Thursday, June 11, 2015

Christopher Lee dies at 93

"Screen legend famous for roles in Hammer Horror films, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars dies in hospital after suffering heart and respiratory problems"
Christopher Lee, Vincent Price,
John Carradine and  Peter Cushing

8 comments:

ricpic said...

Cushing was the scariest to me. The guy was probably a pussycat but he had that skull showing through look.

Methadras said...

Four living cadavers in one picture. Color me impressed.

Chip Ahoy said...

I thought this was going to be about comic books.

*flounces*

I have Vincent Price's A Treasure of Great Recipes and it is wonderful but I do not recommend it. Too rich. Opulent. Expensive ingredients, sometime exotic. Tons of butter. Old school French. But nevertheless interesting to me and the best quiche I've ever tasted, something like a dozen egg yolks and a pint of heavy cream for one pie and none of that egg white nonsense. Lobsters, clams, bouillabaisse, things that use saffron, and Italian style deli meats and lots of French cheeses. You would think the guy weighs forty-five stone but he's thin.

Oddly the old book that I have is $18.00 while the newer 1974 version is $50.00 for prime. Go figure. Don't go. The difference is $32.00.

edutcher said...

Lee would have been perfect for a Sherlock Holmes revival to match Basil Rathbone's (the definitive movie and TV Holmes) run, but only played him once in a little-noticed TV movie. Except for being miscast as Mycroft Holmes (Charles Gray was a much better fit), he otherwise never got closer than Sir Henry Baskerville.

FWIW, the best Watson I've seen is Jude Law. And Geraldine James (who was quite a hot mama in her youth) was a great Mrs Hudson.

chickelit said...

Most of what I know about Lee I learned from Forest J. Ackerman's "Famous Monsters". I probably saw all of his Hammer Films. I always compared him to Lugosi though. RIP

William said...

The Hammer films were all in bright technicolor. The backgrounds always looked colorful and cheerful. Except for fog machines, I don't think they could do much for atmospheric lighting. The girls were very pretty, and there was always at least one scene where they wore a nightgown. The nightgown looked sexier than it really was. You could never see through it, but it looked diaphanous.........No disrespect to the gang pictured here, but I think the previous generation of horror stars were scarier. Maybe it was the black and white cinematography or maybe I was a little younger when I saw their movies, but Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were creepier.

virgil xenophon said...

Luuuved the two made-for-tv Dr Phibes movies Price did in the mid-70s. Was appropriately scary while at the same time one could see Price was having a blast with the role.

chickelit said...

ricpic said...
Cushing was the scariest to me. The guy was probably a pussycat but he had that skull showing through look.

Jack Palance had that same look. I liked his Jekyll and Hyde--better than the Frederick March version with the comical "fright teeth."