The “Count” Lee, in spite of his 75 years, has an enthusiasm and a impressive vitality, and has lost none of that charisma that it made, at the time of the glorious Hammer, the most famous vampire in the world Film. Lee speaks five languages correctly and without accent, including Italian, and Italian are also its origins (its true name is Christopher Carradini), which never fails to emphasize with a certain pride. His filmography is incredibly varied, having played over 300 films and having tried his hand at each possible role for an actor, with results ranging from ridiculous to Sublime. Lee’s career began in London (his hometown) when, at the age of 24, he took part in a 1946 film directed by Terence Young, entitled “Corridor of Mirrors”. In it it is present only in one short scene inside a nightclub while drinking a drink together to the main characters of the film, without saying a single Joke. Later he had other small roles in small productions interest, until the great success achieved with “Dracula the Vampire” (“The Horror of Dracula”) in 1957 under the guidance of Terence Fisher, the director to whom perhaps Lee owes more than any other in his career. During Lee’s time in the prestigious Hammer stable created together with Peter Cushing (another English-school actor) one of the most memorable partnerships in the history of Horror cinema. The first time that the two starred together was in Fisher’s film “The Mask of Frankenstein” (“The Curse of Frankenstein”) where Lee, covered by a heavy trick, played the part of the monster and Cushing that creator. Later they were eternal enemies in the series of Dracula (Cushing was the vampire hunter Van Helsing) and in other minor films. The last time we found the two “great “House of the Long” is in the film “House of the Long” 1983 ‘Shadows’ (which also marks the last film appearance) cushing), in which director Peter Walker brought together the most horror film stars John Carradine and Vincent Price) for a work with poor narrative content but of great and secure emotional impact for any horror enthusiast worthy of calling himself Such. Although his name is inextricably linked to the character of Dracula, Lee has played Fu Manchu several times on screen (at my opinion one of the most ridiculous moments of his career), Sherlock Holmes and Rasputin, the mad monk. If you ask him what the movie is preferring of his rich carnet, Lee replies without hesitation “The Wicker Man”, a 1972 British film directed by Robin Hardy and focused on a story of witchcraft and human sacrifices in a small island of Scotland. Lee has also worked frequently in Italy and remembers with much esteem and affection the director Mario Bava, who directed him in “Hercules at the Center of the Earth” and, above all, in “The Whip and the Corps” 1963, a beautiful but unjustly persecuted film censorship, which cut off some scenes, distorting its meaning. Lee’s last appearance on Italian screens was in 1989, in film “The Miser”, based on the play of the same name by Molière and starring by Alberto Sordi. In 1972, the foundation of its own production company, the CHARLEMAGNE FILMS, with a short history and Troubled. Actor of great stage presence, with a natural preparation for “villain” roles, Lee has never been a good administrator of himself, lending his talents to directors of excellent level like Spielberg (“1941”) or Joe Dante (“Gremlins 2” in a a very funny cameo), next to various exponents of the most abject trash-cinema, like Jess Franco (we remember him in a version of Dracula directed by Franco, notable for being one of Lee’s ugliest films and perhaps Franco’s best), parodying with irony himself and his career (see “Dracula Father and Son,” 1975 by Edouard Molinaro, production French) but often never giving up a reasonable Cachet. To be sure, although Lee’s film history is very much at the below his potential, he is and remains one of the few myths “humanized” of the fantastic, true icon of horror and eternal cinema, fearsome Prince of Darkness.
-Mr. Lee, lately it seems that fantasy cinema is interested in you. little, his latest films deal in fact more “traditional” themes.
-In fact, I’ve come a long way from the fantastic genre, but I don’t for a personal choice, but for a lack of good, capable scripts to pique my interest. I’m waiting for someone to propose to me good story, be it science fiction, horror or fantasy, and I I definitely won’t back down.
-Dracula’s character allowed her to become famous throughout the world, and yet you don’t seem to be very attached to him, do you?
-I respect all the films I’ve played, especially those of the Hammer period, but Dracula represents only a moment of my career in which I have made over 300 films. I’m proud of that role but I don’t want to die like Bela Lugosi, tied exclusively to a character, to a movie. Personally, I think I have given a lot to the character, accentuating the erotic aspect which, previously, was been almost completely ignored.
-Which films do you feel most attached to?
I think my best movie is “The Wicker Man,” it’s a film. little known in Europe but considered cult in the United States. I am also very attached to the character of Scaramanga, the villain of “The Man with the Golden Gun”, the Rochefort of “The Three Musketeers”, or the mad monk “Rasputin”, which I brought to the screen on behalf of the Hammer.
-How come he didn’t mention “The Mask of Frankenstein”, the beautiful Hammer movie that sees her for the first time alongside Peter Cushing ‘s?
-The film was undoubtedly great, and then it gave me the great opportunity to work together with Peter (Cushing), one of the best people I have ever met, an irreplaceable and great friend moral stature. I do not remember with particular affection the film because of the heavy make-up, which forced me to recite in a state of great Discomfort. I remember on the first day of filming I walked in completely rigged in Peter’s dressing room saying, “Look here, all this sacrifice and I don’t say any jokes in the movie, not a single word!” I was very annoyed and he answered me with the English humour that he distinguished “you’re lucky, I read the script.” Peter was sensational, I remember that, being both cartoon fans Warner Bros., we used to joke about giving ourselves nicknames taken from the cartoon series. I, for the record, was just “Sylvester” (Sylvester cat).
-I think “The Mummy” was also a challenging role from a make-up point of view…
Undoubtedly! During that movie, everything happened to me: I dislocated neck muscles carrying Yvonne Furneaux in her arms through a swamp, besides I dislocated my shoulder while I knocked down a door that some prankster had locked from the inside.
Do you have any particular memories of Terence Fisher, the great director who worked for Hammer?
-Terence was a great professional, an artist not always appreciated to the right extent. He has done incredible things, even considering the limited technical possibilities offered by the period. I think most part of modern filmmakers couldn’t have accomplished what Terence did, not without the technology at your disposal. I’m sorry that I don’t never received the attention he deserved from the critics.
-Mr. Lee there is a rumor that his cousin Ian Fleming has inspired by his life to create the Character of James Bond, in how much she would actually be a secret agent. Thesis supported by the that he speaks five languages correctly and without accent.
yes, I’ve heard this voice many times. What should I tell you: if it were true I could never admit it, for I would violate my oath of secret agent; if it wasn’t true I could never say the fake. So I just say, No.
You have Italian origins, aren’t you?
-Yes, my great-grandfather was an Emilian nobleman who made his last name Carandini. As far as I know at one point he ran off to Tasmania where he married a minor and devoted himself to acting.
-He also worked frequently in Italy, what do you remember about director Mario Bava?
-Bava was fantastic, a true craftsman of cinema, always ready to invent new things, to create works full of imagination out of thin air. He was also very funny as a man, to the point that once he I suggested I be a comedian. He was also a great conductor of photography, he also worked with Fellini. With him I made a film that I care a lot about called “The Whip and the Corps”, a complex work and full of erotic tension. Unfortunately, the film had of the inexplicable grains with censorship, which cut so many scenes until Ruin. I also shot “Hercules in the Center of the Earth”, where I enjoyed a world together with the actor who played Hercules, Reg Park: We laughed and couldn’t stop.
-What other directors have you worked with in Italy?
-Different: at the moment I am reminded of Camillo Mastrofive, with the which I shot “The Crypt and The Nightmare” in 1964, Stefano Vanzina directed in a funny parody called “Hard Times for the Vampires” in side of a very nice Italian actor whose name I can’t remember (was Renato Rascel, N.D.A.). Then Deer for “The Avaro”, which left me a bad memory, because on set I was acting live in a Italian that everyone said to be perfect, then I was voiced by an anonymous voice.
-What do you think of fantastic cinema, Horror in particular, modern?
I honestly don’t know him. I don’t like movies too much explicit, violent, where nothing is left to the imagination of the Viewer. The real cinema of horror, to be frightening, must make guessing, imagining, must threaten to show horrible things without ever do it, at least not completely. That’s the only way to reach that voltage size that creates the right result.
-How did he find himself working in America with Spielberg (1941) and Joe Dante (Gremlins 2)?
Very well, I must say that I was very affectionately welcomed. I have found out that Spielberg and Dante are my great admirers, know all my movies. Dante, in particular, said to me: “Do the same expression that you had in that movie, move like in that scene of that other..” He embarrassed me, quoted moments of film that I didn’t even remember.
-About “minor” films, she also starred in productions poorly organized, for decidedly ill-made films: there is some title that you would like to erase from your filmography?
Maybe something would be there, or, rather, I wouldn’t do it again. Eventually the only consideration I can make is that I’m an actor, I’m paid to act and, though I made some mistake, it’s just my work, it’s not something of world importance. All in all, I am satisfied with my career, also because people still stops on the street, and often they are little boys who were not even born when I shot “Dracula, ” asking for my autograph, and I must also “minor” movies.
Louis De Angelis