Review of Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) by L J — 19 Oct 2007
"Open your eyes, woman! You're cured.".
Filmed back-to-back with Dracula - Prince Of Darkness, using the same sets and with the same principal cast - this is (for me, anyway) the better of the two films.
It's hard to convey using mere words just how GOOD Chris Lee is in this! It must've been so gratifying for him to have such a meaty role to get his fangs into, what with the concurrent Dracula film consigning him to a non-speaking role. Rasputin may not be as iconic a role as the Count, but Lee's performance excels even that! His really is an absolutely magnetic presence.
Barbara Shelley turns in another solid job, here (and never looked finer, quite frankly). Legendary comic actor Brian Wilde (Barraclough in Porridge) has a small role at the beginning of the film.
I remember reading somewhere that Christopher Lee's family actually had ties with the real-life Russian royals depicted in the film, which is pretty interesting. If it's true.
This review of Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) was written by L J on 19 Oct 2007.
Rasputin: The Mad Monk has generally received mixed reviews.
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