THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU
UK, 1967, 91 minutes, Colour.
Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Horst Frank, Howard Marion- Crawford.
Directed by Jeremy Summer.
The Vengeance of Fu Manchu is one of a series of British films of the 1960s with Christopher Lee as the evil arch-criminal Fu Manchu. Manchu hides in an Asian secret place in order to become the most evil criminal in the world (shades of Ian Fleming, James Bond and Blofeld).
Christopher Lee enjoys himself as Fu Manchu. Douglas Wilmer, a Sherlock Holmes type, is Inspector Nayland Smith, who establishes Interpol and works for the tracking down of international criminals. Howard Marion- Crawford is Doctor Petrie, his Doctor Watson-like assistant.
The Fu Manchu series was satirised in The Face of Fu Manchu, one of the final films of Peter Sellers in the late 1970s.
The characters are based on Sax Rohmer and his comic-book stories of the arch-evil criminal.
1. The title? The focus on the comic character, Fu Manchu? Entertaining?
2. The comic strip, the international criminal, the background of the 30s when these comics were written? The conventions in villainy, international intrigue, power-hungry emperors from China, the British police and the combating of international criminals? How conventional was this material? How well used?
3. Colour photography, Chinese and British locations? Special effects? The musical score?
4. How important was the credibility or non-credibility of the plot? The influence of Fu Manchu, his surviving other attempts on his life and attempts at world power? The credibility of his Chinese court, his henchmen, his daughter and her powers? His cruelty? The presentation of the British as stiff upper lipped, ready to combat evil, no matter where? The credibility of the hypnotism of the Chinese criminal, his being changed into the personality of Nayland-Smith?, the murder and the execution of the so-called Nayland Smith? How well did these impossible ingredients interest audiences, entertain them?
5. How credible a villain was Fu Manchu, his Oriental style, his power and dominance, cruelty and enjoyment of cruelty, his arrangements with the American gangsters? The fact that he was to be defeated in the end? Did it matter if was a comic strip character? The portrayal of his daughter and her cruelty and power?
6. The character of Neyland Smith, his combatting of Fu Manchu, his assistant the doctor in the Dr. Watson role? His pursuit of the criminal, his role in the founding of Interpol? Was he a credible detective or a comic strip character? The contrast of the false Neyland Smith and his murder of Jasmin? His behaviour in the court and in prison?
7. Comment on the supporting characters: Jasmine, the American hero who intervened to save them at the end, the doctor and his daughter?
8. Memorable sequences of the confrontation between Fu Manchu and those whom he executed, with Nayland-Smith?, the build-up towards the explosive climax?
9. How interesting are these basic presentations in entertainment form, themes of good and evil, their clash, the superiority of right and the destruction of wrong?
