate. I will ride to Samara, and Death will not find me there." So the merchant loaned him the horse, and the servant mounted it and dug his spurs into its flank, and as fast as the horse could gallop, he rode towards Samara. Then the merchant went to the marketplace, and he saw Death standing in the crowd, and he said to her, "Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?" And Death said, "I made no threatening gesture. That was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him here in Baghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight . . . in Samara."