"This is the destiny of Fu Manchu!" (Blood Of Fu Manchu / Castle Of Fu Manchu (DVD))

Member Name: hogsflesh

Product:	Blood Of Fu Manchu / Castle Of Fu Manchu (DVD)
Date:	30/06/08 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Occasionally so bad they're funny

Disadvantages: These are two of the worst films I've ever seen

A review of the Optimum Home Entertainment DVD, which costs £7 on amazon. It has decent picture quality and no extras.

Producer Harry Alan Towers made five Fu Manchu films during the 1960s. The first three were modestly respectable, although by the third they'd run out of steam. But rather than give up, the series soldiered on for an incredibly bad last two films, presented here for your enjoyment.

The main problem is the director: Jesus Franco, one of the worst exploitation directors ever to have lived. He made quite a few films for Towers, and the Fu Manchus are probably the closest he ever came to the mainstream. Fu Manchu, a Chinese master criminal, is played by Christopher Lee, a distinctly un-Chinese actor. His sadistic daughter is played by Tsai Chin. His arch-enemy, Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard, is played in these two films by Richard Greene; Nayland is assisted by the gruff Dr Petrie, played by Howard Marion Crawford.

In Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), Fu's sending poisoned women out to kiss world leaders, their kisses being fatal (he's a great one for stupidly elaborate plans). Nayland Smith is one of the kissees, and the race is on to find an antidote and foil Fu's scheme. Fu's holed up in a South American jungle and a rugged, gun-toting archaeologist is also hunting him down (a decade before Raiders of the Lost Ark!). There's also a fat, sweaty Latino bandit with the absurdly generic name 'Sancho Lopez' - he's presumably included in case the Chinese stereotyping wasn't offensive enough. Harry Alan Towers' not-overwhelmingly-talented wife appears as a nurse, and there's a bevy of Eurotrash totty to do the kissing.

Although it's not so different from the earlier Fu films in terms of plot and dialogue, it's instantly obvious that a very different aesthetic is at play here. While the early films were stolidly competent, this one catapults us straight into the world of European sleaze. Several of Franco's usual idiocies are present, including the overactive zoom lens; the camera that never stays still (and has trouble staying in focus); and the same sound effects being used over and over (there are precisely two gunshot noises used in every single fight scene). Although there's a lot of location work in Brazil, the film is very obviously much cheaper than its predecessors - the sets for Fu's lair would have disgraced Dr Who.

This film earns a 15 where the rest were PGs. There's a fair bit of nipplage on display, and the torture and bondage stuff is done with a bit more seriousness this time round (Franco's usual films are chock full of that kind of stuff). After the kid-friendly earlier films this is a bit of a leap. Even though it isn't terribly extreme by Franco's usual standards, the way it's made is so typical of grimy Eurosleaze that it feels more sordid than it actually is. The fact that the actors are all ineptly dubbed adds to this; that's a sure sign that we're in exploitation territory.

It's a thoroughly inept film with some deeply confusing editing towards the end (another Franco trademark). There some hilariously bad moments - Fu's map of the world is brilliantly poor, for instance. Africa isn't that shape at all! The actors you might have heard of are apathetic, as if wondering how they ended up in this. The rest are generally just bad.

The final Fu Manchu film was Castle of Fu Manchu (1969). This time he's found a way to turn the seas into ice and tries to hold the world to ransom. By this point, though, the film is so damn cheap it's impossible to take even Christopher Lee seriously (he's overacting a bit, perhaps to stave off boredom). It feels a lot like the characters in the film are just humouring Fu now, like he's some loveable old uncle who gets a bit drunk at Christmas and rants about how he wants to rule the world while everyone else plays Scrabble. The first three films might have had ludicrous plots, but at least the acting suggested a certain urgency; in these last two films it's obvious that nothing is at stake.

This film at least has the virtue of being amusing in places (although it's much too long). More of Franco's trademarks are in evidence, including a cameo by the director; excessive use of bongos on the soundtrack; appallingly framed shots which often partly obscure the actors; and interminable shots of ships sailing across harbours. The series' notional Edwardian setting has been abandoned, as modern cars and fashions are very much in evidence. There's actually some quite nice lighting in Fu's cheap dungeon, but that really is the only plus point.

It makes incredible use of stock footage. The first five minutes contains nothing new at all, merely re-showing the last few minutes of Brides of Fu Manchu with some slightly different dialogue dubbed over it. When Fu sinks a ship to demonstrate his power, what we get - astonishingly - is footage from the old British Titanic film A Night To Remember, but tinted blue to try to disguise that it's black and white. And there's plenty more stock footage - anything that looks even remotely expensive has obviously been sourced elsewhere. Particularly amusing is the way that the exterior of 'Scotland Yard' is stock footage of the British Museum.

The film is full of interminable sequences that serve to pad it out to 90 minutes. We have to watch test tubes bubbling for about three minutes, and there's an incredibly slow and uneventful operation scene. The editing is all over the place again, reaching almost surreal heights of incompetence towards the end. Cause and effect are seemingly abandoned altogether, and character motivation is non-existent. At least Fu does have a castle, though, so the title makes more sense that 'Blood of Fu Manchu', in which we definitely didn't see any of his blood.

There was meant to be another Fu Manchu film (Lee was contracted for six), but these did badly enough to ensure that Towers pulled the plug on the series. Why Franco was allowed anywhere near these films is a mystery, but then that's the case for every film of his that I've ever seen (and I've seen quite a few given how un-fond I am of him. He's like an itch I can't stop scratching). It's most unlikely that you'll want to see these. If you're a Franco fan or a Christopher Lee completist they may be worth a look; but you'll be disappointed.

Summary: A really terrible end to the Fu Manchu series