Russian history by Hammer

Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966)

Fifth movie from the Hammer Collection tells the story of the Russian monk, Rasputin. History books can be tossed to the campfire, this movie follows only entertainment values not actual facts. But that doesn't matter much, what would you expect from Hammer anyways. Christopher Lee steals the show here, he himself consideres this one of his best performances and I really agree. You can almost see him enjoying the part after the muted Dracula, Frankenstein and such, he really gets to let it loose and does it brilliantly. Unfortunately there's not much else brilliant in this one. The story is what it is, Rasputin drinks, dances, takes the ladies, heals a few people and tries to hypnotize the Tsarina to get control of the wealths of the country. The movie looks good and doesn't get boring, but still it's missing a bit too much sense to be fully entertaining. Luckily Christopher Lee saves many of those duller moments. For fans of Lee this is a must see, others can basically pass it. The DVD had a good picture quality, no subtitles and the only extra is the trailer of the movie.
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