Better than Lord of the Rings! For Christopher Lee, this film was the crowning achievement of his acting career

The late legendary Christopher Lee’s career spanned nearly 70 years, during which he made countless memorable films. And if new generations will definitely remember him especially for bringing Saruman to life in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, the actor has always maintained that the best of his career was this second film, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary: ​​Wicker. Man (1973).

Directed by Robin Hardy Wicker man is a folk horror film about a Scotland Yard police officer who travels to a remote island to investigate what he believes is a murder. However, he discovers a mysterious and disturbing religious cult that rules the island.

• Robin Hardy’s death: a close-up of his iconic film The Wicker Man

Christopher Lee agrees not to pay

The feature film had such a meager budget that Christopher Lee He himself was involved to take the film forward. At first, the actor agreed not to pay, as he recalled years later in the documentary “The Wicker Man Enigma”:

“I didn’t get paid. I tell people this and they don’t believe it’s true. I have the contract to prove it. Anyway, sometimes we do things for love… If I paid my normal rate – and everyone else got their normal royalties – they wouldn’t be able to make the movie.“

On the other hand, the actor really lost money with this film because the film’s producer had so little faith in the project that he decided to release it without any press release. Christopher Lee He then contacted every British critic he knew, offering to pay to see the film so the public would know it existed.

In addition, a few years later, the actor also paid from his own pocket all the expenses required to promote the feature film in the US. Therefore, it seems that he had a special love Wicker manIt is his best film. And moreover, before the coming Lord of the RingsIt was the film he was asked the most questions about, as he noted in a 2005 interview with Total Film.

“But I still get asked a lot about The Wicker Man because it has become one of the greatest cult films of all time. This is really the story of my career, making iconic films. I’ve always said it was the best film I’ve ever made, even in its subdued form, which it is. Even the DVD is dead. I still don’t know what happened to that movie. The negative has since disappeared.“

The original version is gone

Christopher Lee This refers to the fact that today there are various montages Wicker man : The 87-minute film was originally shown in UK cinemas, with a 95-minute director’s cut and a 91-minute finale. However, none of these versions are original versions Robin Hardy At that time, he was forced to cut, which Lee regretted for the rest of his life.

“I still believe it exists somewhere, in anonymous boxes. I still believe. But no one has seen it since then, so we haven’t been able to cut it, re-edit it, which is what I wanted to do. It would be ten times betterHe said at a press conference at the 2002 Brussels Fantasy Film Festival.

Since then, said montage has not yet appeared. Of course, the film’s popularity remained intact, and in 2006 a Hollywood remake starring Nicolas Cage was made, light years away from Hardy’s film. The film would also have an influence on Ari Astaire’s acclaimed Midsommar, without which it would certainly not exist.

• What is folk horror? 10 films to follow Midsommar

His best performance in another little-known film

However, if Wicker man It is the best movie Christopher LeeHis best performance as an actor, he says, came in Jamil Dehlawi’s Jinnah (1998), a hard-to-find DVD-only biopic in which he portrayed Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. .

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. And it’s the biggest responsibility I’ve ever had as an actor because a lot of his family members came to watch and they were very supportive.“

His best performance could not be found, his best movie, The Wicker Man, can be re-watched on MUBI streaming.