Without checking, I'll hazard a guess that very few of the Chinese characters in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu are actually from the East. Certainly none of the main oriental characters are, with Warner Oland leading the way in 'yellowface' to play Sax Rohmer's sadistic villain Fu Manchu. I guess no Chinese actor would be happy to play the role given how anti-Asian the story is, the film playing upon the West's fear of the 'yellow peril'.
The film opens in 1900, during the anti-foreign uprising in China known as the Boxer Rebellion. Reverend Mr. Eltham sends his young daughter Lia to the safety of the house of Fu Manchu (Oland); however, when Western gunfire kills Fu Manchu's wife and child, the once affable Chinaman vows to take revenge, and, years later, uses Lia (Jean Arthur) to get even with those responsible.
An early talkie, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is technically crude, with the performers clearly struggling to make the transition from silent to sound. Thus we get quite stagey, over-the-top melodramatics from many of the cast, with Oland being seriously hammy as the antagonist. In a way, I feel that this adds to the charm of the piece, although I can see why some might find the performances a problem. My main issue with the film is that it is OVERLY talky, as though director Rowland V. Lee wanted to make the absolute most of this new advancement in movie-making: as is often the case with cartoonish villains, Fu Manchu doesn't just kill his enemies and be done with it -- he tries to bore them to death first with a long speech about his incredible intellect.
Unsurprisingly, Fu Manchu's superior mind proves no match for Inspector Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard, who outsmarts the villain, rescuing Lia and handsome Dr. Jack Petrie (descendant of a General at the Boxer Rebellion) from a gruesome death in the nick of time.
The film opens in 1900, during the anti-foreign uprising in China known as the Boxer Rebellion. Reverend Mr. Eltham sends his young daughter Lia to the safety of the house of Fu Manchu (Oland); however, when Western gunfire kills Fu Manchu's wife and child, the once affable Chinaman vows to take revenge, and, years later, uses Lia (Jean Arthur) to get even with those responsible.
An early talkie, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is technically crude, with the performers clearly struggling to make the transition from silent to sound. Thus we get quite stagey, over-the-top melodramatics from many of the cast, with Oland being seriously hammy as the antagonist. In a way, I feel that this adds to the charm of the piece, although I can see why some might find the performances a problem. My main issue with the film is that it is OVERLY talky, as though director Rowland V. Lee wanted to make the absolute most of this new advancement in movie-making: as is often the case with cartoonish villains, Fu Manchu doesn't just kill his enemies and be done with it -- he tries to bore them to death first with a long speech about his incredible intellect.
Unsurprisingly, Fu Manchu's superior mind proves no match for Inspector Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard, who outsmarts the villain, rescuing Lia and handsome Dr. Jack Petrie (descendant of a General at the Boxer Rebellion) from a gruesome death in the nick of time.