Nobody Doesn't Like Christopher Lee!

The cable station that I really like a lot is TCM. They show tons of movies from all different eras. Good movies, bad movies, silents, you name it. The guy who hosts most of them, I think Robert Osborne is his name, usually has his facts right too. (Not always but usually...)



One Halloween TCM showed two unusual horror movies. Actually they showed them starting at around 2 am on Nov. 1st but what can ya do? On Halloween they showed stuff like POLTERGEIST but anyway these two movies they showed were quite interesting...







The first was HORROR CASTLE from 1963, a full color Italian production which concerned a newlywed couple's vacation in the husband's ancestral home. The wife Mary (Rossana Podesta from Robert Wise's HELEN OF TROY) is convinced that the long dead "Punisher", an Inquisition like torturer is back and killing innocent villagers. Her all too suspiciously acting husband tells her it's all a dream. A local doctor thinks otherwise and an old FBI agent (?) hangs around the castle too. Meanwhile, the scarred manservant Erich (a dour looking Christopher Lee) lurks in the halls. The real murderer turns out to be the sadistic skull faced father of the groom who was deformed by The Nazis after participating in the failed assassination of Hitler!



This movie is ok but it kind of goes no where after it's revealed that "The Punisher" is in fact flesh and blood and not a ghost or hallucination.

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine use to show stills from this movie all the time and it did occasionally play on TV in a cut version but the print TCM showed was a nice newly restored version despite the fact that it retains the original English dubbing (someone else is doing Lee's voice) and credits where prolific director Antonio Margheriti is listed as Anthony Dawson.

Lee made THE WHIP AND THE BODY (called WHAT in the US) for Mario Bava the same year. The next year he would make another film that TCM showed...


CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD (1964)-is another Italian production that features Mr. Lee as Count Drago, the sullen owner of a creepy castle who also happens to be be a taxidermist! (You know where this is leading...) He invites a medieval performing troupe to do their show for him. Several deaths follow. You can guess the rest as any good horror fan will tell you taxidermy and old castles with innocent victims in them do not mix! One performer is accidentally hanged and another gets an arrow shot in the eye.

Donald Sutherland is also featured as a stupid military policeman! (He's pretty funny and also plays the role of an old hag although someone else dubs the voice!) The standout plot twist is that the dwarf member of the troupe saves the day (although he doesn't get the girl) which was quite unusual in '60's horror when dwarfs were still portrayed as evil or fools.

1964 was a busy year for Chris Lee who also starred in THE VAMPIRE'S CRYPT, THE DEVIL SHIP PIRATES and THE GORGON.

He and Sutherland were re-united the next year in Hammer Films' DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS. Future director Michael Reeves was an un-credited assistant director and writer.




Mr. Lee Today