The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Don Sharp

Writers:

Sax Rohmer (novel)
Harry Alan Towers (writer)

Release Date:

24 October 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Obey Fu Manchu Or Every Living Thing Will Die!

Plot:

Grisly strangulations in London alert Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard to the possibility that fiendish Fu Manchu may not after all be dead...

Plot Keywords:

Scotland Yard | Fu Manchu | Strangulation | Super Villain | Independent Film

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Dr. Fu Manchu / Lee Tao
Nigel Green	...	Sir Nayland Smith
Joachim Fuchsberger	...	Karl Janssen
Karin Dor	...	Maria Muller Janssen
James Robertson Justice	...	Sir Charles / Direktor Fortescu
Howard Marion-Crawford	...	Dr. Petrie (as Howard Marion Crawford)
Tsai Chin	...	Lin Tang
Walter Rilla	...	Prof. Hans Muller / Prof. Hans Merten
Harry Brogan	...	Professor Gaskell
Poulet Tu	...	Lotus
Edwin Richfield	...	Chief Magistrate
Archie O'Sullivan	...	Chamberlain
Joe Lynch	...	Robinson, vault guard
Peter Mosbacher	...	Gustav Hanumon (as Peter Mossbacher)
Eric Young	...	The Grand Lama

Also Known As:

Ich, Dr. Fu Man Chu (West Germany)
The Mask of Fu Manchu

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK | West Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M (TV rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Company:

Constantin Film Produktion

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Near the end of the movie when Smith and Janssen rescue Prof. Muller and set up the bomb they capture Lin Tang, tie her up and gag her. Lin Tang is seen in the following making a great show of struggling against her bonds and even falling behind the bed, so that the guards did not find her when they looked into the room, so she couldn't alert them. So far the story, but looking at the way Lin Tang was tied up she would have been able to remove the gag every time she wanted to and cry out for help.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Grindhouse (2007)

Average

No intro. DVD review.

After getting "executed" Fu Manchu tries to kill everyone by using poison from a black poppy. A team of detectives and professors try to stop this fiendish plot.

It's certainly a shock seeing a street I had walked along just before watching this movie appear in the actual movie. It's Upper Merrion Street in Dublin and it's used in the scene where the woman in the wheelchair escapes in a taxi. Forty years later that street looks almost identical. The rest of the movie is silly with lots of badly directed fight scenes, stage costumes, middle-aged cast, some badly handled lighting, and a confusing plot. There's some good scenes: the best one being at the very start of the movie. Followed by sequels.

Face of Fu Manchu is worth a look for fans of Hammer.