RASPUTIN, THE MAD MONK (1966) Ra-ra! I've seen a bunch of Hammer flicks in the last several months, but I noticed that I was confining myself to their franchises, and there's more to check out, so first on the list was Christopher Lee as the silver-tongued, shaggy-bearded Rasputin. Lee gets some great villainous entrance music when we first see him, madly lusting for wine and women, because he figures that there isn't a point to confession without some interesting sins to confess. That, and he's evil. Rasputin has some sort of super-hypno-power which enables him to force women to obey his every command, even if he commands them to maim others and kill themselves! It's goofy, but I admit I found it a little disturbing, what with all the suicides and facefuls of acid. Great sets n' stuff, maybe a little better than usual even for Hammer. Hey, wanna know how to get into a lot of trouble in Russia circa 1915? Show up at a rough-and-tumble pub in full ballroom attire. GREAT idea. Lovely Hammer women, good action, and a fun, blood-and-thunder performance from Lee (the role of Dracula didn't give him much room to stretch out, did it?) help make this one a winner, when the other Hammer movie I saw around the same time (The Reptile) just had the women. There ain't a whole lot I can think of to say about this movie, except that I had fun. I got what I asked for. The trailer claims that this is "The real, shocking story" of Rasputin, who in real life took a hell of a lot more punishment before he finally keeled. Those trailers also advertise that a free Rasputin beard would be given to you at the theatre. BACK TO THE R's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE