Sir Christopher Lee, CBE, in a musical mood
He’s got an awe-inspiring 266 credits listed on his IMDb c.v. Nevertheless, finding good embeddable clips for Christopher Lee, one of the most beloved yet also underrated actors of the 20th and 21st centuries, hasn’t exactly been easy. Sad, considering how much enjoyment he’s given audiences, how many good movies he’s enlivened, and how many mediocre-to-godawful ones he’s come darn close to saving single-handedly. However, in honor of his well deserved knighthood today, we have what we have. And they both involve music.
My personal favorite Christopher Lee movie, and I think his as well, is 1973’s “The Wicker Man.” Below in a great scene which, for reasons much too complicated to go into here, is deleted from the most commonly seen version. In it, Lee as the avuncular and dangerous pagan Lord Summerisle takes part in a ritual with Britt Ekland as the local high priestess of sexuality. He also recites some poetry by Walt Whitman, as Edward Woodward’s repressed “Christian copper” tries to get to some sleep, snails make more snails, and Peter Giovanni sings the hauntingly erotic “Gently Johnny.”
The Wicker Man – Gently Johnny
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Lee actually sings — quite well — in “The Wicker Man” but that can’t be found. So, moving with warp speed from the sublime to the completely ridiculous, I found this incredibly strange number featuring a full-throated Lee from “The Return of Captain Invincible,” an ultra-ultra-obscure very pre-”Dr. Horrible” 1983 superhero musical starring Alan Arkin and Lee, with music by a number of people including Richard O’Brien of “Rocky Horror” fame. In it, a villainous Sir Christopher sings of a subject of my own interest — cocktails. Always, a gentleman of taste.
Damn. I just saw the original “Wicker Man” for the first time a few months ago and I thought it was great. Honestly, I was mildly interested in themes examined. What really captivated me were the performances of the cop (Woodward is actually very funny in parts) and the Christopher Lee, who is showcased in this post. Also, the music and cinematography is both intriguing and serene. And that final scene…everything is eerily perfect.
As you said (and as I recall), that scene was not in the movie (I, like most, don’t know why). Considering the plot, it’s unnecessary — I’m sure the clueless copper was already suspicious of their ways. Still, that song is a great addition to the movie’s already languid score/soundtrack. Lastly, you get to see more of Willow…whoever that actress is, she’s beautiful.
Hey Chris –
That actress was Britt Ekland, who had been a Bond girl (”The Man with the Golden Gun”) and had married Peter Sellers and, around this time, was living with Rod Stewart, who was at the height of of his fame. According to tabloids at the time, Stewart tried to suppress the nude scene which the promoters of the film tried to make hay with. I also just saw via Wikipedia that Ekland, though not 1/8 as good an actress as Mia Farrow, frankly, was supposedly Roman Polanski’s first choice for “Rosemary’s Baby.” I also had forgot that she was Sharon Tate’s maid of honor at her wedding to Polanski.
If you read my old review of the 2001 box set I linked to, you’ll get some idea of what happened to “The Wicker Man” over the years. It really is one of the great “lost” films, but even there I couldn’t really go into the story — but suffice it to say I’ve seen at least three different versions over the years, but because the original negative was apparently destroyed for all time, the material that was not included in the ruthlessly cut down theatrical version has much poorer sound and video than the rest.
It’s particularly a shame because the music is so beautiful and it was such a treat to finally hear most of it in stereo for the first time with that DVD. There’s a lot of sadness around the movie. Peter Giovanni, who wrote/adapted all the music and sings “Gently Johnny” above died not long after the film.