IMDb RATING
2.9/10
2.4K
YOUR RATING
Fu Manchu seizes a Turkish castle for its stockpile of opium, as he needs the drug as part of his plot to freeze the Earth's oceans.Fu Manchu seizes a Turkish castle for its stockpile of opium, as he needs the drug as part of his plot to freeze the Earth's oceans.Fu Manchu seizes a Turkish castle for its stockpile of opium, as he needs the drug as part of his plot to freeze the Earth's oceans.
Howard Marion-Crawford
- Dr. Petrie
- (as Howard Marion Crawford)
Günther Stoll
- Dr. Curt Kessler
- (as Gunther Stoll)
José Manuel Martín
- Omar Pasha
- (as Jose Manuel Martin)
Werner Abrolat
- Melnik
- (as Werner Aprelat)
Stanley Baker
- Running Man
- (archive footage)
Dirk Bogarde
- Running Man
- (archive footage)
Mike Brendel
- Omar Pasha's Gunman
- (uncredited)
David de Keyser
- Omar Pasha and others
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
Jesús Franco
- Inspector Hamid
- (uncredited)
Herbert Fux
- Governer
- (uncredited)
Osvaldo Genazzani
- Sir Robert
- (uncredited)
Burt Kwouk
- Feng
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
Pere Portabella
- Dying Turkish Soldier
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAll of the footage at the beginning featuring a large ocean liner striking an iceberg and sinking is stock footage from the British Titanic movie A Night to Remember (1958).
- GoofsThe first scenes where Fu-Manchu is directing the sinking of the liner were the final scenes of a previous Fu-Manchu movie: The brides of Fu Manchu, where he shots his lieutenant who was trying to stop Fu Manchu surpass the maximum of the machine.
- Quotes
Fu Manchu: The entrance to eternity. Beyond that door there is a tunnel which leads directly to the sea. Cisterns of water are poised above it. The touch of a lever will release hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into that tunnel, and combined with professor Heracles' crystals this can transform the entire sea into one gigantic block of ice.
- Crazy creditsMaria Perschy's character is called Dr. Ingrid Koch but on the credits her character's name is given as Marie.
- Alternate versionsAs usual in 'Jesus Franco' movies, the credits of the film contain different (and often incongruous with each other) info in every country's version. While the English version lists Peter Welbeck (nom-de-plum for Harry Alan Towers) as the author of the screenplay, the Spanish version (with a credits sequence that replaces the exterior shots of the castle from the original with a cheesy drawing of a red dragon) lists Manfred Barthel as the author of the story and screenplay, and Jaime Jesús Balcázar as the author of the dialogue. This version also credits some actors (such as Gustavo Re and Osvaldo Genazzani) and crew members not credited in the English version, and the cast order is different as well.
- ConnectionsEdited from Campbell's Kingdom (1957)
Featured review
It is 1969. Your on your way back to your car at the drive-inn, where your fiancé is happily sleeping off her double shift at the diner and you are about half-way through a film - Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu, Die (or the Castle of Fu Manchu) - which has already put you through two bags of popcorn and 3 cokes because the popcorn is just so much more interesting, and the worst happens - you can't find your car. Nightmares flash through your mind - maybe your fiancé was so annoyed by the cruelty of your decision to force her into a late night drive-inn triple feature full of Sax Rohmer films so she drove off, or maybe the film got her so upset that she drove off the nearest bridge. Trying to get a hold of yourself, you look up to the screen to verify that you're at the right part of the drive in. No help, all you can see is a smear of dark blue and dark red shadow across the lower part of the screen. After a minute or so, the lighting crew finds the on-switch and some out of focus people show up on the screen. They appear to be three Shriners sneaking up on an Imam who has just begun his afternoon prayer. Still no help. You resign yourself to the fate natural selection has accorded you. You , after all, decided to see this film with your intended reproductive partner, and that choice has probably ruined your opportunity to allow your genetic material to be carried on in the next generation of humans. So you decide to move to California to buy that house on the side of hill overlooking the San Andreas fault where you always wanted to live, and to pursue your dream to rekindle the Fu Manchu series this film killed. More power to you.
To be fair, I did not see the touted Blue underground DVD version of the film. Supposedly, this pressing is so much better than what I saw that it is incomparable.
Even my television objected to this film. It kept trying to turn itself off, switch channels, etc. It even unplugged the cable converter for a few minutes. Whoever it was that decided that Sax Rohmer's various B-grade stories ought to be made into movies, should be forced to watch all of them in a row - at least once. As they say, garbage in, garbage out. These films are a decidedly acquired taste. And this one is even more difficult to acquire a taste for than Sumuru... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061976/usercomments-8
Peruse the IMDb reviews - you will notice that most of the people who write positive reviews for this film do not describe the plot. There are two interrelated reasons for this - (1) there isn't one to be described and (2) they've never seen the film, and simply get a perverse pleasure believing that their opinions might be taken seriously enough to convince people to see the film (a poor assumption, at best).
Christopher Lee plays Fu Manchu - an inexplicably powerful meanie who wants something from all of the world's governments (we are never privileged with the knowledge of what in particular he wants, but I couldn't care less anyway), and is threatening to freeze the world's oceans to get it. The technology he is using has been developed by a dying scientist who he has kidnapped, and soon he finds himself having to kidnap a surgeon in order to arrange a heart transplant as well. There are various fight scenes which don't appear to be related to the film and may indeed have been found on a cutting room floor somewhere in the Middle East, or even reused from a previous Rohmer feature (I really expected Sumuru, some of her army of Amazon ninjas, or even Frankie Avalon to show up at one point). There are also a few scenes with Lee standing around looking ominous and using that great voice of his. I am not sure he knew what was going on in the rest of the film, and indeed with that voice it doesn't matter, but these scenes are, nonetheless, the ONLY remotely entertaining aspect of the film. And OH YES lest I forget, there are a few inept 007s who were likely rejected from the extras audition for Casino Royal making some roughly British sounding noises and taking all of this way too seriously.
I didn't think it was possible, but this film was even more difficult to get through than Manos: Hands of Fate, and quite possibly should replace it as the worst film of all time. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060666/usercomments-419
To state what, in particular is wrong with TCODFM is an easy task - EVERYTHING. The acting is mediocre, the plot is idiotic, the cinematography and editing are so bad that I don't believe TRYING to make a hideous mess of a film would net you anything worse. You'll either laugh hysterically or stare at your screen until you start drooling, unless you take my advice and avoid this.
Why did I watch it? I enjoy challenges.
To be fair, I did not see the touted Blue underground DVD version of the film. Supposedly, this pressing is so much better than what I saw that it is incomparable.
Even my television objected to this film. It kept trying to turn itself off, switch channels, etc. It even unplugged the cable converter for a few minutes. Whoever it was that decided that Sax Rohmer's various B-grade stories ought to be made into movies, should be forced to watch all of them in a row - at least once. As they say, garbage in, garbage out. These films are a decidedly acquired taste. And this one is even more difficult to acquire a taste for than Sumuru... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061976/usercomments-8
Peruse the IMDb reviews - you will notice that most of the people who write positive reviews for this film do not describe the plot. There are two interrelated reasons for this - (1) there isn't one to be described and (2) they've never seen the film, and simply get a perverse pleasure believing that their opinions might be taken seriously enough to convince people to see the film (a poor assumption, at best).
Christopher Lee plays Fu Manchu - an inexplicably powerful meanie who wants something from all of the world's governments (we are never privileged with the knowledge of what in particular he wants, but I couldn't care less anyway), and is threatening to freeze the world's oceans to get it. The technology he is using has been developed by a dying scientist who he has kidnapped, and soon he finds himself having to kidnap a surgeon in order to arrange a heart transplant as well. There are various fight scenes which don't appear to be related to the film and may indeed have been found on a cutting room floor somewhere in the Middle East, or even reused from a previous Rohmer feature (I really expected Sumuru, some of her army of Amazon ninjas, or even Frankie Avalon to show up at one point). There are also a few scenes with Lee standing around looking ominous and using that great voice of his. I am not sure he knew what was going on in the rest of the film, and indeed with that voice it doesn't matter, but these scenes are, nonetheless, the ONLY remotely entertaining aspect of the film. And OH YES lest I forget, there are a few inept 007s who were likely rejected from the extras audition for Casino Royal making some roughly British sounding noises and taking all of this way too seriously.
I didn't think it was possible, but this film was even more difficult to get through than Manos: Hands of Fate, and quite possibly should replace it as the worst film of all time. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060666/usercomments-419
To state what, in particular is wrong with TCODFM is an easy task - EVERYTHING. The acting is mediocre, the plot is idiotic, the cinematography and editing are so bad that I don't believe TRYING to make a hideous mess of a film would net you anything worse. You'll either laugh hysterically or stare at your screen until you start drooling, unless you take my advice and avoid this.
Why did I watch it? I enjoy challenges.
- How long is The Castle of Fu Manchu?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Die Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu
- Filming locations
- Rumelihisari, Sariyer, Istanbul, Turkey(castle exteriors)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) officially released in India in English?
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