Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily Entertainment GuideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsCannes Film FestivalStar WarsAsian Pacific American Heritage MonthSummer Watch GuideSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

The Mask of Fu Manchu

  • 1932
  • G
  • 1h 9m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
4K
YOUR RATING
Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
AdventureDramaHorrorSci-Fi

Englishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan before the sinister Fu Manchu does.Englishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan before the sinister Fu Manchu does.Englishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan before the sinister Fu Manchu does.

  • Directors
    • Charles Brabin
    • Charles Vidor
  • Writers
    • Irene Kuhn
    • Edgar Allan Woolf
    • John Willard
  • Stars
    • Boris Karloff
    • Lewis Stone
    • Karen Morley
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    4K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Charles Brabin
      • Charles Vidor
    • Writers
      • Irene Kuhn
      • Edgar Allan Woolf
      • John Willard
    • Stars
      • Boris Karloff
      • Lewis Stone
      • Karen Morley
    • 102User reviews
    • 50Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination total

    Photos105

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 100
    View Poster

    Top cast23

    Edit
    Boris Karloff
    Boris Karloff
    • Dr. Fu Manchu
    Lewis Stone
    Lewis Stone
    • Nayland Smith
    Karen Morley
    Karen Morley
    • Sheila Barton
    Charles Starrett
    Charles Starrett
    • Terrence Granville
    Myrna Loy
    Myrna Loy
    • Fah Lo See
    Jean Hersholt
    Jean Hersholt
    • Von Berg
    Lawrence Grant
    Lawrence Grant
    • Sir Lionel Barton
    David Torrence
    David Torrence
    • McLeod
    Everett Brown
    Everett Brown
    • Slave
    • (uncredited)
    Steve Clemente
    Steve Clemente
    • Knife Thrower
    • (uncredited)
    Willie Fung
    Willie Fung
    • Ship's Steward
    • (uncredited)
    Ferdinand Gottschalk
    Ferdinand Gottschalk
    • British Museum Official
    • (uncredited)
    Allen Jung
    • Coolie
    • (uncredited)
    Tetsu Komai
    • Swordsman
    • (uncredited)
    James B. Leong
    • Guest
    • (uncredited)
    Oswald Marshall
    • Undetermined Role
    • (uncredited)
    Chris-Pin Martin
    Chris-Pin Martin
    • Potentate
    • (uncredited)
    Lal Chand Mehra
    Lal Chand Mehra
    • Indian Prince
    • (uncredited)
    • Directors
      • Charles Brabin
      • Charles Vidor
    • Writers
      • Irene Kuhn
      • Edgar Allan Woolf
      • John Willard
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews102

    6.23.9K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    5HotToastyRag

    A bit campy, but fun for Halloween

    The Mask of Fu Manchu is a bit campy, but if you've got a theme planned for Halloween of old horror movies, you might want to add it to the list alongside some other Boris Karloff classics. Boris stars, in heavy makeup, as Dr. Fu Manchu, who's on the lookout for Genghis Khan's lost treasure. His minions will do anything to find it, including steal it off of museum curators who tried to find it legitimately.

    Lewis Stone is the head of the good guys, or if you're looking at it another way, the opposition team. Lawrence Grant, Jean Hersholt, and Charles Starrett try to find the treasure, but along the way, Lawrence gets kidnapped and held ransom. His daughter, Karen Morley, who's in love with Charles, gets involved in the adventure, and all three of the remaining try to rescue Lawrence and maintain the treasure.

    Myrna Loy, in her early days, costars as Boris's daughter, and she's quite the villainess who enjoys power and violence. This one's not as scary as Frankenstein, but it's fun if that's your theme for the weekend. Where else will you be able to find Lewis Stone fighting his way through a pit of alligators, or Jean Hersholt strapped to a chair while giant spikes close in all around him? That's some pretty scary stuff for the soon-to-be Judge Hardy and Heidi's Grandfather!
    7JoeKarlosi

    The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) ***

    No self-respecting fan of the great Boris Karloff should miss his juicy performance in this raunchy and very unconventional film. As the evil and maniacal Asian mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu, Karloff plans to kill off "the white race" as he hunts down the highly desirable mask and sword of Genghis Khan, which winds up in the possession of a group of British treasure seekers. Boris seems to really relish his part as he tortures his captives with a grinning sadistic glee. Myrna Loy plays his self-described "ugly and insignificant daughter", who harbors a sado-masochistic appetite and nymphomania.

    The sets are glorious, some sequences are disturbing for the time they were made, and there is newly restored controversial dialogue in the recent editions of the film, with "politically incorrect" slang being used on both sides of the line. There is sometimes a criticism toward the movie for its usage of this type of speech, but the time in which the feature was produced should be historically considered, as well as fairly noting that no race is spared during the length of the film. While Fu Manchu is referred to as a "yellow devil" by his victims, for instance, he is also denouncing Christianity and roaring with contempt to his eastern followers with his authoritative command for them to "kill the white men and take their women!"

    There are also some unintentional laughs to be found on occasion, and many of them come courtesy of Karen Morley as "Shelia", who is just atrocious with her comedic overacting. Running a scant 68 minutes, this is a wild and wacky good time for fans of old movies, serials, and Boris Karloff in particular. Enjoy! *** out of ****
    Cthulhu-7

    Inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark

    The Mask of Fu Manchu easily could have served as inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Archaeologists dashing to retrieve relic to save Western Civilization. Feats of derring-do. Scenes of despicable torture and heroic bravery. What makes this movie even better is in Raiders you know Dr. Jones will win. The Nazis are mere obstacles in his path to run over. But in this movie, Boris Karloff's performance as the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu makes the Nazis seem like mere shadows of a threat compared to his evil genius. His Fu Manchu is a villain you not only fear, but respect. Myrna Loy as his daughter is wickedly good. While the sparks put off by Fu Manchu's diabolical invention are impressive special effects, they are nothing in comparison to the sparks emitted by the young, scantily clad Myrna Loy.
    7AlsExGal

    MGM takes a stab at adapting the Sax Rohmer character to the big screen...

    ...dIrected by Charles Brabin. Boris Karloff stars in the title role, a Chinese scientist, warlord, and master criminal bent on world domination. He believes that if he can retrieve the long lost mask and sword of Genghis Khan he will be able to gather an army of followers with which to conquer the "white man's world". Out to stop him is the intrepid Sir Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone). Also starring Myrna Loy as Fu Manchu's cruel daughter, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Jean Hersholt, David Torrence, Lawrence Grant, Ferdinand Gottschalk, and Willie Fung.

    Paramount had much success with a Fu Manchu series from 1929-1931 with Warner Oland in the lead. Those films are classier, and Fu Manchu is presented as more of a sympathetic character, seeking vengeance for the death of his family. In this version, he is just generically evil, more like a comic book villain. This outing has a lot going for it, though, like nice, large sets and elaborate costumes, ludicrously amusing torture devices, and ridiculous touches such as Fu Manchu's personal bodyguard squad consisting of large bald black men in loincloths. The plot is silly, and the stereotyping is both offensive and naively hilarious (apparently Chinese people literally worship Genghis Khan). One particular bit of business that I enjoyed in this was Fu Manchu's "box o' creepy creatures", a container he opens at one point that appears to hold snakes, large lizards, tarantulas and more, all just hanging out together in this box.

    The movie ran into trouble once the production code went into full effect, and heavily edited versions floated around for years, but the copy I watched was fully restored, even if some of the scenes looked to be in much poorer condition than others. This is amusing in a cartoonish, high camp way, and for fans of unusual production design.
    8ccthemovieman-1

    Sounds Corny, But Is Very Effective

    This was a bit different with Boris Karloff playing an Asian "bad guy." He plays "Fu Manchu," and man who sets out to get Genghis Khan's mask and sword which supposedly will give him the power to rule over millions of people.

    Despite the classic film casting of white people to play Asians, I found Karloff to be "cool" looking as was his evil daughter, a young Myrna Loy. I like Karen Morely, usually, but not in here where she plays an almost-hysterical daughter of one of the good guys.

    "Fu Manchu" shows some of his unique methods of torture, nothing graphic, thankfully - not like today's blood and guts.

    Some of this is amateurishly-done but overall it still a legitimate amount of real horror and terror and the cast certainly is entertaining. ("Andy Hardy" star Lewis Stone also is in here along with Jean Hersholt and Charles Starret.)

    Summary: a decent and almost-mystical adventure story that doesn't overstay its welcome, either, at a tidy 68 minutes. Pretty good stuff.

    More like this

    The Man They Could Not Hang
    6.8
    The Man They Could Not Hang
    The Walking Dead
    6.6
    The Walking Dead
    Doctor X
    6.4
    Doctor X
    Mark of the Vampire
    6.3
    Mark of the Vampire
    The Black Room
    6.9
    The Black Room
    The Invisible Ray
    6.5
    The Invisible Ray
    Mad Love
    7.2
    Mad Love
    The Devil-Doll
    7.0
    The Devil-Doll
    The 9th Guest
    6.7
    The 9th Guest
    The Face of Fu Manchu
    5.8
    The Face of Fu Manchu
    The Return of Doctor X
    5.7
    The Return of Doctor X
    Before I Hang
    6.1
    Before I Hang

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to the book "The Films of Myrna Loy" by Lawrence J. Quirk: "She recalls that she and Karloff decided between themselves that the only intelligent way that this movie could possibly be played was subtly tongue-in-cheek."
    • Goofs
      Fu tortures Barton to obtain the whereabouts of Genghis Khan's mask and scimitar. Later on Fu is shown to have a serum that brainwashes people, so the torture of Barton was needless.
    • Quotes

      Fu Manchu: [Pointing to blonde female captive] Would you have maidens like this for your wives?

      Horde of Asians: Yeah!

      [Roars in approval, some waving swords]

      Fu Manchu: Then conquer and breed! Kill the white man and take his women!

    • Alternate versions
      In the 1970's, "Mask of Fu Manchu" was cut slightly (by about 2 minutes), removing references deemed particularly offensive to the Asian-American community (including several racial remarks and an extended version of the famous whipping scene). It is actually this cut version which MGM/UA released in the early 1990's on videotape, although the deleted segments were restored for the print of "Mask of Fu Manchu" used for the later laserdisc release "MGM Horror Classics," and the more recent DVD release.
    • Connections
      Edited into Mondo Lugosi - A Vampire's Scrapbook (1987)

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ14

    • How long is The Mask of Fu Manchu?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 5, 1932 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Gospodar Azije
    • Filming locations
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA(Studio)
    • Production companies
      • Cosmopolitan Productions
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $327,627 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 9 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Boris Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb app
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb app
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb app
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.