The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968)

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Sax Rohmer (novels)
Harry Alan Towers (story)

Release Date:

24 September 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Programmed to kill!

Plot:

Fu Manchu inoculates ten women with poison, to kill ten world leaders. |

Plot Keywords:

Poison | Fu Manchu | Death | Blind Man | Assassin

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Fu Manchu
Richard Greene	...	Nayland Smith
Howard Marion-Crawford	...	Dr. Petrie (as Howard Marion Crawford)
Götz George	...	Carl Jansen
Maria Rohm	...	Ursula Wagner
Ricardo Palacios	...	Sancho Lopez
Loni von Friedl	...	Celeste
Frances Khan	...	Carmen
Tsai Chin	...	Lin Tang
Isaura de Oliveira	...	Yuma
Shirley Eaton	...	Black Widow

Also Known As:

Against All Odds (USA) (video title)
Der Todeskuß des Dr. Fu Manchu (West Germany)
Fu Manchu and the Keys of Death
Fu Manchu and the Kiss of Death
Fu Manchu's Kiss of Death (International: English title) (literal title)
Fu-Manchú y el beso de la muerte (Spain)
Kiss and Kill (USA)
Kiss of Death (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

92 min | Germany:82 min | USA:94 min (DVD)

Country:

Spain | West Germany | UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15 (uncut version, re-rating) | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (cut) | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:18 | USA:Unrated (DVD uncut version)

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Ada Films

Trivia:

'Richard Greene' replaced Douglas Wilmer.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Fantastic Fantasy Fright-o-Rama Show Vol. 1 (1996) (V)

Not a very good film...

The evil Fu Manchu continues his endless quest for world domination but first; he has developed a plan to eliminate his arch-enemies (of which Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith is top priority). So our oriental master-criminal has kidnapped 10 of the most beautiful women on the planet and stuffed their bodies with the world's deadliest poison. Their orders are to seduce the enemies and kill them with "the kiss of death". His fiendish plan almost succeeds but Smith survives the assault and goes after Fu Manchu, who shelters in the jungles of South America. The premise of this sequel sounds promising enough but, don't be fooled, it's a terribly boring and unexciting film. There are so many things wrong with this production I don't even properly know where to start. For starters, the screenplay introduces way too many characters and actually none of them are worth mentioning. There's no tension and there's a total lack of gore and sleaze, as well (considering Jess Franco signed for the direction, I was at least hoping for this). There are a lot of battle sequences but they're painfully tame and tedious. Franco makes no use of the great jungle-location at all and the editing is lousy. Judging by his emotionless performance, Christopher Lee wasn't interesting in repeating the Fu Manchu role for the fourth time at all. Jess Franco also directs on automatic pilot, meaning without the slightest bit of passion or motivation. For him this was just another easy-money job in between some euro-trash cinema highlights like "99 Women" and "Marquis de Sade: Justine". The absolute best Fu Manchu film remains the 1932 "Mask of Fu Manchu" (starring Boris Karloff), although Don Sharp's efforts "the Face of…." and "The Brides of …" are pretty good as well. There's absolutely nothing to recommend about this one, so avoid unless you're a perfectionist...or really REALLY bored.