The Blood of Fu Manchu
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Movie Reviews of The Blood of Fu Manchu
Movie Review: Not quite the pit of despair, but close...
Summary: 2 Stars
The entry of Jess Franco to Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu series signalled the beginning of the end. Fast, cheap and amazingly bad, Franco is one of the few directors who could make Michael Winner look like Stanley Kubrick by comparison. After all, it takes denial on an Olympian scale to have David De Keyser dub three separate characters IN THE SAME SCENE or to include black and white stock footage from 'A Night to Remember' in a colour film (in The Castle of Fu Manchu) and think that if you tint it blue no-one will notice...
'The Blood of Fu Manchu' is marginally the better of his two Fus, but its still a major step down for the Christopher Lee series. Fully restored, but really no better for it, the presentation is enough reason for disappointed Fu Fans to consider adding it to their collection. The print is the best you're likely to see (the film is marginally better shot than most of Franco's efforts) and the extras package is more entertaining than the film (although the same can be said of mending a faulty waste-disposal). The first of a two-part documentary gives a brief background to the series with some candid observations from Tsai Chin and Shirley Eaton, as well as a somewhat more relaxed than usual Christopher Lee, countering Franco's unwarranted enthusiasm; one of the two trailers actually makes the film look good (quite an achievement); and the notes on the Fu Manchu novels are enlightening.
If only we could get this kind of presentation on the highly enjoyable initial entry 'The Face of Fu Manchu' or its two immediate sequels 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' and 'The Vengeance of Fu Manchu' - they may not be masterpieces, but they're a lot more fun than this FuBar film.
Incidentally, this print credits Peter Welbeck - Towers' regular pseudonym - as writer, but the film was actually written by Manfred Barthel and Jaime Jesus Blacazar.
Movie Review: Too colorful
Summary: 2 Stars
I've been a fan of the Fu Manchu tales for years and have read every one of them. They are dark tales, most often set in London a few years either side of 1920. While Fu Manchu is a yellow peril villain, he never goes back on his word, and while he is thwarted, he is never quite destroyed.
This film just doesn't capture the flavor, the tone of Fu Manchu or his milieu. It was cheaper to move the venue to the jungle in lush colors. The dacoits no longer are zombie-like. Instead, they are just men dressed in red and black outfits. The producers threw in a little nudity, some very explicit violence for those who need that, and the end product doesn't measure up to the original writer's work. Not even close. I suppose if one has never read any of the books, this might work as an average thriller, but I hoped for the dark, foggy streets of London's east end along the Thames. And Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie with their tweeds and aromatic pipes planning the next foray into Fu's lair.
The story here is a mixed up mess, with banditos consorting with dacoits, with Sir Nayland laid up for most of the action, and lots of pretty ladies for decoration. Then, the movie just sor of--ends. Alas, poor Fu Manchu, that you have come down to this.
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