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Our dastardly Chinese master criminal returns to the seat
of his ancestors (and a very comfy seat it is too) in a province
two days from Shanghai. He fakes an earthquake to seal off
access to outsiders, before kidnapping a missionary doctor
and his daughter, bringing them in across the mountains. Threatening
the daughter, he persuades the doctor to surgically change
a person to look like his enemy Assistant Commissioner Nayland
Smith of Scotland Yard. Miraculously, 48 hours later the facial
paint by numbers is completed, and Fu Manchu arranges a switch
whilst Smith is holidaying in Ireland. The real Smith is transported
as a prisoner to the Chinese province; meanwhile the impostor
returns to London, commits murder and is promptly sentenced
to death. The Chinaman intends to do the same to prominent
law enforcement officers around the world as a demonstration
of his power to the underworld. In this manner he will group
all the world's main criminal organisations together under
his leadership. But has the Fu Man bitten off more than he
can chu? (sorry, I couldn't resist that one)...
Here we have another film based on Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu
stories. All of the main characters return (Douglas Wilmer
as the bogus Smith spending half the movie looking like a
corpse freshly pulled from the grave), and the format is pretty
much the same. Although this is set around the same period
as the Sherlock Holmes tales, there is an element of
overacting amidst the formal properness of the educated professional
characters which reminded me of The Green Hornet with
Bruce Lee and particularly the camp sixties Batman
series, but without the fun. The many fight sequences are
comical without intending to be so. Large curved blades look
to be cut from tin and have painted on bloodstains. Each fighter
waits until his opponent is ready before attacking, and Fu
Manchu's assassin henchmen go down like a ton of bricks under
a good old British bunch-of-fives.
Surely
this was money for old rope for our very own master of horror,
Christopher Lee. He has very little to do, the main requirements
for the part apparently being to look evil and occasionally
tweak his moustache. Granted, his villainous part is a thinker
rather than a doer, but it seems an incredible waste for such
an accomplished actor. I'm sorry to say that the best thing
about this film is the scenery which at times is stunning.
With no extras apart from the trailer, these films do not
appear an attractive purchase. Perhaps two films packaged
together as a single release might have been worth a tenner
of somebody's money.
According
to the conclusion of this film, "The World will hear again
from Fu Manchu." I feel another review coming on.
Ty
Power
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