Written by: Sax Rohmer (characters), Harry Alan Towers (screenplay)
Directed by: Don Sharp
Starring: Christopher Lee, Nigel Green and Joachim Fuchsberger
Reviewed by: Brett Gallman
Obey Fu Manchu Or Every Living Thing Will Die!
Christopher Lee had no qualms about stepping into big, iconic shoes during his career. He most famously donned Dracula’s cape and became Frankenstein’s monster two decades after Lugosi and Karloff gave definitive performances in each role. However, he also stepped into the role of Fu Manchu about 25 years after Karloff portrayed the nefarious villain, who had already appeared in dozens of serials and a few films by the time MGM got around to him in 1932. Indeed, Fu Manchu was early cinema’s most notorious fiend, but he was in need of a serious revival in 1965, when the Brits brought him back when one of their most famous faces provided The Face of Fu Manchu.
Ironically enough, they seemingly couldn’t wait to kill him either; if you thought it was ballsy when Jason Goes to Hell blew Jason up within its opening ten minutes, you’ll get a kick out of how this film similarly offs Fu Manchu as soon as he appears. Some context: at the beginning of the film, the title character’s been captured, tried, and is set for execution, much to the delight of Nayland Smith (Nigel Green), the Scotland Yard investigator who finally busted him. When Fu Manchu’s head is lopped off by the executioner, the “world’s most evil man” is extinguished; however, Smith refuses to rest easily, as it quickly becomes obvious that Fu Manchu somehow cheated death and is cooking up another scheme involving a deadly poison derived from a rare Tibetan flower.
I’m guessing some people might fuss about this one being classified as a horror movie, and maybe they’re right; really, The Face of Fu Manchu is more of a crime drama and perhaps owes a bit to Sherlock Holmes. The film largely revolves around Smith and Fu Manchu’s attempts to outwit each other, and the two continually trade figurative blows. It's kind of a talky movie whenever the characters need to untangle the plot, which quite frankly isn’t that complicated to viewers--for example, it takes forever for Smith and associates to figure out that the River Thames is a crucial part of Fu Manchu’s scheme, something that’s known to the audience rather early. Still, Don Sharp (a studio pro by that point), manages a crackling, two-fisted adventure that’s full of pulp elements and action set pieces befitting the old serial tradition. Silly disguises, signature strangulations, and over-the-top methods of dispatch abound in this globe-hopping yarn that rightfully doesn’t get too spirited or adventurous.
In fact, there’s an underlying severity that grounds The Face of Fu Manchu just enough to take it seriously. Tonally, it’s right in line with British films of the age since it treats pulp with a certain reverence; it’s perhaps a little slight but proceeds with a seriousness that makes it worthwhile as a straightforward detective story. There’s a true menace at the heart of the film, and some moments are horrifying; a sequence where Fu Manchu reveals that he isn’t fucking around certainly must have tapped into Atomic Age paranoia as an entire English village is laid to waste by the evil mastermind’s chemical agent. The eerie, desolate scene of a ghost town littered with corpses taps into era’s pod movie vibe--it’s somewhere between The Earth Dies Screaming and The Village of the Damned. Though it’s only one sequence in the film, it’s rather remarkable, and the film is full of creepy flourishes like that.
Most of them derive from Fu Manchu himself, of course; Lee’s portrayal is indicative of how the film carries itself. Sure, it’s a little silly that Chris Lee is playing an Asian (with the assistance of obvious prosthetics), but the actor is well acquitted to the role and brings his trademark coolness to it. Lee’s also not just playing Dracula in a different get-up either; whereas his count is often a predatory, almost feral force of nature, driven by sex and bloodlust, his Fu Manchu is knowingly sinister. He’s the type of guy who will hijack radio airwaves just so everyone knows what he’s up to, and, again, this guy’s idea of a warning shot involves wiping out an entire city. It’s not all that surprising that Lee would go on to be a Bond villain because his Fu Manchu is right out of that mold: megalomaniacal, calculating, and a little too pleased with himself at times. Green makes for a good foil as the square-jawed, unrelenting Smith, and I have to wonder if Sharp wasn’t attempting to recreate a bit of a Dracula/Van Helsing dynamic between the two characters. Surrounding them is an adequate cast--a local man (Joachim Fuchsberger) assists Smith after his lover’s (Karin Dor) father is kidnapped by Fu Manchu, which is about as grandly old-fashioned as it gets in the serial tradition.
The Face of Fu Manchu hits few false notes, and it’s dialed into the right wavelength from the start. After all, it’s a film that begins with its main antagonist getting his head lopped off, and the ride only gets more twisty and thrilling from there. I enjoyed how this film managed to reconfigure the high adventure and exoticism of The Mask of Fu Manchu into something a little more grounded; while that one might be much more of a straight horror film (mostly due to the pervasive Pre-Code nastiness and dread atmosphere), The Face of Fu Manchu is colorful but mostly bound in a dramatic milieu that still has room for hypnotism, killer flowers, underground lairs, and torture. Also gone is the unseemly Yellow Peril that dates the Karloff outing (and I rarely throw out “dated” as a criticism, but consider that Karloff gives an impassioned speech about killing the white man in Mask); in fact, the phrase “Yellow Peril” is even uttered and shrugged off early on in Face.
This was the first of five Fu Manchu films for Lee; Sharp would return for Brides of Fu Manchu before bowing out, and the reigns were eventually taken up by none other than Jess Franco. Despite its rather noteworthy place in several canons, The Face of Fu Manchu is the last one to make it to home video. Just as it finally brought The Vengeance of Fu Manchu home last month, Warner Archive has done the same for Face; it’s another bare bones effort, but the transfer is rather solid. The film elements appear to be a little beat up in places, but it’s otherwise vibrant and artifact free. Ernest Steward’s lovely cinematography is done justice here, and fans who have eagerly awaited this film to finally come to DVD should be satisfied with the presentation. Personally, this release has given me an excuse to finally dig into this series since The Face of Fu Manchu is a rock solid opener and, in true serial form, ends with the hint of more to come. Buy it!
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