Director Philipe Mora Talks Christopher Lee and Vatican-Approved Church Desecration
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Director Philipe Mora has a wild filmography. From The Howling II to camp masterpiece Communion, Mora’s work spans subgenres. His film The Return of Captain Invincible, starring Alan Alda and Christopher Lee, just got a gorgeous new release from Severin films. In honor of the release, we sat down with the director to hear about his experiences working with Christopher Lee, Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, and more.
Dread Central: You have done some incredible work with Christopher Lee, both on film, but also you’re working on a film about him now. I would just love to hear about what your experience was like working with Christopher Lee? He just seems like an all-around incredible person, but what was your experience with him?
Philipe Mora: Well, this might sound strange, but, um, it’s a bit of a love affair between Christopher and me. We had such deep interest in history and we had interest in Naz Germany. And Christopher knew that my godfather is Marcel Marlow, who was in the French resistance.
So we got on and he was, he was asking me about all this stuff. My dad was in the French resistance. And he was familiar with all of my movies, but I made a documentary called Swastikas in 1973, which caused a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival because I located Eva Braun’s, home movies, 16 millimeter, color, home movies. So all the color stuff you see about it on the Paris, the Berghof, that’s all the stuff I found in 1973.
DC: Oh my God.
PM: So Christopher knew all that because he’d been in [British] intelligence. And then when he told me that he personally helped put the nooses around the necks of various Nazis, I thought, “oh my God, this is a movie. Dracula putting nooses on Nazis.” In his apartment in London, he showed me a room where he put all the epiolets he ripped off Nazis he arrested. There’s a whole room! And so this goes deep, you know, it’s fascinating. ‘ll try and do justice o the story. It’s not so much a movie story. It’s a historical story about a young man who became obsessed with, well, frankly killing Nazis. Then he became a horror movie star, You couldn’t write this stuff, I’m telling you. Even talking about it I’m just thinking, “this is wild.”
DC: That is wild! What??
PM: Christopher also had a wonderful sense of humor, which I was aware of. That’s why I asked him, would you sing for me in Captain Invincible? And, you know, he started singing right then. I said, “No, no, no, not now!”
DC: [laughs]
PM: So he loved doing that. We had the same agent actually, that’s how we met. He would make fun of Christopher. Christopher was not keen on Hollywood. He just didn’t like it. It was not his cup of tea, to use an English expression. <laugh> I think your question was, how do we get on, how do we, is that what you asked me?
DC: Yeah. Just what was your experience working with him. I think you answered my question pretty well!
PM: Well, there are two parts to it. The first part is professional, how is he to work with and he’s incredible. A constant consummate technician and perfectionist. And I’ve told the story before, but I’ll tell it to you now because it’s apropos. In captain invincible, there was a tracking shot. Every time the camera went past Christopher, he leaned forward by about six inches. And after he did this twice, I said, “Chris, I can’t help seeing you leaning forward by about six inches every time, what are you doing?” And he said, “my dear boy I’ve made over 100 movies. I’ve been watching the focus puller and the bloody idiot doesn’t know what he’s doing.” <laugh>
DC: Oh.
PM: Congratulations, you’re the first self-focusing actor I’ve ever met. You’re gonna save people a lot of money.
DC: Wow. <laugh> wow.
PM: And he wasn’t out of focus, but he was convinced he was. In those days, and it’s not that long ago, you did focus with the tape measure. He was going by that and was convinced the guy was screwing up.
DC: What an incredible man.
PM: When we made The Howling II in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, we were followed as it turned out KGB because they knew, I’m guessing now, that wasn’t just a Hollywood crew in behind the iron curtain. It was Christopher Lee. And I think they knew that he had been involved in British intelligence. Once you’re in intelligence, particularly British intelligence, you can’t get out of it. So in other words, you may have reported back to the intelligence on what was happening behind the Iron Curtain. That was very heavy. The atmosphere was very oppressive. There were soldiers everywhere. You couldn’t use walkie-talkies. I said, “well, how are we gonna communicate to the head of the studio?” And they said, “you’ll have six men on bicycles.” It was like the First World War. I was told there are six men. When we needed something from the studio, we wrote it down, gave it to a guy on a bike, and they’d bring it to us. That’s how behind the times it was.
DC: Wow.
PM: And then with Christopher Lee being a celebrity, the American embassy invited Christopher and me and some of the crew for cocktails at the embassy, which was on top of a hill overlook. There’s always a Marine guard, and they were very gung-ho, blasting Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The USA.” [laughs] Then the Russians found out that the American embassy invited us for cocktails, so then the Russian embassy invited us for cocktails. And they said, we have a special [drink] called the, wait for it, atomic bomb.
DC: Oh boy.
PM: Anyway, I needed a crypt for a scene. And they said how about King Wenceslas crypt? And I said, “I didn’t even know King Wenceslas was a real person.”
So they took me to the crypt and said “would this be suitable?” And I go yeah, it’s perfect. But I noticed the priest looking really concerned at us. So I went over to him and said “I’m a little bit concerned [which I was], we’re doing a werewolf film, which is all nonsense in terms of reality. But I’m concerned because we’re in a cathedral and we’re going to stab a woman werewolf. There’s going to be blood, and I’m concerned we’re going to be desecrating the cathedral”. The priest looked at me and said, “Fantasic.”
DC: <laughs>
PM: He said, “We’ve been trying to get the Bishop down here for 10 years. But if you desecrate the church, they’ll have to. Let me call the Vatican. I’ll get back to you in the morning.” I get a call at seven in the morning, it’s the Priest. He says, “I’ve spoken to the Vatican, go ahead, desecrate it.”
DC: Wow.
PM: This is all true! Cut to Christopher, who’s got to stick the sword in the werewolf. He says, “I’m a bit concerned about this, isn’t this desecration?” And I said, “exactly, and in fact, I got permission from the Vatican to desecrate it.” And he said, “well that’s very impressive, thank you. Let’s desecrate it.”
DC: Wow. That’s incredible
PM: Look, it’s one of my finer moments because I pleased everybody. The producers were pleased, they thought I was a maniac. The Vatican was pleased because they could send another Bishop down. And the communists were really thrilled because it showed how decadent Hollywood was.
DC: This story is blowing my mind.
PM: It’s more amazing than the movie.
DC: That’s a movie in and of itself. Wow. That is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing these incredible stories about your films with me.
Categorized:Interviews News
