Drums of Fu Manchu
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Movie Reviews of Drums of Fu Manchu
Movie Review: Dacoits galore
Summary: 5 Stars
Fu Manchu is perhaps the best of the Yellow Peril villains in all literature. Sax Rohmer's series of novels about Fu are quite literate and exciting, if somewhat dismaying in their portrayal of Orientals as evil. But that was the style of the time, from about the start of the 20th century to 1950.
And this serial, while it does not follow any particular Rohmer novel, is true to the books in almost every detail. Nearly all the Rohmer novels were set in London, but this serial is set in California and then in some vague Asian country. Fu is there in all his glory. As I recall, Rohmer described him as tall, thin, with that famous mustache and long fingernails. The movie left out only the fingernails--but no matter.
Fu Manchu had an endless supply of dacoits. By definition, dacoits are Burmese soldiers, but in the serial they are bald Orientals (rather, Caucasians made up to be vaguely Oriental) and apparently are lobotomized. They all have scars on their heads that would seem to indicate the surgeon's work. In any event, dacoits do Fu Manchu's bidding without question, often attacking Sir Nayland and his friends without much success. The lobotomies must have taken a lot out of their fighting and stabbing abilities.
Fu Manchu has plenty of devious tricks to kill his foes, but none of the tricks work very well. His office in California has a trap door in front of Fu Manchu's desk, and below it is a basement full of water, with a giant octopus swimming around down there. He has another room equipped with a razor sharp pendulum, right out of Poe's wicked tale. This is but a sampling of the tricks. The octopus gets shot and killed, by the way, and we never know who had to dispose of the carcase or how.
The main plot is rather simple. If Fu Manchu can locate the tomb of Ghengis Khan, he can get a sceptre that will allow him to rule all of Asia. Exactly how this would come to be is never fully explained--or I missed it. Nayland Smith et al. must stop him. The acting is about what you should expect from a serial with that plot. There are some great chases in old cars and lots of narrow escapes. But it is the nostalgia that makes this work, and it does work, especially if the viewer is a fan of the Sax Rhomer novels. Read those first and the serial will mean more. But look out for the tumbling dacoits. A good many get killed, but they keep coming and coming.
Movie Review: One of the best old serials of all time -- details follow
Summary: 5 Stars
Fu Manchu (played by Henry Brandon), of course, wishes to take over the world, (well, at least Asia), like all mad dictators. To pull this off, he must acquire the fabled scepter of Genghis Kahn, which is in a secret tomb. He is aided in his evil quest by his sinister daughter, Fah Lo Suee, played by Gloria Franklin. Manchu also has a pack of fanged minions on board called "Dacoits," lobotomized zombies of a sort who mindlessly obey Fu Manchu's every command.
The nefarious Fu Manchu is opposed by Sir Nayland Smith (William Royle) and Allen Parker (Robert Kellard). The never-ending action runs the face of the planet from the United States to Asia. The actual filming location was the Ray Corrigan Ranch at Simi Valley, California. All the sets and locations in this serial work are nostalgically terrific.
Republic studios put together a fine black-and-white serial here in 15 chapters. It was filmed in 1940 and runs a total of 269 minutes, presented on 2 nicely-packaged discs. The quality of the print is very good.
You can garner quite a lot from the title of each segment -- here they are:
1. Fu Manchu Strikes
2. The Monster
3. Ransom in the Sky
4. The Pendulum of Doom
5. The House of Terror
6. Death Dials a Number
7. Vengeance of the Si Fan
8. Danger Trail
9. The Crystal of Death
10. Drums of Doom
11. The Tomb of Genghis Kahn
12. Fire of Vengeance
13. The Devil's Tatoo
14. Satan's Surgeon
15. Revolt
There is also a menu pull-up photo gallery with cast biographies as well as a commentary by Richard Valley.
This series never lacks for action, mostly due to its serial format. These episodes were shown along with feature films in theaters back in the 40s to get patrons to return to see what would happen next, ergo, the term "Cliffhanger". "The Drums of Fu Manchu" was directed by William Witney and John English. The film is based upon stories by Sax Rohmer.
Highly recommended for fans of older black-and-white action-adventures!
Movie Review: A FU-TASTIC SERIAL!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have two words to all potential buyers of this DVD: BUY IT! It is fantastic! This is probably one of the best movie serials ever made! Fifteen exciting chapters of trains wrecks, chases, car crashes, fights, fights and more fights, featuring one of the best villians in all of fiction, Dr. Fu Manchu. Brillantly played by Henry Brandon, whom most sf/ fantasy fans may know from John Carpenter's "ASSAULT ON PRECEINT 13". He is perhaps the best Fu in movie history, even better than Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee! He is that good, I kid you not! The serial is not based on the Sax Rohmer novel of the same name, but uses some of the plot of an earlier Fu novel and the Karloff film "THE MASK OF FU MANCHU". Normally this would make me an unhappy camper, but this serial is such a joy to watch and is so exciting, that I can forgive the producers for ignoring Rohmer's great book ("DRUMS" is one of my favorite Fu novels). All of the cast is pretty good. I liked Gloria Franklin as Fu's daughter Fah Loo Suee although she mysteriously disappears from the proceedings after about 12 chapters. And fans of Universal horror films will be happy to see the familiar face of the fly-eating maniac Renfield from the Lugosi Dracula, Dwight Frye in a small role in the 5th chapter. And wait until you see Loki, the lead Dacoit, one of "Fu Manchu's men-of-murder". He's a hoot! The picture and sound on the DVD are very nice and the extra's give a nice history of both Fu Manchu and the serial. There is a nice booklet included with the "HISTORY OF FU MANCHU" by Eric Hoffman and a photo gallery on the dvd and star and director bios and filmographies. Let me close by saying: this is one great DVD. BUY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT!!! - George Bauch.Movie Review: What a classic
Summary: 5 Stars
What a great movie.With one of the best villians of the 20th Century you can't go wrong.This movie is a pleasure to watch.The plot is remarkable.Controlling people using lobotimies and the implementation of the infernal "drum".Wow they had great ideas back then that won't be out of place today.The way they compelled you to watch the next chapter was brilliant.You know he will survive but wonder how does he escape.I tell you this movie deserved at least 3 oscars.The picture is perfect but the sound is average(when you are used to 5.1 surround then tell me again).How they got the picture like that I don't know.If you are a serial-movie fan or a classic movie collector even a film student.Buy this!!In a nutshell this movie lived up and exceeded the hype it generated and quite frankly this film is a masterpiece.One of the best movies of the 20th Century.Movie Review: The Yellow Peril In Serial Style
Summary: 4 Stars
Sax Rohmer (1883-1859) was among the most popular novelists of the early 20th Century. He was particularly well known for his creation of the character Fu Manchu--a truly diabolical Chinese scientist who, along with his equally evil daughter Fa Lo See, sought world domination through the most vicious means possible. In the process, Rohmer virtually created the idea of "the yellow peril" in the American and European mind, and his distinctly racist characterizations would color Western concepts of the far East for half a century.
Rohmer's Fu Manchu has reached the screen on several occasions, perhaps most notably in an unexpectedly sadistic 1932 THE MASK OF FU MANCHU, starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy. The 1940 serial was directed by Republic Studio's reliable team of John English and William Witney, and at the time it was felt to propel the genre to a new height; in hindsight, however, it seems fairly obvious that English and Witney's SPY SMASHER and THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL are really the high water mark of Republic serials. Whatever the case, the directing team does indeed give this tale considerable style and drive.
The story is very linear: Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon) is aided by lethal daughter Fah-Lo-Suee (Gloria Franklin) and a host of mind-controlled henchmen in an effort to secure the scepter of Ghengis Kahn--and thereby fulfill an ancient prophecy that will cause all of Asia to rise up under his leadership and get rid of those wretched Anglo-Saxon types for once and all. Needless to say, the Anglo-Saxons, both English and American, take an extremely dim view of the whole thing and set out to thwart his evil designs.
The serial starts out extremely well, with a host of imaginative visuals bolstered by a host of equally imaginative tortures. Unfortunately, Henry Brandon's Fu Manchu proves considerably more interesting than any of the good guys who oppose him, and in consequence the whole thing looses steam long about the fifth chapter and doesn't really regain it until the final third. But Brandon's memorable performance, the often remarkable visual designs, and the impressive fight choreography does make it entertaining throughout--even if you do wind up rooting for Fu Manchu instead of Sir Dennis Naylund Smith (William Royle) and his incredibly tiresome friend Allan Parker (Robert Kellard), who are supposed to be the heroes of the piece.
The whole thing, of course, is just as racist as it can be, and the final chapter is appallingly so. But even though it may cause you to roll your eyes it remains a fun sort of thing for hardcore serial fans, who will likely enjoy it quite a bit. As for the DVD--the film has been remastered, but the picture is rather fuzzy and the sound occasionally muddy as well. The package contains a brief but entertaining and enlightening documentary (described as a commentary) by Richard Valley and a handful of cast biographies for good measure.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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