The Last Rites of Dracula: Christopher Lee (1922-2015) RIP

[James]

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[asin]B0000037BY[/asin]

[Jaakko Keskinen]

IIRC, Lee was a huge fan of death metal.

[snyprrr]

Hell, I don't like what Peter Jackson did to LOTR with his IMO crappy adaptations, yet Christopher Lee shines even in that movie.

I was actually thinking of doing in memoriam-topic for him but I guess I wasn't fast enough...

Please, feel free to add more!


I've been looking through the Filmography and just basking in the past,... ahhhh. Maybe 'Horror Castle' or 'The Blood Demon'.... even Jess Franco's 'Count Dracula'... so much cheez to chooz!

The Times obituary of Sir Christopher Lee made me laugh today:

Apparently he came from an aristocratic family and his mother was appalled at his desire to become an actor, saying to him:

'Just think of all the appalling people you'll meet'

Maybe this is why he said that he identified with Count Dracula because they were both embarrassments to an aristocratic family!

As to my favourites; well, he was a hoot as Dracula but my favourite is probably 'The Devil Rides Out' in which Christopher Lee, unusually, plays the aristocratic hero 'The Count de Richelieu' who saves his young friend who had come under the influence of an evil satanist (the wonderfully sinister Charles Gray). The film has a great soundtrack too.  It must have been around this time that I met Christopher Lee at the charity event when I was twelve. I remember telling him about my annoyance at not being able to see many horror films as I was too young. I remember him telling me that he thought that the certification of horror films was a good idea. I have the fondest memory of meeting him as he let me pester him for what seemed like a long time and let me take his photo.

PS from today's Appreciaton of CL in The Daily Telegraph:

'The thing about Sir Christopher Lee being dead is that it doesn't immediately strike you as much of a career setback'.

'The Devil Rides Out', yes, a Dennis Wheatley, like 'The Wicker Man' and 'To the Devil... A Daughter'.

SChL really cut such a suave and debonair path... how can we all not say that we loved the man--- by all accounts he was just the most wonderful person-




'End of the World' and 'Starship Invasions'... wow, 1977-1979 was the height schlock all around, wh? lolz!!

[James]

Warner: Hammer Horror Classics Blu-ray Box Set Coming Up   
Posted June 12, 2015

Warner Brothers Pictures LogoWarner Archive confirmed today that it plans to release on Blu-ray a four-film box set of classic Hammer films later this year. The films in the Horror Classics Volume One box set are: Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), The Mummy (1959), and Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970).

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave: A village trembles in fear. A priest forsakes his vows in the service of evil. Young beauties fall victim to a mysterious seducer. And each night brings the threat of death. Because Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. In his third incarnation as Bram Stoker's infamous vampire, horror great and 55-year movie veteran Christopher Lee goes fang to cross with the forces of good in this atmospheric Hammer Studios film directed with stylish menace by two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Freddie Francis. He and Lee see to it that just as the undead rises in terrifying fashion so will your goosebumps.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed: Baron Frankenstein's experiment went wrong, dead wrong. Thus, another victim lies in a makeshift grave. Suddenly, a water main bursts, forcing the dead man's arm to the surface. Next the torrent heaves the body upward. Frankenstein's panicked accomplice tries to reconceal the body... but corpses can be so unwieldy. This creepy scene is a highlight of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, horror great Peter Cushing's fifth Hammer Studios Frankenstein saga. Other cast members of note include film-debuting Simon Ward (Young Winston) and Freddie Jones (The Elephant Man) as the scientist's pitiable new creation. Frankenstein pioneers research in brain transplants - but the procedure is imperfect. Which is just perfect for horror fans!

The Mummy: In Hammer Studios' vivid 1959 Technicolor reincarnation of The Mummy, screen horror icon Christopher Lee wraps on the moldy gauze bandages and emerges as the tormented Kharis, an avenger stalking the hills and bogs of Victorian England to track down archaeologist John Banning (Peter Cushing) and other desecrators of his beloved Princess Ananka's Egyptian tomb. "Lee looks tremendous, smashing his way through doorways and erupting from green, dreamlike quagmires in really awe-inspiring, fashion" (David Pirie, Time Out Film Guide). Awe-inspiring, too, was the box-office success of this third Hammer reinvigoration - after The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula - of a classic screen monster.

Taste the Blood of Dracula: It's the boys' night out, time for bawdy fun. Yet revelry alone can't satisfy these community leaders out on a lark. There's still an adventure they can be duped into trying, one that will transform a certain Count from moldering dust into blood-lusting flesh. Taste the Blood of Dracula, the fourth film in Hammer Studios' cycle of hemogobbling Victorian -Era horror, is a showcase of why Hammer became the name in Gothic terror. The solid cast and rich production design raise goosebumps to real-life fear and otherworldly dread. And Christopher Lee dons his red-lined cape again to become Evil Incarnate. He's Count Dracula, a being neither dead nor alive... but his movies are livelier than ever.

[Purusha]

As he said many times, The Wicker Man was the best role he ever had and the best film he was ever in.

I doubt the experience of acting in the later fantasy and sci-fi rubbish did his state of mind any favours.

Christopher Lee was a professional. He did what he had to do and did it well, regardless of what it was. I never saw him as a truly great actor, just a very consistent and reliable one. Christopher Lee doing rubbish is not as big of a problem as, say, Max von Sydow doing rubbish, which was just criminal to me.

[Ken B]

Christopher Lee was a professional. He did what he had to do and did it well, regardless of what it was. I never saw him as a truly great actor, just a very consistent and reliable one. Christopher Lee doing rubbish is not as big of a problem as, say, Max von Sydow doing rubbish, which was just criminal to me.

And for so long!

Oh. You mean after Bergman. Never mind.

[Karl Henning]

I dunno . . . Max von Sydow in both Strange Brew and Flash Gordon . . . nearly redeems the enterprises . . . .

[Rinaldo]

I dunno . . . Max von Sydow in both Strange Brew and Flash Gordon . . . nearly redeems the enterprises . . . .

Here's hoping the new Star Wars use Sydow in a wortwhile way, unlike the prequels wasting Lee.

[Purusha]

J.J. Abrams doing anything worthwhile. Hahahahahahaha.

[snyprrr]

I dunno . . . Max von Sydow in both Strange Brew and Flash Gordon . . . nearly redeems the enterprises . . . .

At least DeNiro chucks up the riffs in 'Rocky & Bullwinkle',... oy, how'bout more great actors in ignoble roles? Von Sydow... man... I just can't stand him anymore- he just acts like a Typical DoGood Swede- sickening- and, that accent drives me nuts... "oh, I am the smart one in the movie" He even did an Argento thriller.

[Karl Henning]

I thought von Sydow played it quite well in Minority Report.

But I could see someone thinking, "Cruise and von Sydow?  Yeesh."

0:)

[Karl Henning]

I didn't even recognize him in his one scene in the Tim Burton Dark Shadows.

[Hollywood]

I didn't even recognize him in his one scene in the Tim Burton Dark Shadows.

I totally forgot he was in that film. But as soon as I found a photo, I remembered.