Good Versus Evil In The Films Of Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015) was one of the most beloved actors of the past sixty years. He appeared in more than 200 feature films--from Hammer Horror and James Bond thrillers to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings--and more than 100 made-for-televison movies. A versatile performer, he played a menacing figure in Dracula and The Wicker Man, a tragic one in The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy, and a spiritual hero in The Devil Rides Out. This study explores his legacy as a film actor and his diverse interpretations of the theme of good vs. evil.

Sir Christopher Lee (1922–2015) was one of the most beloved actors of the past sixty years. He appeared in more than 200 feature films—from Hammer Horror and James Bond thrillers to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings—and more than 100 made-for-televison movies. A versatile performer, he played a menacing figure in Dracula and The Wicker Man, a tragic one in The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy, and a spiritual hero in The Devil Rides Out. This study explores his legacy as a film actor and his diverse interpretations of the theme of good vs. evil.

The career of Christopher Lee has stretched over half a century in every sort of film from comedy to horror and in such diverse roles as the Man With the Golden Gun, Frankenstein's monster, Fu Manchu and Sherlock Holmes. From Corridor of Mirrors in 1948 to Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones in 2002, this reference book covers 166 theatrical feature films: all production information, full cast and crew credits, a synopsis, and a critical analysis, with a detailed account of its making and commentary drawn from some thirty hours of interviews with Lee himself. Two appendices list Lee's television feature films and miniseries and his short films. The work concludes with an afterword by Christopher Lee himself. Photographs from the actor's private collection are included.

From their first pairing in Hamlet (1948) to House of the Long Shadows (1983), British film stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing forged perhaps the most successful collaboration in horror film history. In its revised and expanded second edition, this volume examines their 22 movie team-ups, with critical commentary, complete cast and credits, production information, details on cinematography and make-up, exhibition history and box-office figures. A wealth of background about Hammer, Amicus and other production companies is provided, along with more than 100 illustrations. Lee and Cushing describe particulars of their partnership in original interviews. Exclusive interviews with Robert Bloch, Hazel Court and nearly fifty other actors, directors and others who worked on the Lee-Cushing films are included.

From cinema's earliest days, being scared out of your wits has always been one of the best reasons for going to the movies. From B-movie bogeymen and outer space oddities to big-budget terrors, Monsters in the Movies by horror film maestro John Landis celebrates the greatest monsters ever to creep, fly, slither, stalk or rampage across the Silver Screen. Landis also surveys the historical origins of archetypal monsters, such as vampires, zombies and werewolves, and takes you behind the scenes to discover the secrets of the special-effects wizards who created such legendary frighteners as King Kong, Dracula, the Alien, and Freddy Krueger. Monsters in the Movies by John Landis is filled with the author's own fascinating and entertaining insights into the world of movie-making, and includes memorable contributions from leading directors, actors and monster-makers. The book is also stunningly illustrated with 1000 movie stills and posters drawn from the unrivaled archives of the Kobal Collection. Contents Introduction by John Landis... Explore a timeless world of fears and nightmares as John Landis investigates what makes a legendary movie monster • Monsters, chapter by chapter... Feast your eyes upon a petrifying parade of voracious Vampires, flesh-eating Zombies, slavering Werewolves, gigantic Apes and Supernatural Terrors • Spectacular double-page features... Thrill to the strangest, scariest, weirdest, and craziest movie monsters ever seen • The ingenious tricks of movie-making... Marvel as the special-effects wizards reveal how they create movie magic • A monster-movie timeline... Discover John Landis's personal selection of landmark horror films

The Supernatural Sublime explores the long-neglected element of the supernatural in films from Spain and Mexico by focusing on the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception, their adaptations of codes and conventions for characters and plot, and their use of cinematic techniques to create the experience of emotion without explanation. Deploying the overarching concepts of the supernatural and the sublime, Raúl Rodríguez-Hernández and Claudia Schaefer detail the dovetailing of the unnatural and the experience of limitlessness associated with the sublime. The Supernatural Sublime embeds the films in the social histories of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Mexico and Spain, both of which made a forced leap into modernity after historical periods founded on official ideologies and circumscribed visions of the nation. Evoking Kant’s definition of the experience of the sublime, Rodríguez-Hernández and Schaefer concentrate on the unrepresentable and the contradictory that oppose purported universal truths and instead offer up illusion, deception, and imagination through cinema, itself a type of illusion: writing with light.

When Sir Christopher Lee passed away at the age of 93 in 2015, it was truly the end of an era. He was the last of the great horror stars. This book is a comprehensive overview of Lee's work in the horror genre, including movies, books, audio recordings and video games. As well as providing in-depth production histories and critical analysis, new interviews have been conducted with Lee's co-workers (some of them speaking here for the first time), which shed fresh light upon the man and his work. Few actors spanned the generations with more lasting appeal than Christopher Lee. From his ventures with Hammer-whose swift gradation of flesh and blood into a staid 1950s cinema broke new ground-to his work, in the next century, on Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and numerous interactive formats, Lee was constantly abreast of advancements in his industry. Consequently, this book can be read not only as an alternative history of the Horror Film, but also of the myriad developments within cinema itself.