Wild Wild West
Night of the Golden Cobra, #6602
Mr. Singh (Boris Karloff), Maharajah of Ramapor, kidnaps Agent West so that West will train his sons in combat. When Artemus comes looking for James, they discover that Singh is part of a much larger plot to scare the Indians of the area from their land so that it can be drilled for its oil - the agents must escape and prevent Singh and the territorial Indian Commissioner from stealing the Indians' land.
Directed by Irving J. Moore, Written by Henry Sharp
Guest Cast:
Singh: Boris Karloff
Veda Singh: Audrey Dalton
Chandra: James Westmoreland
Cupta: Michael York
Sarrkan: John Alonzo
Dancers: Sujata and Asoka
John: Jose De Vega
Mudjaz: Morgan Farley
Boris Karloff
The master of horror graced the series with his appearance in The Night of the Golden Cobra. The youngest of eight children, he emigrated to Canada in 1909 to work as a farmhand, giving up a career in the diplomatic service. He later pursued work on the stage and joined a touring company, eventually making his way to Los Angeles where he made his film debut as an extra in "The Dumb Girl of Portici" (1916). Although typecast as a stock villain in numerous silent films, Karloff's career gained momentum during Hollywood's transition to sound due to his distinctive stage-trained voice. He scored his first major role in "The Criminal Code", but the real turning point was his appearance as the monster in James Whale's version of "Frankenstein", a role Bela Lugosi had turned down. He went on to carve out a permanent niche for himself in the horror film genre. Other career highlights include The Mummy (1932), The Black Cat (1934), Tower of London (1939), the TV series Thriller which he hosted, and his performance as an aging film star in Peter Bogdanovich's first feature, "Targets" (1968), a thriller inspired by the Charles Whitman shooting spree in Texas which climaxes at a drive-in where Karloff is walking toward the killer as he's walking the same way in an old movie on the screen behind.
* The above information was compiled from The Wild Wild West: The Series by Susan E. Kesler (Arnett Press), "Michael Garrison's Wild Wild West," an article by Robert Alan Crick in Epi-Log Journal #11 and other sources.
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