The Many Faces of Christopher Lee (1996)
** (out of 4)
This hour long feature is basically an interview with Christopher Lee who talks about various parts of his career. The "many" in the title is pretty misleading because there's so much of Lee's career that's not covered that you really walk away disappointed. Not only is there a lot of stuff that isn't talked about but the majority of the stuff we do get is rather uninteresting and at times boring. I think the biggest problem is that it seems like Lee is just given no direction as he just starts talking and goes until his story is done. The problem is that many of the stories are just downright dry and while they might have meant something to him, as the viewer there's really no connection. The stuff with his grandmother isn't interesting. There's talk about the film HANNIE CALDER and you ask yourself why this title was picked out of the hundreds he has done. He talks about how he sword fights and gives us a demonstration but this is just mildly amusing at best. Other topics include his confusion as to why the producer of I, MONSTER tried to hide the Jekyll and Hyde character from the title as well as the name in the film. One interesting story involved why he refused to speak in Dracula: PRINCE OF DARKNESS. Die hard fans of Lee might enjoy some of the stories but I think this was really a wasted opportunity. The man has done so much in his career that it's really a head-scratcher as to why these stories were selected.
