The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) Online

This is an exciting and suspenseful , though mediocre Fu Manchu movie , but still enjoyable . It's a little boring , but is better than following entries , the low-budgeted and lackluster Jess Frank movies : ¨Kiss of the dead¨ and ¨The castle of Fumanchu¨ which most critics felt were the weakest of the series .

The co-protagonist is Nyland Smith , finely played by Douglas Wilmer -character also interpreted by Nigel Green and Richard Greene- ; he's a good English actor , usually playing in secondary roles -El Cid- , here he is the starring and is very well . The baddies are Horst Frank , a German actor usually playing as the villain-role and Christopher Lee , as always acting as a magnificent evil-doer . As usual , there appears Howard Marion Crawford who is the assistant of Nyland Smith , a Watson-alike . And of course , the Fu Manchu's daughter , habitually played by T Sai Chin , acting perfectly as a nasty murderous.

In the film there are action , adventures , thriller , sadism and exotic outdoors filmed in China , because being produced by the Chinese Shaw Brothers and Harry Allan Towers (producer of the Fu Manchu's five movies) . The movie will appeal those have seen the different entries and Christopher Lee fans ; the best installments are directed by Don Sharp : ¨Face of Fu Manchu (1965)¨ and ¨Brides of Fu Manchu(1966)¨. Rating : Average but entertaining .

Evil Oriental mastermind Fu Manchu (CHRISTOPHER LEE) and his daughter in crime Lin Tang (TSAI CHIN) return to their ancestral China from where they plot their latest diabolical scheme for world domination. First they create an explosion causing a rocky mountain to subside, thus creating the illusion that all communications have been cut off between the village that neighbors Fu Manchu's palace and Shanghai. Secondly they abduct a renowned plastic surgeon called Dr Lieberson (WOLFGANG KIELING) and force him to create a double of Nayland Smith (DOUGLAS WILMER). The real Smith is subsequently abducted and brought to Fu Manchu's palace. Meanwhile, the double who is a prisoner under a deep state of hypnosis kills Smith's housekeeper and is subsequently arrested, tried and hanged for the crime. Fu Manchu is delighted as the whole world thinks that Nayland Smith was a psychopathic killer and his reputation is posthumously ruined. While all this is going on, Fu Manchu will have the pleasure of murdering the real Smith on the quiet. A wanted American criminal mastermind called Rudolph Moss (NOEL TRETHARNAN) has recently arrived at Fu Manchu's palace with a pact signed by the world's criminal bosses agreeing to the Yellow Peril becoming their leader. Fu Manchu plans to use Dr Lieberson to create further doubles of all the criminals' enemies and give them the same treatment as he intends for Nayland Smith. Smith must escape, clear his name and stop an international murder spree erupting.

THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU was the third of producer Harry Alan Towers' series of international productions starring Christopher Lee as Sax Rohmer's fiendish Oriental mastermind. Don Sharp had directed the first two films in the series, but Jeremy Summers took over for this one entry. Summers was essentially a TV director who occasionally made feature films. These include the Gerry & The Pacemakers movie FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY (1965) and the Tony Hancock vehicle THE PUNCH AND JUDY MAN (1964). On TV he has directed episodes of such British cult classics as JASON KING and RANDALL & HOPKIRK (DECEASED) as well as contributing to notable UK soap operas such as CORONATION STREET and BROOKSIDE. Summers' father was Walter Summers who directed the notable Bela Lugosi horror film THE DARK EYES OF London (1939). Incidentally, this was the first film in the UK to receive the "H" for horrific certificate in Britain.

The film marks first step down the slippery slope of the series' degeneration into becoming shambling nonsense. The script is both poorly plotted and confused. Matters are not helped by an unwise emphasis on torture and sadism like when Fu Manchu brands Liebrson's daughter (MARIA ROHM) with a branding iron in order to force him to carry out his demands. These scenes are disheartening and make one wish for the return of the light direction of Don Sharp in THE FACE OF FU MANCHU (1965). The production also has the air of being a half-hearted effort all round as most of the performances are all at best average with the possible exception of Tsai Chin whose portrayal of Lin Tang is still undeniably evil without any sign of remorse in her actions. The direction is coherent and well-paced (which saves the picture from being a complete disaster) but shows little enthusiasm for the material. The film wasn't particularly successful, but Towers was able to squeeze out two more (and even worse) sagas featuring Fu Manchu. They were THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU and THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1968), which were shot back to back by Spanish director Jess Franco. This series could have lasted for a long time if they had referred back to the original source for plots rather than trying to invent their own.

This is the third film in the revived Fu Manchu series from hit-and-run international film financier Harry Alan Towers. It represents yet another step down in this steadily deteriorating series. Towers' first mistake was in replacing director Don Sharp with Jeremy Summers, a TV-director whose only other theatrical credit was Gerry & the Pacemakers' feature "Ferry Cross the Mersey". His next mistake was filming in less-than ideal international locations, a characteristic of most of Towers' subsequent productions.

Filmed in Hong Kong, the film manages to pass up every opportunity for location flavor; the cramped film could have been made on any soundstage in the world. For reasons unknown, Summers chose to shoot with live sound on Hong Kong's non-soundproofed stages and, in the sceneof a delicate medical operation conducted, supposedly, in the bowels of a Tibetan temple, construction noises and traffic sounds are clearly audible.

The part of nominal star Christopher Lee is essentially an extended cameo. Instead, the film highlights Maria Rohm, Towers' German-born wife, who has never made a film for anyone but her husband. Here, she has one of her showiest roles as a nightclub singer, wearing a variety of glamorous costumes and lip syncing two awful songs performed on the soundtrack by Samantha Jones.

Ironically, this would be the only film in the series given USA release through a major distributor: Warner Brothers. But they held it low regard: a number of release prints were struck in black and white and it played on the bottom half of a double bill with "The Shuttered Room".

In the 60's series of five Fu Manchu movies made by Cristhoper Lee as the Chinese fiend, this is the one in the middle, without the direction of Don Sharp (replaced by Jeremy Summers) who made the better two entries. It's still an interesting movie, Fu Manchu tries to ruin his enemy reputation by replacing him with a killer lookalike (done with a complicated facial surgery) and, as usual, planning world domination as the boss of a new international organization. Douglas Wilmer shines as Nayland Smith or the zombie-like killer, Lee is perfect as usual and the always reliable Howard Marion Crawford as Dr. Petrie (a character clearly inspired by Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson) got some good moments too. Sadly, after "Vengeance" trashy Spanish director Jesus Franco took the series for the last two film, the less interesting entries by far.

This is a decent and entertaining film, but not one that is particularly inspired or memorable. In many ways, it's like a 1930s B-film with very modest pretensions as well as some excitement and clichés. Of course, what else would you expect from a Fu Manchu film?!

In this third installment from the Christopher Lee series, we see the very resilient Fu Manchu attempt to organize all the criminals of the planet under his leadership. His trump card is a genius missionary doctor who just happens to be nearby. This doctor can do plastic surgery to make people look exactly like famous people and the plan is to have him make fakes of the leaders of all the world's police forces. How this guy, with early 20th century technology, can make PERFECT replicas is anyone's guess--this is just something you'll need to suspend disbelief for and you'll have to force yourself not to ask too many questions. Questions like "why would they leave a HUGE pile of gunpowder sitting there for the good guys to ignite?" and "when the guy throws a torch on these barrels of gunpowder, why does Fu Manchu just stand there while everyone else makes their escape?" and "if Manchu is replacing one police inspector, why doesn't he kill the original instead of taking him halfway around the world and giving him a chance for payback?". All these are very obviously plot holes, but once again, what do you expect--Shakespeare?!

This is an agreeable, though silly, time-passer. Worth a look if you're into Lee films--otherwise, it's pretty easy to skip.

Fu Manchu and his daughter Lin Tang(Tsai Chin)return home to China.This time Fu Manchu kidnaps a Christian missionary working in China,who is also a surgeon.He is kidnapped to perform an operation on one of Fu's dacoits to make him look just like Nayland Smith.However he wants duplicates made of all the major police chiefs of the world,to discredit them as well.He calls Rudolph Moss(Horst Frank),the head of American syndicate,to join him.Christopher Lee is again amazing as a Fu Manchu-the film is pretty well-made and exciting.Followed by two euro-trash cheapies "The Blood of Fu Manchu" and "The Castle of Fu Manchu".

A pretty silly but nonetheless entertaining entry in the 1960s Fu Manchu series. Christopher Lee is back (though with scarce screen time) as the nasty master criminal out to seek vengeance on his stalwart nemesis Nayland Smith (Douglas Wilmer). Not particularly suspenseful and featuring one too many poorly choreographed fight scenes, it's still fun to watch Lee chew the scenery. This time out, he's hiding in a fortress in a remote part of China, plotting his revenge on Smith while forging a criminal partnership with an American gangster. Wilmer is OK and Tsai Chn is back as Lee's equally nasty daughter. Future Jess Franco superstar Maria Rohm plays a nightclub singer performing a couple of songs (badly).

Try, try, try again. That should be evil super mastermind Fu Manchu's motto. After one failed attempt after another that pretty much ends up in his hideout / palace spectacularly exploding, for his credit he always returned on his quest for world domination. As each scheming plot being more diabolical than the last, but the quality of these features were also on the slide. Same formula, but well-worn. Despite Christopher Lee returning dressed up in make-up as Fu Manchu, his presence seemed lacking with a script that didn't really offer him all that much to do. "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" would be the third film internationally produced by Harry Alan Towers, but director Don Sharp of the previous two films is replaced and it shows in the final product. "Vengeance" isn't all that bad, but it's bounded by feeble writing and lackadaisical direction for most part making it quite an uninterestingly limited and convoluted venture. The story follows Fu Manchu and his daughter return to China to his isolated palace hideaway in the hills where he plots his vengeance against his arch rival commissioner Neyland Smith of Scotland Yard, while hosting a criminal diplomat for gaining support to lead the world's criminals. While this had two sub-plots within the narrative, neither one projected much excitement with its elaborate developments and the location work felt rather stagy with less adventure and scope. The local Hong Kong locations were done through Shaw Brother studios. Director Jeremy Summers brought a crisply polished tinge, but the execution is drably projected with a less than speedy pace. Too few hardy set-pieces, but its misogynistic edge is still evident in some torture sequences. The performances are decent. Douglas Wilmer admirably acquits himself as Neyland Smith and Howard Marion-Crawford gives a fine-tuned performance as his friend Dr. Petrie. A methodical Lee is given small opportunities and so is and effective Tsai Chin's, maybe even more so minor as Manchu's sadistic daughter. Horst Frank venomously overdoes Lee in the evil stakes and a beautiful Maria Rohm flaunts around. Patchy serial comic-strip entertainment.

Lin Tang doesn't sit at the feet of Fu Manchu anymore - she got promoted and takes a throne at his side now. Can't say that the movie moves up a level, though, if I compare it to its predecessors. The 3rd one of the series was the first one not directed by Don Sharp, it was most likely not made with the same production time and budget, and the story is, mildly put, simple. Fu Manchu wants revenge on his personal enemy Nayland Smith, and afterwards achieve world domination, of course. Some unnecessary things are stretching the story to 80+ minutes, such as the tavern brawl with the sailors or the introduction of Horst Frank as an additional villain. Fu Manchu asks him to do the torturing for one day as if he thought he must give this character something to do. Peter Carsten gets a better role as a gangster who is joining the good guys after his downfall. Although it is impressive to see the impersonator of Nayland Smith become a murderer under Fu Manchu's command, showing absolutely no emotion and not saying a word during his trial, one can't help wondering why the judge and lawyers didn't think he might be hypnotized or something like that. Did they just think he must be the shy type of guy who doesn't talk much? The green misty hills of Ireland are posing successfully for China again, compliments for the choice of locations. Voted 7/8/5/7/4 for the five movies.

This has got relatively more torture scenes than the overrated FACE OF FU MANCHU although they are nowhere as imaginative and adult comics/pulp flavored as in the classic MASK OF FU MANCHU. Minor points of interest: feeble and failed attempt to add some sensuality by a few uninspired nightclub scenes with Maria Rohm, one karate-style fight scene, and the presence of one Oriental among the good guys and one Westerner among Fu's camp to break down good guys - bad guys pattern along racial lines.

Fu Manchu retreats to a northern Chinese province to wreak remote vengeance on his Nemesis, Nayland Smith, who is back home in 20s London. Never mind the plot, which involves an early form of Interpol. Some scenes are laid in Smith's cosy rooms, still decorated in Edwardian style (the influence of Holmes is strong and the actors who play Smith and sidekick Petrie previously starred as the famous detective duo).

Meanwhile Fu and his entourage ride towards his mountain fastness through barren hills, accompanied by impressive photography and music. That faint wind that blows through Hammer films ruffles their silk clothes.

It was made in 1967, when Hammer was teasing the censor (censorship was abolished the following year). Just how violent could the film-makers be? Quite violent, is the answer, and the public loved it. Here we have a prolonged execution scene while Fu and his daughter look impassively on from thrones.

Later a plastic surgeon and his daughter are kidnapped and the daughter is tortured with red-hot irons. The plastic surgeon agrees to turn a hypnotised stooge into a facsimile of Nayland Smith and the substitution is made. Wilmer does a good job of portraying the hypnotised man, who commits a murder so that Fu can observe "Smith" being condemned to death and hanged.

There follows a creepily effective execution scene carried out in near silence, mirroring the earlier "execution" of Fu (filmed at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin).

Back in China there is an unnecessary brawl in a bar and a nightclub singer and friend decide to travel north to join Fu, who is trying to take control of the world's criminals. (There are some touches of humour, like the couple who continue to slow-dance as mayhem breaks out.)

The two reach Fu's hideout, where they are joined by a baddie and the real Nayland Smith. Of course good triumphs after a lot more action sequences and some more unnecessary violence. Fu's palace burns, while the good guys ride away into the stark hills (actually in Hong Kong - the film was made with the Shaw brothers).

Is Fu dead? What do you think?

Fu kidnaps a plastic surgeon and forces him (by torturing his daughter) to create a double of Nayland Smith from one of his (Asian) henchman. I guess nobody would notice the yellow tint to Smith's skin in London. Meanwhile, the real Smith is kidnapped and brought to Fu's palace in China. Now in London, the deutero-Smith strangles Smith's live-in maid, Jasmine, and is sentenced to hang. In between all this is a subplot involving a plot to kidnap all the leaders of the world's major policing departments and create doubles of them who, of course, will murder someone and be sentenced to die. All this nonsense goes on for several reels until the real Smith and the other captives in Fu's palace break free, escape and blow up the palace to boot. My "B" Movie Meter: 4.5* out of 10

Music composed and conducted by Malcolm Lockyer. Songs: "The Real Me" and "Where are the Men", lyrics by Don Black; sung by Samantha Jones. Camera operators: Tony Spratling, Neil "Ginger" Gemmel. Producer: Harry Alan Towers. Babasdave Films.

U.S. release through Warner Bros.-Seven Arts: January 1968. New York opening at the Lyric (as the lower half of a double bill with "The Shuttered Room"): 14 February 1968. U.K. release through Anglo Amalgamated: 3 December 1967. Australian release through British Empire Films: 26 July 1968. Sydney opening at the Capitol (ran one week). 7,960 feet. 89 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: This time the insidious Fu plots to have all the police chiefs of the world replaced by doubles under his control.

NOTES: Third of the Christopher Lee/Fu Manchu series. (Available on a very good Momentum DVD).

COMMENT: This film offers good entertainment but it is a disappointing effort, when compared with the first two films in the series ("The Face of Fu Manchu" and "The Brides of Fu Manchu") of which this is the third. Lee, Wilmer, Crawford and Chin are again on hand; but on the production side, only film editor Morrison remains, together with the producer and production manager — though photographer Kotze has been promoted from 2nd to main unit, and has provided some appealing color photography.

There are also some attractive sets and costumes. Fortunately, Wilmer gives a vigorous performance as the alter ego, but, beyond a brilliantly staged execution scene, director Jeremy Summers seems to have a very loose grip on the production. His direction has mostly very little punch (though there's an exciting night club brawl).

Perhaps the rigors of a tighter shooting schedule and a less lavish budget all around, account for the director's general lack of inventiveness. Even Fu Manchu's black-garbed attendants are presented so flabbily, they fail to inspire the terror of their earlier appearances.

The film's dispirited air even extends to its pedestrian music score. As for the songs, they also peg in as distinctly fourth rate.

In a remote corner of China the diabolical criminal mastermind Fu Manchu has dynamited the pass leading to the province and sent word to the authorities suggesting there was an earthquake. Free from outside interference he plots his revenge against his nemesis; Assistant Commissioner Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard. This scheme is inevitably devious; he has kidnapped a doctor and his daughter and forced him to perform plastic surgery on a man to change his appearance so that he looks like Nayland Smith. He then arranges for the real Nayland Smith to be kidnapped and replaced while on holiday in Ireland. While the real policeman is put in a crate bound for China the imposter commits murder and is put on trial… killing Nayland Smith won't be enough for Fu Manchu; first he must be thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the world. Meanwhile it emerges that a senior member of the American criminal underworld is heading to China to talk to a potential leader of world crime.

I first watched the Fu Manchu films as a child in the seventies and this is the first one of the series that I've watched since then. Watching again it is clear that this is far from a classic film but it is rather fun. In this day and age it would be unacceptable to have a European playing a Chinese character but Christopher Lee does do a fine job as the diabolical Fu Manchu; thankfully he doesn't attempt a dodgy 'Chinese' accent. Douglas Wilmer does a solid job as Nayland Smith, and his doppelganger, although the real policeman spends much of the time in captivity and the copy is unspeaking and emotionless. Tsai Chin impresses as Fu Manchu's daughter, a character who is clearly a chip off the old block. The story is pretty silly… but then it wouldn't have been interesting if Fu Manchu had done the obvious thing and just had Nayland Smith disposed of. The action scenes are decent in a fairly bloodless way; certainly not too violent for younger viewers. Overall it is a bit dated but I rather enjoyed it; perhaps for nostalgic reasons but also because it was rather fun.

Dr Fu Manchu – along with Bulldog Drummond – is now a bit of a hot potato in adventure fiction and a liberal shorthand for the shockingly racist excesses of our past culture. Indeed, Sax Rohmer's books – initially a trilogy in the mid-1910s before several more appeared in the '30s – were borne out of a xenophobia for East Asia grandly termed 'the Yellow Peril' and were offensive to some even then. Surprisingly, the character himself rarely showed up in his own franchise. Most of the action followed his enemies, the Holmes and Watson avatars Sir Denis Nayland-Smith and Dr Petrie, in a series of exotic, ludicrously pulpy plots.

The 1960s saw contentious producer Harry Alan Towers revive the character for a cycle of five independent British films so cheesy that the ushers must have handed out crackers on the way in. Christopher Lee – best known at the time, of course, as Dracula in several wonderfully schlocky Hammer productions – played Fu Manchu in yellow-face in what basically amounted to a series of extended cameos. The Holmes and Watson connection remained with the starring of Douglas Wilmer, who had played Holmes on television for the BBC, and Howard Marion-Crawford, who had been Watson to Ronald Howard's Holmes in the drily amusing 1954 TV series. This third film jettisoned the director of the first two films, Don Sharp, and replaced him with Jeremy Summers, who had made the deservedly obscure Gerry and the Pacemakers film Ferry Cross the Mersey but also episodes of many of my favourite ITC series.

The plot in this one is thin but does the business sure enough. After previous encounters with his English foe, Fu Manchu is so hungry for vengeance – hence the title – that he forces a plastic surgeon to change one of his servants into a doppelgänger for Nayland Smith. As the servant is also Oriental, we get a reverse Gustav Graves from Die Another Day.Is it me or do many of these bad-guys make the most unreasonable demands? So while the real Nayland Smith is captured and brought to Fu Manchu's wilderness lair, the lookalike replaces him, moves around like a robot and commits murder. He is then arrested, tried and scheduled to hang, thereby ruining Nayland Smith's reputation as one of England's finest. Fu Manchu plans to do this to several other prominent law-enforcers across the world, thus undermining that whole law and order thing that bothers him so much. Meanwhile, he plays host to a seedy man in a cowboy hat who is apparently – and this bit I loved – the Ambassador of the American Underworld.

There's a fair bit of filler, of course – a boring meeting with Interpol, a nonsensical fight on a boat, a sprawling bar fight with sailors, an FBI character who does nothing at all and an unnecessary lounge number – but there is some surprising shots of the Chinese mountains and a couple of exciting ninja scenes which, while doing nothing for the Bruce Lee fan, does bring the energy up. Christopher Lee is listless as ever while Douglas Wilmer somehow keeps his dignity while he is bundled into a crater, a prison cell and a hay cart and inexplicably walks around with what appears to be a door around his neck. It's all wonderfully silly and, despite lagging at some points, is exciting enough. As long as you're in the mood for some cheesy fun, it's worth a watch.

The third outing for Christopher Lee's oriental tyrant (following on from THE FACE OF FU MANCHU and THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU) is starting to wear a bit thin even in my tolerant expectations as the plot is simply rehashed again from the first two films (and there are still another two to go in the series!). I mean how many times can we go through the same old 'kidnapped scientist' scenario? Still there are a few minor thrills and chuckles to be had for those of us who are fans of this kind of '60s wackiness, and of course the nostalgia to be had from any of the items from this jam-packed decade of cinematic obscurities.

This time around the comic book style is even more apparent than normal, with a bare minimum of plot merely serving as a basis for a series of fights, scraps, and one or two huge brawls. Once again these fight scenes are a lot of fun, but there are lots of other familiar ingredients in the film to enjoy too. These include strangulation, hypnotism, a fairly explicit decapitation, some torture (the rack and branding irons are brought into play) and much, much more. Obviously the changing, more liberal attitudes of the decade are evident here in the increased violence content, and now evil Chinese minions are stabbed on screen instead of off.

The acting is all up to standard, and if the characters are clichéd, at least they're fun. Douglas Wilmer reprises his role as the heroic Nayland Smith, this time with grey hair after his tiring skirmishes with the yellow peril, and his wooden acting is spot on when he has to play a mindless double of his real self. Tsai Chin is wicked as Fu Manchu's daughter, while Christopher Lee has better makeup this time around (his slanted eyes are far more prominent) and is fun as always. Any film which has a character replaced by an evil double deserves to be watched, in my book at least.

The Third Entry in the Five Film Series seems Longer than its 91 minute Running Time.

There are a few Flourishes of Note. The Location Shooting adds a Grandiose and Beautiful Backdrop, some Torture Scenes are Visceral with Gruesome Devices keeping with the Sadistic Tone of the "Fu' Films, and Christopher Lee again Strikes an Imposing Figure as the Towering Megalomaniac.

The Plot, however, is not Worthy of Fu's Intellect. Replacing Law Enforcement Leaders with Doppelgangers, one at a time, seems to be a rather Lengthy, Round About way, of Conquering the World.

A Cowboy Hat wearing "Gangster" looks Ridiculous in the Setting, as does most of the Dialog from most of the Non-Asian Bad-Guys.

Nayland Smith (Fu's Arch-Enemy) is Reduced to Zombification and is Replaced by another American, a Dull FBI Agent who is used for a Few Weak Kung-Fu Scenes.

The Least of the First Three "Fu" Movies and by most accounts the Last that is at all Tolerable.

Note...Filmed in part at the legendary "Shaw Brothers" Studio in Hong Kong. It didn't help much.