RASPUTIN THE MAD MONK
UK, 1966, 91 minutes, Colour.
Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Francis Matthews, Joss Ackland, Renee Asherson.
Directed by Don Sharp.
A typical Hammer horror film - with the devices transferred to Gregory Rasputin, the bizarre monk influencing Czarina Alexandra. Christopher Lee is imposing and persuasive as Rasputin. However, the film veers away from his influence on the Czarina to give some lurid stories of his background and death.
The Barrymores appeared in the thirties in a film about Rasputin, Rasputin And The Empress. Tom Baker portrayed him persuasively in Nicholas and Alexandra.
Direction is by Don Sharp who made several of the Hammer films and directed Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu in a series in the sixties. His later films were action adventures like Hennessy and Bear Island.
1. An entertaining action horror film? A glimpse of Rasputin's character, history? Influence in Russia and on the Czarina?
2. The reputation of Hammer horror films? The emphasis on the bizarre and blood and gore? How well used in this story of Rasputin?
3. Colour photography, Cinemascope, the atmosphere of the Russian countryside, Moscow and St Petersburg, the Court? The special effects? Musical score?
4. A sketch of Rasputin rather than a biography? Establishing his background in the monastery, his powers of healing, his debauchery? Expulsion, sense of his own powers, desire to control people, wealth and fame? The clash with Dr Zargo? The infatuation with Sonia and using her to get to the Czarina? The confrontation with Ivan and Peter? His overreaching himself and his death?
5. How well did the film help the audience understand Rasputin? Christopher Lee's impression of his intensity? drinking, dancing, the initial healing, the expulsion from the monastery, the luring of Sonia and hypnotising her, the power over Zargo, the influence on the Czarina and the staging of the accidents? His self-importance leading to his death?
6. Sonia as lady-in-waiting, part of the Court, her relationship with Ivan and Peter and Vanessa? Infatuation with Rasputin? Hypnotised? Betrayed? killing herself?
7. The picture of the healings and the response of the Russian peasants, Rasputin and the response of the Czarina?
8. The supporting cast - Dr Zargo and his drinking and being under the power of Rasputin and then causing his death? Peter and the confrontation and the acid burns? Ivan and the build-up to Rasputin's death?
9. The brisk pace of the film and the audience being carried along with the impetus of Rasputin's career? The film's attempts at explaining his power and his use of it? The melodramatic and suspenseful build-up to his death? the eating of the chocolates, the wine, the physical violence of his death?
10. An enigmatic villain of history?
