Blurbs are always going that such and such a book is a "must have for every serious fan" but this is definitely a "must have" for Christopher Lee fans. This is an excellently researched, brightly written account of Lee's career, focusing on his film and television work. Of course it pays a lot of attention to the Hammer films but also covers his other work as well.
No one can deny Rigby has done an excellent job, but the book has an unsurmountable problem: Lee made an incredible amount of crap. I like Christopher Lee, everyone likes Christopher Lee, and its wonderful how he's enjoying an Indian summer to his career, but gosh he was in a lot of schlock. Every now and then you hear people go "oh Lee's been typecast" and "he's never had his dues as an actor" but like another horror star, Boris Karloff, he's had plenty of chances in other sorts of films. He has a presence and can clearly rise to the occasion at the time, but he's not Marlon Brando. He should still be cherished, let's just not get silly about it.
The book is interesting. I didn't realise how easily Lee got his start - coming out of the army he decided to be an actor, and almost straight away got into the Rank charm school - but he put in a decade of hard yards before finding fame with Hammer. He's been a star ever since, though interestingly even after his break through he often appeared well down the cast list.
Lee tried to break away from horror in the 1970s, but has occasionally drifted back. He definitely seems to have been under-utilised by Hollywood, wasted in awful films and television - though to be fair Lee seems to have lousy taste in scripts (or at least a poor choice in young directors): he turned down Halloween, Swamp Thing and The Fog, which I couldn't believe.
I was also surprised how small the percentage of quality films he made: the decent Hammers, of course (Rigby is a fan of the 60s pirate films), The Wicker Man, the first Fu Manchu, an excellent Bond villain in the worst Bond film (The Man with the Golden Gun), The Private Lives of Sherlock Holmes, his recent blockbusters. There's a lot of other chaff.
Still, an icon is an icon and the book is a loving tribute.
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