I Watch Films: The Many Faces Of Christopher Lee
The Many Faces Of Christopher Lee
A 1996 documentary of storied actor Christopher Lee, in which Lee shows off some mementos of his acting career and tells us some anecdotes. He briefly touches on his start, when at a loose end after WW2 some friends get him hired as an actor at a company that made domestic British dramas, but the producer despairs as he looks too foreign.
This makes a good entry point as the roles that made him a star had him playing a Frenchman in A Tale Of Two Cities, the Creature in The Curse Of Frankenstein and a Romanian in Dracula – that last being one of the roles he briefly covers. He also both browns up and yellows up in this film*, and talks about how he tried to make these proper roles, not just caricatures. Does he succeed? Well his Dr Fu Manchu is distinctly less racist than the books it came from, though that’s not hard, and were produced by Run Run Shaw in Hong Kong, helping to clarify some cross-cultural difficulties.
One item he presents is a photo of him and Maria Rasputin, whose father he played in the film Rasputin, The Mad Monk. His initial response when she wanted to meet was “I hope she hasn’t seen the film.” But she was complimentary, and despite his physical differences she thought he’d caught something of the man.
While demonstrating with a rapier he talked about injuring himself in his first fight scene in The Three Musketeers – something of a problem as he had three more to go. Apparently whenever fighting with an actor he would often get scratched; with a stuntman, never.
It’s mostly fun anecdotes about his acting friends and films he worked on, with a few gems amongst them. Essential for fans of Lee.
Watch This: For some interesting reminiscences of
Christopher Lee’s acting career (which had almost 20 more years to go,
including roles in Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings, introducing him to yet
another new generation)
Don’t Watch This: If you want him to go deep into his life
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