#host and narrator Ron Randell even describes him near the start of the ep as (something like) 'young‚ handsome‚ but sinister' which Tumblr posts
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A young Christopher Lee guest stars as dastardly Larry Spence - a rising star in the world of journalism, turned blackmailer and then murderer - in The Vise: The Final Column (1.16, ABC, 1955); the episode wasn't seen in the UK until 1963, as part of ITV drama anthology Tension
#fave spotting#christopher lee#the vise#tension#1955#the final column#for more information on the complicated origins of The Vise (a US production entirely made in the UK) see my prev fave spotting post for#Jacqueline Hill's appearance on the series#Lee was hardly a newcomer when he made this ep; he'd been acting professionally since being demobbed a couple of years after ww2 and#was something of a stock player in british cinemas‚ usually in minor bit parts as caddish gentlemen or authority figures and military men#one of his first really significant roles would be later in '55 as a submarine commander in The Cockleshell Heroes#he was also making semi regular appearances on tv in small guest spots‚ albeit sometimes uncredited (as in ITV's The Adventures of the#Scarlet Pimpernel also around this time). a jobbing actor‚ basically‚ and not yet the cinematic icon he would begin (that journey starting#at the end of the decade and the beginning of his association with Hammer studios and horror immortality). he's very good here tho#host and narrator Ron Randell even describes him near the start of the ep as (something like) 'young‚ handsome‚ but sinister' which#may as well have been printed on business cards for the kind of work Lee would find himself doing for the next decade or so#yes he's a real rotter‚ a strangler of ladies and a blackmailer of tycoons‚ and in true Vise fashion he gets his just desserts and the mora#status quo is maintained (this is a very moral series and takes pains to inform us via Randell exactly what kind of punishment the villains#received after the events depicted)#Lee made two more Vise episodes but as Network (rip beloved) seemingly took a random approach to which episodes to include in their#first volume of the series (and obviously as it turned out only volume) i have no idea if either of those are on the set#one can hope! and i do bc it's lovely seeing him so young but with such a meaty role
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