LeonLouisRicci Actually, This One Plays Better Today than it did in 1965. James Bond was Firmly in the Film-Goer's Mind and Hammer Horror had been Around for a Decade. So Although this was in Color, Starred Christopher Lee, and Featured an Iconic Pulp Character, the Movie Seemed Drab by Comparison. Despite Numerous Fight Scenes, Location Changes, and an Attempted Period Setting for Flavor, it Just Didn't' Deliver the Thrills and Chills Expected. Competent, and Professionally Done with a Decent Budget and Good Lead Actors, Viewed Today with Less Expectation, and a Throwback Attitude it Can be Enjoyed in Saturday Matinée Template from a Bygone Era.But Without a Matinée or Drive-In Flashback Attitude it Comes Across as Stiff and Plodding. Considered the Best of the Five Mid-Sixties Fu's Featuring Chris Lee, Although the Follow Up The Brides of Fu Man Chu (1966) is a Contender.

Infofreak 'The Face Of Fu Manchu' is the first in a series of five movies produced by the legendary Harry Allan Towers. Towers is probably best known for his collaborations with Jess Franco, indeed Franco directed the last two movies in the series, but this one is directed by Don Sharp ('Rasputin: The Mad Monk', 'Psychomania') and scripted by Towers himself. Horror legend Christopher Lee plays the fiendish Dr Fu Manchu, super criminal, and Nigel Green ('Zulu', 'Countess Dracula') plays his nemesis Sir Nayland Smith. Towers plays fast and loose with Sax Rohmer's original characters and stories with entertaining results. The main reason the movie works is because of the performances by Lee and especially Green, who is just terrific. The plot concerns the kidnapping of a German scientist (played by Joachim Fuchsberger) who Fu Manchu forces to develop a super weapon. The lovely Karin Dor ('You Only Live Twice') plays the scientist's daughter, Tsai Chin is Fu Manchu's evil daughter Lin Tang, and Howard Marion-Crawford is Nayland Smith's Watson-like sidekick Dr. Petrie. 'The Face Of Fu Manchu' isn't a great movie by any means but it's fun to watch, and a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

jamesraeburn2003 *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*Commissioner Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard (NIGEL GREEN) witnesses the execution of Oriental crime lord Fu Manchu (CHRISTOPHER LEE) in Imperial China. However, a few years later back in London, Smith is uneasy because he had a dream in which Fu Manchu was still alive. His nightmare coincides with the fact that a huge crime wave has been erupting all over Europe. It is so well organised that only a criminal of Fu Manchu's stature could be behind it. His closest friend and colleague Dr Petrie (HOWARD MARION CRAWFORD) thinks he's mad, but Smith does some research and discovers that a Chinese actor who was an exact double of Fu Manchu disappeared before the criminal was apprehended. Smith is convinced that it was the actor (in a deep state of hypnosis) whom he saw beheaded while the real Fu Manchu made his escape. Meanwhile, a renowned German scientist called Professor Muller (WALTER RILLA) has disappeared and the body of his manservant was discovered outside of London's Lime House strangled with a red Tibetan prayer scarf, which is the trademark of Fu Manchu's henchmen. Smith fears that his old enemy is in London and has kidnapped Muller for his own evil ends. In order to discover what he was working on, Smith visits Muller's assistant Carl Janssen (JOACHIM FUCHSBERGER) who tells him that they were working on the distillation of the seeds of the "Black Hill Poppy". This is a rare flower that grows in the mountains of Tibet and when the seeds are distilled, it produces a gas that when exposed below freezing point, has the potential to kill up to ten thousand people. Smith's worst fears are confirmed; Fu Manchu and his evil daughter Lin Tang (TSAI CHIN) have got the professor and are forcing him to perfect the gas in order to hold the world to ransom...The fiendish Oriental mastermind Fu Manchu and his adversaries Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard and the coroner Dr Petrie were the brainchild of novelist Sax Rohmer whose series of novels were highly popular during the 1920's. The character of Fu Manchu had appeared on celluloid several times before Christopher Lee inherited the role in 1965. During the twenties a number of two-reel silents were made along with the following talkies. Warner Oland played him in the following talkies made by Paramount, THE MYSTERIOUS DR FU MANCHU (1929), THE RETURN OF DR FU MANCHU (1930) and DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON (1931). In 1939, actor Henry Brandon played him in a serial entitled DRUMS OF FU MANCHU. However, the most famous portrayal before Christopher Lee's was Boris Karloff in MGM's THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932).In the 1960's, Rohmer's novels enjoyed a successful reissue in paperback and producer Harry Alan Towers bought the rights to all the novels and decided to create a series of films featuring Fu Manchu's exploits as a possible rival to the James Bond films. THE FACE OF FU MANCHU was the first in the series and Towers wrote the script under the pseudonym of Peter Welbeck. Director Don Sharp shot the film in Ireland in February and March 1965 and he fought hard to get the time and locations he required. The recreations of 1920's London were actually filmed in parts of Dublin with surprisingly brilliant results. The opening execution sequence was shot at Kilmainham jail in County Wicklow and the prison also doubled as the Tibetan monastery in the climatic scenes. The resulting picture was a hit with both critics and audiences on its release in late 1965 and four sequels subsequently followed. They were THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU (1966), THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU (1967), THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU (1968) and THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (produced 1968 but shelved until 1972). The series rapidly declined into shambling nonsense in which all aspects of the productions suffered including the loss of period detail, abysmal direction, inadequate plots, poor acting and increasingly shoestring budgets.THE FACE OF FU MANCHU is without doubt the best in this ultimately ill-fated series. It benefits from the stylish direction of Don Sharp who gets fine performances from Lee as Fu Manchu; Tsai Chin as his daughter-in-crime Lin Tang while Nigel Green is absolutely outstanding as Nayland Smith. Smith and his colleague Dr Petrie are very much in the Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson vein and it makes you wish that both Green and Marion-Crawford were both teamed with Sharp to do a Holmes picture. Alas, it never happened. Sharp handles the nonsensical material with considerable skill so that we the audience happily suspend our disbelief and just wallow in it. The action scenes are also a delight including a spirited car chase through the Essex marshes with splendid vintage automobiles. Add to that the atmospheric lighting of Ernest Steward and you have the perfect schoolboy's adventure yarn, which will appeal as much to adults.

mister_pig ...Death to Fu-Manchu!And so begins this great movie! Well, maybe its not so great overall, but the opening sequence of this film rivals any other in intensity. After all, would you lay down face up for your own beheading? The fun thing about this movie is that every character, regardless of age or sex, avidly fist fights several times throughout the picture. Bottom line is... great fun to watch, just don't take it too seriously.