The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu

Early talkie features pre-Charlie Chan Warner Oland as maniac Fu Manchu, seeking revenge on murderers of wife and child. Primitive in technique, sound quality poor and camera nailed to the floor for long stretches, and definitely not Sax Rohmer's idea of the Devil Doctor, but still has atmosphere, good snappy ending and a few genuine chills along the way. Try not to gag at the comic relief.

This film is so obviously the testimony of what the early talkies films were in the thirties. But it remains entertaining, full of mystery and scary atmosphere, but only in the 30's standards, not today ones. So, please, don't be too hard with this Rowland W Lee's movie. Warner Oland is getting pleasure playing Fu Manchu, for our greatest pleasure. You can prefer MGM Charles Brabin's MASK OF FU MANCHU, starring Boris Karloff, though Karloff was a bit less convincing than Oland. For the rest, Brabin's feature was more terrifying, for instance in the torture sequences.

I have always enjoyed the intelligent films made by Warner Oland as Charlie Chan (as there were no native Chinese actors who could have played that role in the 1930s). However, I found his Fu Manchu series to be quite inferior for a few reasons. The blatant racist implications of the "pure" white race being threatened by the "Yellow Peril" is highly prevalent in this film. This, of course, was a pure Hollywood fabrication, because generally speaking, criminals in Chinese society seldom, if ever, ventured outside of Chinatown, and never got involved with situations involving non-Chinese. The last thing these people needed was attention from the legal authorities of the city they were operating in. Not my cup of Green Tea. Some interesting moments with Oland.

The first film ("The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu") was barely watchable, and this follow-up is not much better. It's about 90% talk and 10% action. Warner Oland has screen charisma but his arch-nemesis, O.P. Heggie (playing Inspector Smith) has almost none, so their supposedly grand "battle of wits" is mostly just a tedious exchange of words. But the last 2 minutes ARE reasonably exciting - if you make it that far. *1/2 out of 4.

THE STORY & GENRE -- Fu Manchu wants to take over the world. There is very little or no genre here. Rowland Lee directs, Warner Oland stars.

THE VERDICT -- Similar to MYSTERIOUS DR. FU MANCHU (1929), it's predecessor, but a bit better. This isn't saying much, and you might just end up fast-forwarding though the talkier parts.

FREE ONLINE -- Yes, under the title "Resurrected 1930" if you look.