I'm rather fond of the old chap myself, though I don't have as thorough a history as you do with his movies. I even met him when he, Peter Jackson, and Fran Walsh were doing a book-signing while promoting Fellowship.
Possibly my fondest (and most laughable) memory is of his role in the terrible 1987 film Mio in the Land of Faraway. Wow, that movie stank. But his part at least was enjoyable, if only 'cause it was HIM.
Thanks to you, Ken, I'm going to add Dracula Has Risen From the Grave to my Netflix queue for October, when I watch nothing but horror films. :)
Yeah, I fondly remember Kung Fu Theater on Ch. 5 in NY on Saturday afternoons, and Ch. 5 or Ch. 11 invariably showed a horror movie on most weekend afternoons. And of course in NYC years ago, we had the great Chiller Theater on Ch. 11. Good days.
I remember reading an account in a magazine about how Peter Cushing and/or director Terrence Fisher went to a screening of Horror of Dracula (or simply Dracula to British audiences) when it opened in 1958. The audience was restless and chuckling during the first 15 minutes; they had seen plenty of vampire movies and "knew" the hokiness that would follow. When the bodacious girl pleads with Harker to help her, the audience was practically laughing. If I remember the story correctly, Cushing - who didn't like these screenings - was squirming in his chair. And then ... Lee appears at the top of the stairs. The audience got quiet. And when Dracula started talking, everyone sat up and took notice, their attention now riveted. An excellent, ground-breaking horror film, and its climax is still hard
( ... )
I based a whole bunch of villains in my AD&D campaign on the villains from "The Five Deadly Venoms".
Like you, I grew up in the New York City area, so I owe a lot of my more, um, esoteric movie tastes and knowledge to Channel 5 and Channel 11.
That, and working in a video store. I got to watch many, many weird B-Movies in the store when there were no customers (which was often). There's some interesting parallels between myself and Randal Graves from "Clerks".
vampire's kiss
anonymous
May 29 2009, 19:48:44 UTC
I caught part of this truly awful Nicolas Cage movie from the 80s on TV the other night and pretty much the only interesting thing about it was that he did kind of look a bit like a young Christopher Lee when he had his vampire teeth in.
Cage is such a hard-to-figure-out actor. He'll do amazing work in films like Leaving Las Vegas or World Trade Center -- but for every one of those movies, there are five more that truly blow, like Next or (speaking of Christopher Lee) the remake of The Wicker Man, which I've heard was atrocious.
Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, and Liam Neeson can move effortlessly from quality drama to quality action flick, but for Cage, he just seems to lack the wisdom to distinguish a sucky action/horror script from a good one.
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Possibly my fondest (and most laughable) memory is of his role in the terrible 1987 film Mio in the Land of Faraway. Wow, that movie stank. But his part at least was enjoyable, if only 'cause it was HIM.
Thanks to you, Ken, I'm going to add Dracula Has Risen From the Grave to my Netflix queue for October, when I watch nothing but horror films. :)
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Horror of Dracula is a personal favorite of mine.
And seeing him as Saruman was just plain awesome.
Happy birthday to you, Mr. Lee, and thank you for all the happy and twisted moments of enjoyment you've given me.
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I remember reading an account in a magazine about how Peter Cushing and/or director Terrence Fisher went to a screening of Horror of Dracula (or simply Dracula to British audiences) when it opened in 1958. The audience was restless and chuckling during the first 15 minutes; they had seen plenty of vampire movies and "knew" the hokiness that would follow. When the bodacious girl pleads with Harker to help her, the audience was practically laughing. If I remember the story correctly, Cushing - who didn't like these screenings - was squirming in his chair. And then ... Lee appears at the top of the stairs. The audience got quiet. And when Dracula started talking, everyone sat up and took notice, their attention now riveted. An excellent, ground-breaking horror film, and its climax is still hard ( ... )
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I based a whole bunch of villains in my AD&D campaign on the villains from "The Five Deadly Venoms".
Like you, I grew up in the New York City area, so I owe a lot of my more, um, esoteric movie tastes and knowledge to Channel 5 and Channel 11.
That, and working in a video store. I got to watch many, many weird B-Movies in the store when there were no customers (which was often). There's some interesting parallels between myself and Randal Graves from "Clerks".
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http://ken-of-ghastria.livejournal.com/65516.html
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Cage is such a hard-to-figure-out actor. He'll do amazing work in films like Leaving Las Vegas or World Trade Center -- but for every one of those movies, there are five more that truly blow, like Next or (speaking of Christopher Lee) the remake of The Wicker Man, which I've heard was atrocious.
Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, and Liam Neeson can move effortlessly from quality drama to quality action flick, but for Cage, he just seems to lack the wisdom to distinguish a sucky action/horror script from a good one.
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