Irish News Cult Movies Christopher Lee
WHEN Sir Christopher Lee passed away last week it felt as if the very last portal to the golden age of fantasy cinema had slammed shut forever. In a career that stretched across six startling decades he offered up an array of memorable big-screen performances that few, if any, of his contemporaries could come close to matching.
Alongside his lifelong friends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price he carved a niche for himself as one of the true icons of horror cinema but in reality he was much more than that tired title could ever contain.
There’s his good guy role as the Duc de Richleau in Terence Fisher’s timeless The Devil Rides Out (1968) to consider for a start. Or how about his superbly over-the-top characterisation of Fu Manchu in that same decade or his unforgettable performance as Lord Summerisle in that rightly revered pagan morality tale The Wicker Man (1973)?Superb pieces all.
Then there’s his starring role as James Bond’s nemesis in The Man With The Golden Gun or even his more recent contributions to the Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars franchise to remember. All wonderful in their own way but all overshadowed by one role.
Classically inclined but chained in the main to the cheap and cheerful world of exploitation cinema, it was the character of Dracula that would pay his wages and single him out as one of the most suave and persuasive leading men in cult movie history.
His portrayal of the aristocratic bloodsucker, that brought him untold fame when he first bared the fangs for Hammer’s 1958 take on Bram Stoker’s most famous creation and continued to rubber stamp his cult status throughout a series of increasingly flawed but still wondrous reimaginings in the 60s and 70s, is the role on which his reputation rests. Much to the star’s long-term chagrin, it would seem.
Watch that earliest turn as the devilish Count with a taste for human blood and it’s easy to see why an entire generation held his portrayal so close to their hearts. Urbane and sensual where the likes of previous pretenders like Bela Lugosi had been camp and creaky, he’s a revelation as he cruises through the early sequences of the film suavely offering his finest eastern European hospitality to his latest guest before subsequently sinking his teeth into them.
Production values at the House of Hammer may have dropped progressively as further adventures such as Dracula Prince Of Darkness (1966) and Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968) made their way to the flea-pit screens of Britain and beyond but Lee’s performance level never wavered.
Even the later offerings in the franchise such as Dracula AD 72 and The Satanic Rites Of Dracula (1973) have much to recommend them.
Sadly Lee rarely talked of them in glowing terms. In fact he rarely talked of them at all.
That’s a shame since in his definitive take on one of fantasy cinema’s greatest characters it’s possible to see everything that made Sir Christopher one of the greatest leading men of all time.
