#116: Rasputin, the Mad Monk
Russia’s most notorious mystic gets the Hammer treatment
This review was originally posted to Twitter on June 15, 2019.
Initial release: March 6, 1966
Director: Don Sharp
What do you do with the legacy of a wild-eyed mystic who improbably managed to worm his way into the Russian royal family for his own ends? Why, you make a lurid, ahistorical shocker where he’s a psychopath who can hypnotize people!
In a small village in pre-revolution Russia, a sick woman is revived by a hairy, lustful and demanding clergyman, Rasputin. While her husband is grateful, when a romp with the family’s daughter goes badly Rasputin is chased out of town, and he travels to St. Petersburg. A chance meeting with some of the Russian royal family’s attendants in a bar results in Rasputin hypnotizing the Tsarina’s lady-in-waiting into helping him worm his way into the royal family’s sphere of influence, but not everyone is pleased with this arrangement, and plot to get rid of him.
Don’t expect some kind of historical drama about Rasputin and the influence he may have had (or not) on the Romanov family. (If you want that, try another movie, though maybe not 1932’s Rasputin and the Empress, the reason why films have an “all persons fictional” disclaimer.)
This is, as you might guess from it being a Hammer film, a lurid tale of sex, murder, and hypnotism. Almost none of the royal family are actually in this picture — only the Tsarina and her young son. Most of the cast are entirely fictional. Prince Yusopov, who killed the real Rasputin, was replaced by the brother of one of the ladies-in-waiting; this was partly done for legal reasons, as Yusopov was still alive and his family tended to file lawsuits over their portrayals in film (hence the “all persons fictional” disclaimer.) And of course, there’s no mention whatsoever of the Great War, which ultimately led to the toppling of the Romanovs.
christopher lee plays an absolutely sinister rasputin (considering this was filmed back to back with “dracula: prince of darkness,” even sharing sets and actors, it’s easy to see why he was so on point with the role.) he’s imposing and unsettling, and holy shit his eyes! (Fun fact: when Christopher Lee was a child, he actually met the real Prince Yusopov by chance, and later in life he met Rasputin’s daughter Maria.)
While most of the film is about Rasputin’s rise to power, it’s not quite the historical drama you would expect even from Hammer; his ascendancy is rather truncated, and he mostly uses hypnotism to manipulate people on the quick. He lurches about as a villain and… that’s pretty much it. Several scenes seem to be missing, and in fact they were cut from the film. This, budget issues, and legal threats from the Yusopovs necessitating hasty rewrites explains why the film feels slightly incoherent, and largely a vehicle for Lee.
That’s not to say there aren’t some really great scenes. An amazing sequence where the brother of a dead attendant confronts Rasputin in his dark house really drives up how sinister Lee can really be, with careful use of lighting and framing, making Rasputin almost Dracula-like.
All in all though, this is a very boilerplate 60s Hammer film. You will not be enriched by this movie. But it’s worth it just to see Christopher Lee in a huge fake beard dancing around.
