An Invitation to remember

Brian Johnston interviews Christopher Lee. From 1989. Love that moustache! Lots of talk of his different parts - clips from Wicker man. Lee speaks of when he met Rasputins murderers, his part in the Three Musketeers etc.

And he talks of playing Mycroft Holmes. "I am the only actor in history who has played both Holmes brothers, both Sherlock and Mycroft."

Nice to watch!

Hound of the Baskervilles

The haunted Sir Henry Baskerville! This part is seems so much better suited for Lee, I think, than him playing Sherlock Holmes. He needs space when acting. As soon as he is crammed into a typcasted role, he looses that *mmpfff* he usually has.

A bit more on Sherlock Holmes

Ok, so I have admitted that Christopher Lee playing Sherlock Holmes is not my first choise. His most memorable contribution to the Holmes-genre is probably not as Holmes, but as the brother of Sherlock Holmes - Mycroft.

The private life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) has inspried the creators (Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss) of modern BBC:s Sherlock to a great extent. In the 70's film, Lee plays Mycroft with an animosity towards the brother that had never been done before.

Mark Gatiss, who plays Mycroft in BBC:s modern and widely successful adaption of the stories of Sherlock Holmes, tells us here that his portrayal is inspired directly by Lee's interpretation of the character. 

And everyone who has seen Gatiss act, and watches the clip below, understands precisely why and how. Steven Moffat claims to have seen this film "about thirty or forty times". Even idols have idols, appartently...

Sherlock Holmes and the deadly Necklace

Christopher Lee is not very happy about this film from 1962. 

"What I found most unacceptable was the fact that, without my knowledge or permission, my voice was dubbed in English by another actor. The results were disastrous."

Hm, yes, as a Sherlock Holmes-fan, Christopher Lee has never been Holmes to me. Neither have Basil Rathbone, mind you. I am still intoxicated by the intepretations of Jeremy Brett of the 80's series of Granada.

When you watch this clip, it is strange to see Christopher Lee's beautiful face (but with a terrible mockup nose to make him more 'Sherlock-like' - quite unnecessary in my opinion) but with another mans voice. With some sort of strange american accent! What a sacrilege!

Anyway, one has to bear in mind that this was Sherlock Holmes before Brett came along and spiced him up. I think this older version of Holmes is a bit stuffy, to be honest.

This is just one year before Christopher Lee did The Whip and the Body. That is so strange. Very different films, very, very, very different roles...