After the roundly derided 'Blood of Fu Manchu', director Jess Franco once again tackles Sax Rohmer's indomitable moustache twirling super villain. Richard Greene 'guest stars' as sleuth Nayland Smith, and Howard Marion Crawford, in his last performance, plays second hand man, silly old Professor Petrie.
As Fu, Christopher Lee is exactly as you would expect – clipped, precise and cool. Under impressive oriental make-up, he conveys moments of anger, complacency and effective degrees of evil. His relationship with far more interesting daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) is slightly more focused than previously, but the most interesting character here is Lisa (Rosalba Meri), 1971's 'Lady Frankenstein'. Lisa is a duplicitous and beautiful creation, often dressed in a suit ("She fights like a man") – and yet, like everyone else here, she is fearfully underwritten and little more than a cypher.
Added to that, much of the stock footage that provides the more spectacular moments is generously scooped from other productions, notably a dam-busting scene from 'Campbell's Kingdom' from twelve years earlier.
Despite a strong start, this soon dissolves into the kind of muddled plotting that blighted 'Blood ' previously. Although I actually found this slightly more entertaining than that previous film, it is still difficult to maintain interest in events when both storyline and characters are so sketchy.
A further entry into the Fu Manchu series was contracted, but due to the drubbing 'Castle ' received both critically and commercially, Fu's promise that 'the world will hear from me again' remains unfulfilled. With a fairly generous budget (most likely due to the further involvement of Harry Alan Towers) and a good cast, it seems to me that Franco just wasn't interested in telling a story about Fu Manchu – and subsequently, the audience felt the same way about paying to watch it.
As Fu, Christopher Lee is exactly as you would expect – clipped, precise and cool. Under impressive oriental make-up, he conveys moments of anger, complacency and effective degrees of evil. His relationship with far more interesting daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) is slightly more focused than previously, but the most interesting character here is Lisa (Rosalba Meri), 1971's 'Lady Frankenstein'. Lisa is a duplicitous and beautiful creation, often dressed in a suit ("She fights like a man") – and yet, like everyone else here, she is fearfully underwritten and little more than a cypher.
Added to that, much of the stock footage that provides the more spectacular moments is generously scooped from other productions, notably a dam-busting scene from 'Campbell's Kingdom' from twelve years earlier.
Despite a strong start, this soon dissolves into the kind of muddled plotting that blighted 'Blood ' previously. Although I actually found this slightly more entertaining than that previous film, it is still difficult to maintain interest in events when both storyline and characters are so sketchy.
A further entry into the Fu Manchu series was contracted, but due to the drubbing 'Castle ' received both critically and commercially, Fu's promise that 'the world will hear from me again' remains unfulfilled. With a fairly generous budget (most likely due to the further involvement of Harry Alan Towers) and a good cast, it seems to me that Franco just wasn't interested in telling a story about Fu Manchu – and subsequently, the audience felt the same way about paying to watch it.