IN CONVERSATION

Christopher Lee

“I never looked upon my films as horror films.”

Schlock reads Famous Monsters of Filmlandmagazine sitting next to its editor, Forrest J Ackerman. On the cover is Sir Christopher Lee as Dracula.

Vampires[ Book Contents]

JL: Chris, you were just about to say why you shy away from the term “horror film.”

CL: It’s a very simple answer. I did films with Boris Karloff who, like myself, made his name as a monster. He was a wonderful man, a superb actor, far better than the parts he was often given to play. What he had to do, and what I had to do, was to make the unbelievable believable. And that’s very difficult, especially with today’s audience. The reason I don’t like the word “horror,” is because it conjures up something really nasty, horrific, horrendous, evil, vile. The word that Boris used to use, and indeed I use, is “fantasy.” The French always refer to these films as “films of the fantastic,” which I think is a very good description. I never looked upon my films as horror films. I always tried to give the impression that the characters I played were doing things they couldn’t help doing. And Boris did the same.

JL: You’ve played some of the classic monsters. You are the definitive Dracula, and you’ve played the Mummy, as well as Frankenstein’s Monster. Your Dracula is pretty ferocious, whereas your Frankenstein’s creature is very sympathetic…

CL: This is what I’ve always tried to do. Even when playing, not necessarily a monster, but the bad guy, I’ve always tried to do something, say something, the audience doesn’t expect.

JL: Your performance in The Curse of Frankenstein[Terence Fisher, 1957] is fabulous.

CL: The Creature is a very pitiful character. He didn’t ask to be made; he’s a victim. More so than the people he kills.

JL: I think the people he kills are victims, too.

CL: Well, I didn’t kill many people, as I remember. And Boris didn’t either. In (the Karloff Frankenstein), there was that famous scene when he throws the little girl into the lake thinking that she will float like the flowers. The censors cut that out, but I believe it’s back in now. That scene is pitiful, pitiful. The audience has to see this other side to the Creature.

JL: What’s interesting about The Curse of Frankenstein, is that Peter Cushing’s role, Dr. Frankenstein, is the real monster.

CL: Oh, absolutely. As you say, I’m the victim.

JL: And in the sequels, Frankenstein’s creature becomes less and less important.

CL: I never saw them.

JL: Well, they vary greatly in quality. But Peter’s always good!

CL: He was a superb actor.

JL: Marty Scorsese said that your entrance in Horror of Dracula[aka Dracula,Terence Fisher, 1958] made a huge impression on him. You walk quietly down the stairs and say, “I am Count Dracula. And this is my house.” Something elegant and simple like that.

CL: I remember our first night in New York with Peter [Cushing]. I’d never been to America. This was about ’57, I think. There was a great big building near the theater that was covered with an enormous painting of me (as Dracula) carrying one of the girls.

JL: How many stories high was it?

CL: At least 10 stories. That made me reel! Then we had to go to the first performance. And I’m not good in public, few actors are. I said to Peter, “I don’t think this is a very good idea.” And he said, “Oh, my dear fellow, this is what we’ve come for! We’ve got to do it!” It was close to midnight, and many in the audience had had a few, to put it mildly. So I said to Peter, “I’m going to sit in the very top row, underneath the projection booth with you, near the exit, so that if anything happens I can leave.” Because I didn’t like seeing myself on screen, and I didn’t know what the audience reaction was going to be. Finally, the lights go down, the curtains part, up come the credits, and I recall there was a coffin with my name and blood splashes onto it. There was a huge roar of applause, and then the moment comes where you see me at the top of the stairs: a silhouette. The place exploded. Everyone shouting and yelling, and laughing, and I thought, “Oh God, this really is the end.” And I walk down the stairs in a perfectly normal way, and I say quite calmly, “Mr. Harker,” or “Good evening, Mr. Harker” or something, and he says, “Count Dracula,” and I say, “Yes, I am Dracula,” or something… The audience went completely quiet! Total silence for the rest of the film!

JL: The audience must have reacted to the scares?

CL: A few shudders or squeaks, but every time I appeared on screen—silence. The biggest shock in the film, was when the girl [Valerie Gaunt credited as “Vampire Woman”] tries to seduce Jonathan Harker. And there’s a shot of me in the doorway, teeth bared, wearing those contact lenses—couldn’t see a thing— and I leap up onto a table, and I leap off—that’s no stunt, no fake—shoot across the floor, fling her aside and go straight for him. There were no cuts. I don’t think anybody had ever seen an actor playing a vampire do anything like that before.

JL: Your Dracula is terribly physical, and very, very sexual.

CL: Which I did not intend.

JL: Whether you intended it or not, it made a big impression.

CL: I know it did, but I tried to play him as a man with a kind of compulsion. I obviously gave the impression that he enjoyed it.

JL: You played it very sexual, though, Chris. You’re saying it was an accident?

CL: I tried to make him attractive to women. That was in the script!

JL: Now, what about all the sequels. They got sillier and sillier.

CL: That gives rise to a true story. The first film came out, and it rocketed around the world.

JL: It was a huge hit.

CL: And it made me world famous. As Dracula, though, not necessarily as Christopher Lee.

JL: But not only was your Dracula so striking and remarkable, it was really the first color Dracula movie. And the blood was so Technicolor red.

CL: Well, that was Hammer’s idea. Eight years later, they asked me…

JL: …It was 8 years until the second one? I didn’t know that.

CL: Yes, 7 or 8. I did Rasputin[full title, Rasputin, the Mad Monk, Don Sharp, 1966] and Dracula: Prince of Darkness[Terence Fisher, 1966] back to back. Same sets. When I read the script, I said to my agent, “I’m not saying any of this dialog. It’s appalling.”

JL: You don’t say anything in the movie!

CL: Not a word.

JL: But you have a hell of a presence!

CL: When Chekhov went to see one of his plays at a local theater, they asked him at the end what he thought of it, and he came up with this wonderful expression: “Not enough gunpowder.” That’s the secret. If you have the physical presence, all right: you’re lucky. If you have power, well, you’re lucky. But, gunpowder, that’s the real secret!

JL: Well, your Dracula certainly has fire and brimstone.

CL: I refused to do the second one at first. In the end, I played Dracula five or six times…

JL: I hope they paid you well!

CL: Oh, you’re joking. I think they paid me about £750.

JL: Even for the later ones?

CL: I think they paid me a little bit more later, but not much. Certainly not five figures.

JL: But you were the selling point of the movies!

CL: I bought my first car when I was 35. It was a second-hand Merc. I could just about afford it. Anyway, the process went like this: The telephone would ring and my agent would say, “Jimmy Carreras [President of Hammer Films] has been on the phone, they’ve got another Dracula for you.” And I would say, “Forget it! I don’t want to do another one.”

JL: So how would Hammer get you to agree?