Review: The Brides of Fu Manchu

Diabolical master criminal Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) has kidnapped the daughters of several prominent industrialists in order to blackmail their parents into constructing a deadly weapon. It’s up to Sir Dennis Nayland-Smith (Douglas Wilmer) and co to stop him before it’s too late. Rupert Davies is one of the scientists with Carole Gray his kidnapped daughter. Tsai Chin is back as Fu Manchu’s loyal daughter, with Burt Kwouk and Ric Young as a couple of his henchmen. Howard Marion Crawford plays Nayland-Smith’s colleague Dr. Petrie. Joseph Furst and Marie Versini play a scientist father and kidnapped daughter respectively, with Heinz Drache as Versini’s fiancé.

 

A perfectly cast Douglas Wilmer takes over from Nigel Green in this superior 1966 sequel from Aussie director Don Sharp (“The Face of Fu Manchu”, “Rasputin – The Mad Monk”) and writer/producer Harry Alan Towers (“The Face of Fu Manchu”, “The Bloody Judge”, “Eugenie…The Story of Her Journey into Perversion”). The film is much livelier than “The Face of Fu Manchu”, and for my money you don’t lose anything in the transition from Green to Wilmer as Nayland-Smith. Rupert Davies essentially has the Walter Rilla role from the previous film and he’s just as good too, it’s a fun role for him. Meanwhile, Heinz Drache is much better here than he was in “Circus of Fear”, though Joseph Furst and Marie Versini could’ve used a few more scenes.

 

Flaws this time are minimal, but the film is clearly overpopulated. Lee’s title character and even Tsai Chin’s evil henchwoman are sadly a bit underused here (Burt Kwouk essentially takes the reins from the latter here, and he’s amusing) for such important characters. To be honest, I think Lee is much more interesting than the character itself. I’m also not sure the titular brides get nearly enough focus in the film. The rest of the film is entertaining enough that these flaws don’t really matter, though. What I really love about Lee’s Fu Manchu (and Tsai Chin’s character Lin Tang, for that matter) is that he truly is 100% deadshit fucking evil and diabolical.

 

Another go-round for the Bond villain-esque Fu Manchu, this outing is better than the previous film largely due to a lively pace and a good, if underused cast. Fun for what it is.

 

Rating: B-

 

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