Review on Jonathan Rigby's Book

Attempting to document and describe the film career of Christopher Lee is not only a mammoth undertaking, but as Lee's career can be seen to reflect just about every type of role in the post-war film industry, also an ambitious one. The sheer number of films-- well over 250-- is alone a daunting proposition faced by the historian. The greatest pitfall awaiting any author when approaching this voluminous output of celluloid is the temptation to take a glorified "grocery list" approach. Although a list approach can provide a good indication of the length and sheer volume of Lee's film career, it gives very little indication of the breadth or quality of roles that he has undertaken in these past 54 years. A list also fails to demonstrate any sort of contextual background within which the film student, or interested fan, can judge the reasoning behind particular film choices. In short, a list is merely