Serial - a shift in gear

OK, Saturday evening I got a question on Twitter if I knew what a certain picture with SCL was from. He is sitting on a bed, holding a telephone. And he is dressed in a leather jacket. What is this? Was the question.

The answer: I think it is a scene from Serial (1980). SCL plays a mc-cult leader - and he plays gay.

I am qouting the synopsis from Films of Christopher Lee [which was published in 1983]: "Christopher Lee plays a self-proclaimed "barracuda" (i.e, man-eater) of an American busineess tycoon, who moonlights as the ringleader of a marauding gang of gay motorcyklists, in this satire of modern California mores."

It is the last entry in that book before appendixes. Notes of the authors in the book:

"Lee is brilliantly funny here (...) Serial (..) seems a highly appropriate place for us to pause, since it epitomizes the transformation of an English to an international performer."

"Startling as it undoubtedly is to see Lee playing so off-type a role as that of a gay American business executive, one hopes that this is not the start of a new trend for him, since he played a somewhat similar character later in a two-hour episode of Charlies Angels!"

Lee's own comments: "A satirical, completely outrageous comedy. In it, I play a head-hunter, an American. I play it as an American, with an American accent, which was totally acceptable to the studio and the audience, which I regard as a compliment. (...) I can assure any doubters amongst the public that this is my own voice and I was not dubbed (...). On weekends, I play the head of a gay motorcycle gang. What one would call a shift of gear, perhaps."

Eh, yup. :-)

I havn't seen this myself, but here is a trailer, and a very short snippet of eight (!) seconds with Lee as the gangleader, so don't blink!

Additional note: The plot thickens. The picture causing this blogpost might not be from Serial after all. But that doesn't really matter. It was a good reason to post these wonderful clips! I'll be back to update this if anything crops up.