Review: The Terror of the Tongs

Set in the early 1900s, Christopher Lee stars as the diabolical head of the title Chinese crime syndicate. Our reluctant hero is British boat captain Geoffrey Toone, who gets caught up in it with the Tongs after his daughter and faithful servant are killed in Hong Kong. Yvonne Monlaur plays an imprisoned slave, Barbara Brown is Toone’s dippy daughter, Ewen Solon plays Lee’s right-hand man, Milton Reid plays Lee’s hulking ‘Guardian’ and chief torturer, and Burt Kwouk appears early as ill-fated diplomat Mr. Ming.

 

Hammer Studios casting of Christopher Lee and several other non-Asian actors in Asian roles will taint this crummy 1961 crime flick from director Anthony Bushell (An occasional TV director who was more prolific as an actor) for some people. I generally try to take into account the era in which a film was made and the attitudes of that era, so I’m not quite as bothered by the racial stuff here as some of you likely will be. That can be easier to do at times than others, of course. Here I was too busy being bothered by most everything else that I didn’t overly care about that, really. However, it’s pretty obvious that Hammer simply weren’t the right fit for a story about an early 1900s Chinese crime syndicate.

 

Scripted by Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangster (“Curse of Frankenstein”, “The Horror of Dracula”, “The Mummy”), star Lee gets a bit more dialogue than the later “Fu Manchu” films tended to afford him. Unfortunately, Lee’s not really in the film much more often than he was in the first two “Fu Manchu” films for it to ultimately matter much. For once Lee actually looks bored, and despite first-billing in the credits he really only gives the best performance by default. The girls are pretty but dopey (Barbara Brown in particular is a total drip), Burt Kwouk deserved a much bigger role (given he’s actually Asian and a solid actor), and the rest of the cast are pretty forgettable.

 

The film is well-mounted but tedious, and hardly credible. Even the infamous bone-scraping scene isn’t all that interesting. In fact, the subsequent fight with hulking Milton Reid (not Chinese, but at least having East Indian blood in him) is more fun. It’s capped off by a flimsy finale in which the lead villain barely gets involved. Cinematographer Arthur Grant (“The Tomb of Ligeia”, “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”) and the production design team at Hammer ensure this film looks top-notch for an affordable budget. The James Bernard (“The Horror of Dracula”, “The Devil Rides Out”) score is the best thing overall. Unfortunately, it’s pretty dull and pretty culturally outdated. I can perhaps forgive the latter, but the former is a fatal flaw. Boring and forgettable, possibly one of Hammer Studios’ worst films.

 

Rating: D+