Still an often overlooked footnote in spooky TV history but now seen much more widely than the oblivion that first greeted it, The Veil is a good example of a show that came along just a little too early. Just before the broadcast arena was flooded with genre-friendly anthology shows like One Step Beyond, 
The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits, 
this was an overtly supernatural show hosted by horror icon Boris Karloff who would go on to perform the same duties on the much more significant Thriller. Shot between 1958 and 1959 by Hal Roach Studios and created by TV commercial pro and future documentary short subject Oscar winner Frank P. BIbas, the series faced a tough field of competitors with numerous, more reality-bound anthology shows flooding the airwaves including straight-up mystery fare like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Suspense (with Lights Out canceled not long before). The Veil never ended up airing at the time, with the completed episodes eventually getting stitched together for a trio of made-for-TV movies in 1978 for Medallion TV under mysterious circumstances. The series proper eventually turned up from Something Weird as a three-tape VHS set in 1998, surprising a lot of monster kids who thought Karloff’s TV hosting started with Thriller. This show is far more subdued and just barely qualifies as horror, usually going for the lightly uncanny a la One Step Beyond, but it's nicely mounted and features an impressive roster of talent in front of and behind the camera.
Setting aside some dreary public domain knockoffs, the series later made its way to DVD as a two-disc set from Image Entertainment in 2010 but got its most sterling presentation in 2026 as a three-disc Blu-ray release, one of the inaugural ones from Vinegar Syndrome sublabel Iconoscope.
The exact order of the episodes is tricky to pin down given how they ended up getting shuffled around and defining which ones actually do count as proper entries, but we’ll stick with the accepted home video order here. Each one is introduced by Karloff, most of them in front of a flickering castle fireplace with the actor often taking on prominent roles in the stories themselves. First up is "Summer Heat" (26m29s) directed by TV vet George Waggner (or as he insisted, “george waGGner”) with Karloff toplining as a shrink but hardly serving as the main character. Here at the height of an NYC heat wave, Mr. Paige (Harry 
Bartell) happens to look out of his kitchen 
and see a woman being murdered by a glove-wearing burglar. By the time the cops show up, the apartment is completely empty -- but how can that be? Then in “A Chapter of Genesis” (26m27s), also by Waggner, no-good Jamie (Peter Miller) comes back to the farm where he grew up just in time for his dad to kick the bucket and to produce a new will invalidating the one with family attorney Karloff leaving everything to older brother John. However, the afterlife has other plans in store. The obvious but entertaining "Girl on the Road" (26m27s) is a little ghostly number in which an afternoon drive by John Rpescott turns weird when he stops to help the beautiful Lila whose car has conked out on the road. They end up spending time at a nearby bar, but an encounter with her uncle (Karloff) casts things in a different light. In "The Doctor" (25m33s), we head to Italy, or at least a soundstage simulation of it, where elderly village doctor Carlo (Karloff) presents a problem when none of the locals will see anyone else including his son, Angelo (Tony Travis), who's seen as too young to be a trustworthy physician. When a life-threatening illness strikes a young girl, something inexplicable happens... It's a slight but effective little open-ended tale featuring that nebulous "Old Europe" atmosphere you'd find on lots of these kinds of shows even well into the '70s with Night Gallery. In "Vision of Crime" (26m26s), the first one of several directed by veteran Herbert L. Strock, we return to the idea of an uncanny murder witness. Here Robert Hardy (Dark Places) as George Bosworth whose sea voyage turns horrifying when he has a vision of his brother being gunned down in his apothecary back in England. Upon returning he tries to steer suspicion away from the accused suspect with the police, represented by Karloff and a young Patrick 
Macnee, proving tricky to convince. The twist ending is actually fairly dark and satisfying, making it a minor but reasonably satisfying entry. Wrapping up disc one is "No Food on the Table" (26m27s), written and directed by Bibas himself and one of the highest points of the series. Karloff gets an especially meaty role here in 
an effective 1800s period piece as John Elwood, a sea captain who decides to take his wife on a lengthy voyage and slowly poison her. Of course, there's a snag in his plans that will involve things beyond this mortal coil.
Disc two commences with the Strock-directed "The Return of Madame Vernoy" (26m28s), a tale of reincarnation and destiny set in India with a very Caucasian cast including a young George Hamilton. Here young Santha Naidu (Jean De Val) takes on the name of Madame Vernoy, a woman she claims to have been in a past life, and goes to visit the deceased's understandably surprised husband and son -- much to the confusion of Santha's current boyfriend as well. This is more of a supernatural sentimental fable which, like some of the other entries, is purported by Karloff to be based on real occurrences. In "Truth in the Crystal Ball" (26m28s), sometimes cited as simply "The Crystal Ball," chronicles the weird experiences of Parisian romance writer Edmond Vallier (Booth Colman) who gets dumped by Marie (Roxane Berard) for a much richer and older man; as a parting gift she bestows a crystal ball that comes in handy when it shows her adulterous antics. Karloff strangely provides the comic relief here as Edmond's horny uncle, which is something to behold. In the ambitious "Destination Nightmare" (26m25s), Pete Wade (Karloff) bids farewell at an airline hangar to his pilot son, Pete Jr. (Ron Hagerthy), only for both of them to be confronted separately during the flight time by the ghost of a World War II pilot uttering things like "Bail out!" The effects here mainly limited to some basic superimpositions and a flashlight, but it's a decent aviation-themed time killer. In "Whatever Happened to Peggy?" 
(25m1s), it's reincarnation time again, sort of, as teenager Ruth (Denise Alexander) suddenly believes she's someone else and not related to her parents. A doctor tip leads her to the family of the likely person taking her over, Peggy, who died a 
decade before and whose family (including Karloff) seems susceptible to believing her. Also on the disc is "Jack the Ripper" (26m23s), which wasn't shot as an actual episode (no Karloff acting in the main story here, just tacked-on wraparounds). Instead it was apparently an orphaned anthology pilot episode with Night of the Demon's Niall MacGinnis as Walter, a psychic plagued by recurring visions of a certain notorious serial killer at work in London. His attempts to alert the police make him a prime suspect instead, leading to a nicely twisty revelation of who's really responsible. Nicely acted and cleverly written, it's a fine way to cap off the series proper even if this isn't entirely official (and actually made in England!).
Disc three is devoted to bonus episodes and extras starting with what is essentially the backdoor pilot for the series, the Arthur Hiller-directed "The Vestris," presented here in its original Telephone Time version (29m24s) and the previously lost, reworked The Veil version with Karloff wraparounds (25m21s) and a markedly different tone from the rest of the series. Here Karloff gets a secondary but potent role as a ghost who keeps appearing on a ship to warn one of the passengers, Mary (Rita Lynn), about impending disaster, which isn't easy to sell to her skeptic husband (Torin Thatcher). Compact and skillfully mounted, it doesn't have any big surprises in store but makes for a fascinating way to see where this series may have really started. You also get "House of Death" (25m33s) with Karloff, another once-lost rarity aired as part of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and directed by William Asher, complete with an excellent new commentary by Amanda Reyes. This one made waves in 2025 when the unearthed 16mm print went for over $1,000 online, and it's great to have this rarity finally out 
for public viewing with Karloff in fine form as Charles Brandon, an eccentric who is inconvenienced when his niece Jessica comes to stay without any of her letters arriving in advance. Soon Jessica seems to be gradually poisoned, creepy skull-faced 
messages are appearing in the mailbox, and a very dark secret is about to come to light.
In "Carrying on the Legacy" (6m53s), Sara Karloff provides an audio interview about the importance of her father's work and ensuring awareness of it for new generations including the TV work he greatly enjoyed doing. Finally in "The 11th Episode" (19m26s), Barbara Bibas Monstero discusses her father's work in the industry including creating The Veil as well as his active and far-spanning life as a fighter pilot and a family man. Reliable monster writer and commentator Tom Weaver is also represented in multiple capacities here in the set (which has some of the tightest finger-scraping packaging you'll ever encounter) including a 24-page booklet with “Lifting the Veil,” an updated essay he originally created for the VHS release in 1998 featuring a guide to the main episodes, an explanation behind that pilot episode, and the most complete history possible given the participants had all shuffled off behind the veil many years ago. He also provides mini-commentaries on the first disc for "Summer Heat," "A Chapter of Genesis," "Vision of Crime," and "No Food on the Table," each clocking in a bit over ten minutes and best listened to in order as he chronicles the history of the show, drops in some interview excerpts, covers the sudden rise in horror-themed TV programming after hit airings of King Kong and the Universal monster library, and info about Karloff and the series' directors. Quality-wise almost all of the episodes look superb, pulled from the existing film material held by Something Weird and Distripbix with beautifully detailed 4K-sourced scans of the 35mm prints for all but "Peggy?," both versions of "The Vestris," and "House of Death" which are sourced from 16mm but look fine all things considered. Optional English SDH subtitles are also provided, and the DTS-HD MA English 2.0 mono audio sounds excellent.
