Sax Rohmer's The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) The Castle of Fu Manchu (original title)

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Jaime Jesús Balcázar (dialogue: Spanish version)
Manfred Barthel (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

1972 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

He's Back!!! The World's Most Evil Man with a Fiendish Plan of Conquest

Plot:

An evil Chinese mastermind plots to freeze the Earth's oceans.

Plot Keywords:

Interpol | Fu Manchu | Chinese | Beautiful Woman | Actual Animal Killed

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Fu Manchu
Richard Greene	...	Nayland Smith
Howard Marion-Crawford	...	Doctor Petrie (as Howard Marion Crawford)
Günther Stoll	...	Curt (as Gunther Stoll)
Rosalba Neri	...	Lisa
Maria Perschy	...	Marie
José Manuel Martín	...	Omar Pashu (as Jose Manuel Martin)
Werner Abrolat	...	Melnik (as Werner Aprelat)
Tsai Chin	...	Lin Tang
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jesus Franco	...	Inspector Ahmet (uncredited)
Osvaldo Genazzani	...	Sir Robert (uncredited)
Burt Kwouk	...	Feno (uncredited)
Gustavo Re	...	Professor Heracles (uncredited)
Gene Reyes	...	Ahmet's Aide (uncredited)

Directed by
Jesus Franco		(as Jess Franco)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jaime Jesús Balcázar		dialogue: Spanish version
Manfred Barthel		screenplay
Manfred Barthel		story
Michael Haller		uncredited in English version
Sax Rohmer		characters
Harry Alan Towers		screenplay (uncredited in Spanish version) (as Peter Welbeck)

Produced by
Harry Alan Towers	....	producer
Jaime Jesús Balcázar	....	producer (uncredited in English version)

Original Music by
Charles Camilleri
Malcomb Shelby

Cinematography by
Manuel Merino

Film Editing by
John Colville

Production Design by
Santiago Ontañón		(as Santiago Ontanon)

Costume Design by
Berenice Sparano

Makeup Department
Ascensión Hernández	....	assistant makeup artist
Adrián Jaramillo	....	key makeup artist
Peter Jonas	....	assistant makeup artist
Vicenta Salvadó	....	hair stylist (as Vicenta Salvador)

Production Management
Juan Estelrich	....	production manager (as Juan Estelriech)
Remo Odevaine	....	production leader

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Federico Canudas	....	assistant director
Ricardo Franco	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Adrian McDonald	....	dubbing editor
Tommy Myers	....	dubbing mixer
Hermann Storr	....	sound editor

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Helga Lange	....	assistant wardrobe
María Luisa Soriano	....	wardrobe (as Maruja Soriano)

Editorial Department
María Luisa Soriano	....	supervising editor

Music Department
Charles Camilleri	....	conductor

Other crew
Herminia Arnau	....	script supervisor
Bruno Leder	....	production assistant
Lamberto Palmieri	....	production assistant
Ginés Rodríguez	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas
• International Cinema
• Italian International Film (co-production)
• Terra-Filmkunst (co-production)
• Tilma Films
• Towers of London (associate production)

Distributors

• International Cinema Corp. (1972) (USA) (theatrical)
• Anglo-EMI Film Distributors (1972) (UK) (theatrical)
• MGM-EMI (1972) (UK) (theatrical)
• Maron Films (1973) (USA) (theatrical)
• Constantin Film (1969) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• International Film Distributors (1975) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Electric Video (EVI) (1981) (USA) (VHS)
• Sinister Cinema (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• Blue Underground (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Stomp Visual (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• American Videotape (video)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2009) (Germany) (DVD)
• Mahier (Spain)
• Moore Video (video)
• Peter Rodgers Organization (1969) (worldwide) (all media)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2009) (Australia) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"The Castle of Fu Manchu" - West Germany (original title)

Runtime:

Germany:85 min | Spain:92 min | USA:92 min | USA:92 min (DVD version)

Country:

West Germany | Italy | Spain | UK | Liechtenstein

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG | Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Canada:G (Quebec) | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | Australia:M | USA:PG | West Germany:12 (nf)

Filming Locations:

Estudios Cinematográficos Balcázar, Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas

Trivia:

The dam bursting scene is footage taken from the Dirk Bogarde film Campbell's Kingdom (1957). Bogarde is in the green checked shirt and Stanley Baker in the red shirt, both are recognizable in this footage.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Despite being set in the 1920s, a 1960s-style car can be seen on the harbor in Istanbul during the sequence where Lin Tang is having her secret meeting on the ferry.

Quotes:

Fu Manchu:[immediately after surviving Omar Pascha's attempt on his life] Take him to the laboratory.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Spoony Experiment: Spoony Snob: Revenge in the House of Usher (#4.6)" (2011)

The Fifth and Final of the Series

Castle of FuManchu, The (1968)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The fifth and final film in Christopher Lee's FuManchu series is considered by many to be the worst but I personally found it so bad that I was able to have a little fun with it. The film has FuManchu (Lee) once again trying to take over the world and by now you might be asking when the guy is just going to give up and go home. Anyway, this time he plans on freezing all the oceans in the world so he kidnaps a doctor to perform an operation on the one man who knows how to do such a thing. THE CASTLE OF FUMANCHU isn't a good movie so you shouldn't go into the film expecting anything other that pure silliness. There's no question this is a bad movie but thankfully it's bad enough to be mildly entertaining but I'm sure most people will be smart enough to hit the eject button by the thirty-minute mark. Once again Lee appears to have only enough energy to cash a paycheck as he's obviously not too thrilled about doing this picture. As in the previous film, Lee pretty much just sleepwalks through the film and offers up very little energy. The supporting cast includes Gunther Stoll playing the doctor, Jose Manuel Martin as an opium dealer and cult favorite Rosalba Neri playing an assassin. These supporting players are certainly one of the few good things in the film. The film has a bigger budget than most Franco pictures but that's not saying too much because we still get all sorts of cheapness including some stock footage from the Titanic picture A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, which certainly doesn't mix well with any of the new footage. The film does have some decent cinematography but there's just not enough here to make it worth viewing. Fans of Lee, Franco or FuManchu are bound to be disappointed with this film, which turned out to be the last in the series.