The first installment in the 60s saga about the diabolical Dr. Fu Manchu starring Christopher Lee. (The pre-60s installments
starred Warner Orland, Boris Karloff and Henry Brandon).
The talented Christopher Lee only occasionally involved himself in a long running character in his movie roles and of course his brilliant portrayal of Dracula in a series of films for Hammer Studios has gone into movie folklore. Another character that he portrayed in a series of films and made his own was the evil oriental mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu.
Made famous in the 30's by Boris Karloff and by a long running series in the 40's here Christopher Lee puts his own original stamp on the evil doctor who was always bent on taking over the world by some fiendish method involving torture, deadly weapons and mind games. "The Face Of Fu Manchu" was the first of the films in this new series and was by far the best. It not only offers a wonderfully sinister character for Lee to sink his teeth into (no pun intended) but offers a lavish production with wonderfully recreated 1920's atmosphere (the movie was filmed in Dublin), excellent costumes and a fine supporting cast of veteran performers like Nigel Green in the role of Sir Nayland Smith from Scotland Yard who would be Fu Manchu's main nemesis in many an adventure in the future. Equally effective is asian actress Tsai Chin who portrays Lin Tang, Fu Manchu's evil daughter and one of his main cohorts in his evil schemes.
The plot of "The Face Of Fu Manchu" is a straightforward one whereby London experiences a series of grisly deaths and then the kidnapping of famed scientist Prof. Fuchsberger who has discovered a lethal product that if used by those in the know is capable of wiping out huge numbers of people in a short time. It is up to Nayland Smith to try and find the source of these murders and also find the missing scientist before he reveals the secret formula to the evil Fu Manchu who faked his own death in order to throw Scotland Yard off his scent.What develops is a terrific adventure drama involving Fu Manchu wiping out a whole English Village as a "demonstration" of his power, drowning a female traitor for trying to warm Scotland Yard of his insane scheme and the final closing in on the evil doctor in a monastery in Tibet where he finally meets his much deserved end in an explosion, .......or does he? . I wont go into the tired argument about it being racist for caucasian actors to play asian characters. Christopher Lee brings an excellent majestic quality to the role of Fu Manchu which could not be bettered with its equal portions of intelligence, wordly polish and insanity. He repeated the role in 4 more entries in the series but this film was the one that is most memorable and stylish in its delivery.
I personally love the stories of the mad doctor Fu Manchu bent on taking over the world by foul means and for an exciting and atmospheric adventure story not based in any reality that we would know they can't be beaten. Being a big Christopher Lee fan it is always a pleasure to see him in his other famous role after Dracula and "The Face Of Fu Manchu' is an ideal vechicle to see his great talent for creating evil characters on screen.
The bad sides of this film are its sometimes pretty dull and monotonous action scenes which drag out too long to finish. So, 'Face of Fu Manchu' certainly can't be compared to the beautiful 60s James Bond movies, but it's still fairly watchable.