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There was one lunch that I shall never forget as it was a total comedy of errors filled with misinformation, not to mention an actor thinking out loud when silence would have saved the day. One of the downsides to being an agent is having scripts thrown at you on a daily basis. Everyone in Hollywood with the exception of yours truly has a script. There was this one instance where a script was brought to my attention by a kindly, caring woman named Flora Mock. Flora was a short stout woman of sixty with a benign round face topped with white hair. She also possessed a soft voice which, combined with her gentle manner, made her an ideal person to have as a friend, not to mention I was always meeting great-looking people at her parties. Flora was the proud mother of actress Laurie Mock who appeared in the cult films HOT RODS TO HELL and RIOT ON THE SUNSET STRIP. Flora had spent several years writing a script entitled SUB-ROSA. It was an art film about youth and deception . There was one particular character in the script, an aristocrat of advancing years – “Count Andressi.” As soon as I read this script I knew “the Count” was tailor made for Christopher Lee.

Now Flora Mock lived in one of those large, slightly rundown houses in Beverly Hills right across the street from a former residence of Greta Garbo. Sadly, her place was mortgaged to the hilt; Flora made ends meet by taking a loan on the house every year to pay for yet another season in LA. This project was her very last chance to be a player in Hollywood. Her husband was in the business as well. Long divorced from Flora, he married yet again, a younger woman who became a casting director of some standing in Hollywood named Claire Mock. Flora had to make her film, and as time was starting to run out, she gave me the script with a director already in mind. She had her heart set on Joseph Losey, a world class director who was at that time quite unbankable thanks to the Burtons(Liz and Dick) and their over-the-top, addictive lifestyle (read my review of Boom here in FIR). I on the other hand wanted to see Christopher play in something worthwhile so I called him and sent the script over for him to read. Over the phone, Christopher was very impressed with the script and wanted to be involved. I told him about Flora wanting Losey. “I know Joe Losey from London. Leave it to me.” So with that I suggested a lunch where Christopher could meet the writer and her producer who was at that very moment setting up a trip to Cannes for them to try and market the whole thing as a package. I arranged the lunch at the CAFÉ SWISS in Beverly Hills, as we wanted a low profile environment to discuss the project.

The day of the lunch I arrived at Café Swiss early as usual, soon to be joined by Flora and her producer, another elegant-looking woman in her late forties. We then organized the table and the stage was set for them to meet Christopher Lee and set this project in motion for real. Christopher arrived and asked me to have a word before went go in and met the ladies. Well, it seems that Christopher had spoken a bit hastily about having a current entree to Joseph Losey, as they’d only met once, many years ago, at a film festival. Now I had to go into that dining room with Christopher in tow, knowing between the two of us we were no closer to securing a deal for these ladies than before I placed myself in such a pointless predicament. Why film stars exaggerate their contacts is still a mystery to me, as nothing is really to be gained by it.

The lunch itself went without a hitch and the ladies were charmed by Christopher’s knowledge and experience. Yet I learned a real lesson about trusting projects to hearsay and other people’s contacts, not to mention its consequences when they are wrong. The film of SUB-ROSA never came to be made and Flora returned from Europe a bitter woman out for revenge, as her producer cheated her out of money and then betrayed her. Flora would spend the rest of her life trying to get even and would confront this woman in public at every opportunity. I never got involved with another script, and remain the better for it.

From that time on I would ring Christopher from my office and chat if I had the time, or ask his advice regarding one of my clients. I was working with Barbara Steele at the time and I knew Christopher had made a film with Barbara in London, and at one time they were quite friendly. “Barbara is a damn fine actress,” he would say when her name came up… He used her as an example of how limiting the casting process was in Hollywood, that a woman with Barbara’s pedigree could not find work. “It is all based on youth and who is the next flavor of the month in this place.” I happened to mention that my friend Martine Beswicke was working in town, doing an episode of the popular television show THE FALL GUY with Lee Majors, and Christopher knew her ex-lover John Richardson, having starred opposite him in a remake of SHE for Hammer films back in the sixties. “Are they still a couple? Did they ever tie the knot?” I told him she was very much a free agent in that regard and the next thing I knew we were both invited up to his condo for drinks the next evening.

Now Martine Beswicke was a strikingly exotic and beautiful woman who usually liked to spend the majority of her evenings out on the town with a distinctly younger crowd of young men. However an invitation like this was not to be missed. Martine seemed to recall meeting Christopher at Ascot in London back in her Hammer days of the early seventies. Martine had played the title role in DOCTOR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE for that studio, as well as PREHISTORIC WOMEN. Both these films gave her a certain “camp” value with the current crop of producers like Allan Carr who loved the fact she was in those films in the first place, always promising to find “the perfect role” for his Amazon Queen, but alas it was not to be.

We arrived the next evening in her little black Volkswagen that Martine had affectionately named “pearl” at the Wilshire Hombly on the designated hour. After a slight confusion at the front desk we were finally given the okay to take the elevator up to the eighth floor. Christopher met us at the door dressed in blue jeans and a sports shirt to show off the belt buckle given him by the Stunt Men’s Association in recognition for nearly drowning in AIRPORT 77. “This buckle means more to me than an Oscar.” “Sorry you had a problem at the desk; all I can tell you both is Muhammad Ali had no trouble getting up here.” And with that we entered his condo which was spacious. with bookcases dividing the rooms from one another. As you entered, a large oriental figure met you at the door, surrounded by screens of oriental design, items acquired from years of traveling to Hong Kong to film those ‘Fu Manchu’ films no doubt.

Watching these two survivors from the British film industry enjoy each other’s company that evening was such a trip for me. Knowing her as well as I did, it was easy to see that she quite liked him, and I thought to myself if people could only see this side of Christopher’s personality that was so relaxed, displaying that wicked sense of humor of his, a lot of his detractors who found him to be aloof and humorless would undoubtedly change their opinions. Christopher was such a cultivated and charming man in a mix like this evening, yet when he found himself in larger groups his nerves would bring out the pompous side of his nature and his persona became forever tied to it in the minds of Hollywood insiders.

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