Lee plays a polite, meek man, married to the shrill
Lee Grant, who suffers the humiliation of being cuckolded by his wife. After a charter jet crashes in the Bermuda Triangle and is submerged under water, Lemmon (as the captain) must undertake a risky underwater mission to bring help. Lee happily volunteers to come along; he conveys a heroic, self- sacrificing spirit, while also suggesting that the man would do anything to get away from his wife—he’s simply too kind to say it out loud. Lee adds spark to a tiny role, with the bonus that he looks great in a three-piece suit. Why didn’t the bigger roles come? Was Lee getting
too long in the tooth? That’s the most likely possibility, even though a few other Hollywood stars of the day, such as Charles Bronson, were the same age or older. Lee, however, may have been too aristocratic, too regal in in his bearing, too—dare we say it—British to score with American moviegoers in a big way. But Lee never had a problem with skewering his most famous role, or poking fun at himself. Witness the previously-mentioned Jerry Lewis production, or the Sammy Davis, Jr. TV movie LUCIFER, or, even better, his funny parody of a German U-boat captain in Steven Spielberg’s misbegotten 1941. Good movie roles became increasingly scarce in the
80s and 90s, leading Lee to appear in more television shows among his less-frequent movie roles. He came back into vogue in Hollywood in 1999, when Tim Burton cast him in SLEEPY HOLLOW, followed by his embodiment of Saruman the White in Peter Jackson’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, and his dastardly turn for George Lucas in the second and third episodes of the STAR WARS prequels. He enjoyed a popular renaissance throughout the decade,
referred to as “Dracula vs. The Avengers” (referring to the Brit TV show, not the Marvel superhero team), the film redefined Dracula again, this time as more of a James Bond villain, but the reluctant Lee had a minimal amount of screen time. The final Hammer film of the 20th Century, TO THE DEVIL … A DAUGHTER
(1976) is probably best remembered today because of a fleeting few seconds of nudity provided by 15-year-old Nastassja Kinski. That’s a shame, because the movie—and Lee’s performance—are quite good, right up until a disappointing finale. Lee plays Father Michael, the leader of a German church called The Children of Our Lord. He wears the garb of a Christian priest, but his order worships Satan. Teenage Catherine (Kinski) is about to come of age, and is needed to satisfy the order’s deal with Satan. Catherine’s father asks occult writer John Verney (Richard Widmark) to investigate; Verney quickly grasps what’s going on and is determined to save Catherine from the Satanists. TO THE DEVIL features one of Lee’s quieter portrayals, which takes away
none of its power. It’s chilling to watch him smile as he takes a woman’s hand and tells her, “You shall die now,” or hear him telepathically calling Catherine to come to him with a whispered, urgent, demented smile on his face. The villainous Lee finally faces off with the virtuous Widmark, and their confrontation is a soft-spoken stand-off. TO THE DEVIL … A DAUGHTER may not end with quite the “oomph” that
we’d like to see from a Hammer film, but that’s only because Hammer —and Christopher Lee—had established such a high bar of quality.
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • MAR/APR 2012 25
as new home video versions of the Hammer classics reminded modern audiences of his many talents. Christopher Lee may never have received the opportunities his stature and abilities deserved, but he’s always made the most of whatever role he’s playing. Nearing his 90th birthday, he’s still fully capable of transforming from frightening to heartwarming with a glint of his eye, as in his cameo as a book shop owner in Martin Scorsese’s HUGO. He has always made his dramatic presence known, without calling undue attention to himself, a rare combination of talents in a long career to be treasured and celebrated.
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