Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966)

If not for Christopher Lee in the lead role of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, Hammer's period movie would be little more than a standard story about a man undone by his own ambition and greed. Lee's stick-on beard makes him look like an ancestor of author Alan Moore, but his astonishing screen presence and powerful gaze are as strong as ever - the latter is even used as a defining trait of the 'mad monk', whose hypnotic gaze and fierce unyielding will aid him in influencing his way into a Russian ruler's confidence.
Despite the setting it's fully in English. Lee doesn't attempt any kind of Eastern European accent, it's simply the actor doing what he did better than anyone.

3 complimentary sweets out of 5