Review: The Face of Fu Manchu

Nigel Green plays Scotland Yard’s Nayland Smith, who witnesses the execution of master criminal Fu Manchu (Sir Christopher Lee). Or does he? Several years later the mysterious disappearance of a biochemist (Walter Rilla) seems to arouse the veteran lawman’s suspicions. Tsai Chin plays Fu Manchu’s evil daughter/helper Lin Tang, Karin Dor plays Rilla’s daughter.

 

Campy mystery-thriller nonsense from 1965 is not really my thing, but for the most part it’s pretty watchable. Directed by Don Sharp (“Rasputin – The Mad Monk”, “Bear Island”) and scripted by producer Harry Alan Towers (“The Girl From Rio”, “The Bloody Judge”) under his Peter Welbeck pseudonym, it gets a lot of its merit from a pretty damn good cast. Nigel Green got his first leading role here and couldn’t be more perfectly cast in a Peter Cushing-esque hero role. I don’t know why he didn’t get more lead roles, because he’s clearly got the chops for it. Hell, he would’ve made for a very fine Sherlock Holmes I think. Sir Christopher Lee dons the ‘Asian’ makeup to play the fantastical supervillain, and some people aren’t gonna be happy about that. I was more unhappy that the title villain just isn’t in the film enough for my liking. For me, Fu Manchu is a fantasy character, so like Tony Randall in “The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao” I don’t have the same concerns about racial stereotyping or having non-Asian actors portraying supposedly Asian characters when Fu Manchu is basically a “Batman”-style comic book villain, really. Besides, Sax Roehmer created the character in 1913 for crying out loud, the western world was a lot less…er, worldlier at that point I’d wager. So I’m willing to cut some slack here and there. Your sensitivities may differ.

 

Lee was one of the more adept actors in playing various ethnicities, and while he’s not ideally Chinese, he’s nonetheless ideally Fu Manchu. Diabolical villainy is a sinch for the veteran actor (and it’s a role previously well-played by Lee’s friend and forebearer in horror Boris Karloff), and unlike some of the ‘made-up’ actors in the film, he wisely doesn’t try to put on a phony accent. There’s just not a lot of scenes with the character, which is remarkable since he’s the bloody title character. Getting a bit more screen time – and making the most of it – is a terrifically sinister Tsai Chin as Fu Manchu’s faithful off-sider. Also rock-solid is veteran German actor Walter Rilla in an important part. He apparently nearly died filming this, in fact many of the cast and crew caught the flu. Like Mr. Lee, I would’ve liked more screen time for one of my favourite character actors James Robertson Justice, who barely has a walk-on. As for Karin Dor, she’s a bit dull and forgettable I’m afraid.

 

To be honest, I think it would’ve been wiser to do a “Fu Manchu” TV series instead of a film series. I could easily see it working alongside the likes of “The Avengers”, “The Saint”, and whatnot. 30 minutes each week seems about right for this kind of thing, changing the plot specifics every week. As a 90 minute film, one’s interest did tend to wane a bit towards the end, and apparently this is the best of the films by a mile.

 

Silly, dated, but well-acted nonsense might hold more interest to you than it did me. I was more interested in the cast than any of the characters or the outlandish plot. Still, it was a mildly enjoyable diversion. Tsai Chin is particularly terrific, but it needed a lot more of the title character!

 

Rating: C+

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