DVD The Castle of Fu Manchu

Jesus 'Jess' Franco, Master of the Unnecessary Close Up, not to mention also being the Master of the Useless Zoom In/Zoom Out, and Master of the Pointless Pan Shot, directed this mess of a movie. Christopher Lee reprises his role from the early Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), along with Richard Greene as Denis Nayland-Smith, Howard Marion Crawford as Dr. Petrie, and Tsai Chin as Fu Manchu's daughter, Lin Tang. As sequels go, this one certainly follows the pattern of sequels, not being as good as the original, but given that the first movie wasn't really all that great, the fact that this one was so much worse really surprised me.

Fu Manchu is back and has some kind of process where he can create ice in water...am I blowing your mind? Wait...he demonstrates this early on by creating an iceberg (?!) and sinking a Caribbean ocean liner. The process involves complicated machinery and magic crystals, Pop Rocks, I think...anyway, he kidnaps the scientist who originally developed the process, but the man has a really bad heart, so Fu Manchu also kidnaps a heart specialist to do a transplant. I am not sure why he needed the scientist with the bad heart, the one who created the water freezing process, as Fu Manchu already demonstrated that he had the power to manipulate water, but maybe his process wasn't quite as refined as he would have liked...who knows? The whole movie is filled with moronic plot points like this. Oh yeah, he also takes over a castle in Istanbul, with the aid of a local opium drug lord, who Fu Manchu then betrays because he's so evil. Also, within this very prominent castle resides a high ranking government official, who is quickly dispatched, but no one seems to notice...like ever...oh well...maybe he wasn't very popular to begin with...

Nayland Smith is assigned to the case, with Dr. Petrie tagging along, and the chase is on...sort of...thing is, there were just so many characters in this film, and too many pointless plot threads flailing about, smacking the viewer in the face. Combined with an extremely weak plot, pointless dialogue, and amateurish directing, this film became very hard to watch very quickly.

Things that annoyed me throughout the film...Fu Manchu's seemingly inexhaustible supply of disposable henchmen. And where did he get these cut-rate knuckleheads? They obviously couldn't fight, so at least they could have been supplied with firearms...what was with the goofy mood lighting beneath the castle, in the caves? Red, purple and blue lighting? Ugh...it looked like a bad disco...I half expected to see one of those black light posters on the wall at some point. The constant zooming in on character's faces, as though to try and create a sense of suspense...and the camera's tendency to linger on non-relevant scenes for so very long...so much padding...the scenes shot on location looked decent, but they only served to exemplify how cheap and awful the scenes shot on sets were, especially the scenes in the bowels of the castle. There was potential here do to something decent, given the talent of the actors involved, but it was all wasted.

I did like the costumes, and Christopher Lee looked suitably fiendish in his full-length robes. Some of the locations were nice to look at, but other than those elements, I couldn't find much else to enjoy in this film.

Blue Underground dose an exceptional job with releasing this shoddy film, providing a number of great special features. There are interviews with the actors and the film makers, a couple of detailed biographies, a nice wide screen picture, facts about the character Fu Manchu and his creator, Sax Rohmer, a poster and still gallery, and even a sweet little reproduction of an original movie poster inside the case.

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Chris Lee is great as the devil doctor but the story, such as it is, is incredibly stupid. Fu, of course, wants to rule the world and to this end he plots to turn all the world's water to ice. Okay. It is up to the intrepid Nayland Smith (Richard Greene) of Scotland Yard to save the day with the help of his Watson-like sidekick Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford).

The print of the film looks great and the sound is crystal clear. The film is in anamorphic widescreen and a joy to look at.

It has always been a source of disappointment to me that these films weren't better than they are. Much of the fault must be laid squarely on the producer, Mr. Towers, who wrote all the screenplays under the name of Peter Welbeck. Why he wrote his own stories instead of basing the movies on Sax Rohmer's original novels is a mystery to me. Many of the original novels are quite good with interesting plots and characters. Even the character of Fu Manchu is more complex in the books. For instance, in "PRESIDENT FU MANCHU", Fu (remember he is a doctor), performs an operation on a young boy to save his life. You never see Lee doing anything like that in these films (or Karloff in "MASK OF FU MANCHU", or any of the other screen Fu's). Also, although Fu wants to rule the world in the books, he longs for a peaceful world without war, disease, or poverty. In the 3rd Lee/ Fu film, "VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU", one character says, "We know of your desire to rule the world, a world of crime". Rule a world of crime? That isn't what Fu wants. Didn't Mr. Towers ever read even one of the novels? What a pity! With Lee as Fu and the wonderful Tsai Chin as his daughter, this could have been a great series. As it is, this is a very mediocre series of films with only Lee and Chin to make them mildly interesting.

Having said that, this is sort of a fun film to watch and an improvement over the previous entry, "BLOOD OF FU MANCHU" (also available from Blue Underground). You even get to see director Jess Franco in a small role as a police inspector.

The DVD extras are great. A 13 minute feature with commments from Lee and Chin, director Jess Franco and Mr. Towers. I must address one thing Mr. Towers says about Franco. He blames Franco for the poor quality of these last 2 films saying he "killed off Fu Manchu". I think that is an unfair statement. Franco isn't the greatest director in the world but the poor quality of these films isn't his fault alone. Mr. Towers must take some of the blame for his really lame screenplays. Even Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick at the height of their creativity couldn't have breathed life into Mr. Towers lame scripts!

Also included are trailers, poster and photo galleries, some wonderful liner notes by "VIDEO WATCHDOGS" editor, Tim Lucas, info on Sax Rohmer and a bibliography of Fu novels (read some, they are good), and bios of Lee and Franco.

Overall, a nice disc for Lee and/or Franco fans, or anyone who loves that mysterious oriental super-genius, Fu Manchu. -George Bauch

Badly directed, written, acted, photographed, recorded - heck, I'm willing to bet that even the catering was bad on this one - it's a real ordeal even for the most devoted Fu Manchu fan. If you thought the series couldn't get worse after the astonishing use of black and white stock footage from 'A Night to Remember' in its immediate predecessor 'The Blood of Fu Manchu/Kiss and Kill' (and just to remind you, it's repeated as a pre-title sequence here to pad out the running time), you ain't seen nothin' yet. And not seeing it is probably the best thing to do by far.

But, for Fu Fanatics, the disc is still a must buy, if only for the extras and the presentation. The second of the two-part documentary descends into Jess Franco telling Christopher Lee stories about other films, but the rest of the package is well put together and Blue Underground's transfer is the best the film has probably ever looked (not much of a compliment, it's true). Now, if only they could get their hands on the first three films...