The Mask Of Fu Manchu

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

Runtime: 68 minutes

Directed by: Charles Brabin, Charles Vidor

Starring: Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy

From: MGM

I'll be honest here, I wasn't planning on watching three films in a row from the grand old dame known as Myrna, but when I was looking through her filmography and noticed in this movie she played someone named Fah Lo See and thought, “Oh no, don't tell me she played yellowface”, but yeah she did. She was the daughter of Fu Manchu, who hilariously was played by Boris Karloff; that far east Asian character has always been played by white dudes but him in the role is just absurd. I then read more about it and saw some clips and pictures and the more I HAD to see it. It's available on demand on YouTube from Warner Brothers. It was only a few bucks so I figured that was a fair deal.

The plot description from the IMDb: “Englishmen race to find the tomb of Ghengis Khan. They have to get there fast, as the evil genius Dr. Fu Manchu is also searching, and if he gets the mysteriously powerful relics, he and his diabolical daughter will enslave the world!” Note that the plot includes Manchu wanting all Asians to raise up to Kill Whitey... well, white men, anyway; he does encourage white women to be taken. He pretty much says, "kill white men and take their women" to his Asian followers, which of course is a broad term but don't tell the Hollywood of the era that.

The most important thing to note is that this movie is incredibly racist. I mean, it's SO racist it's incredible. Many people are in on the yellowface act, and most of the actual Asian person don't have any dialogue. Me finding the movie to be entertaining and pulpy fun is despite the racism and bigotry and not because of it.

This website does a great job of breaking things down and it has some images and gifs. There are other sites out there which also do pretty nice recaps.

Yep. This is definitely a Pre-Code movie before the Hays Code took over Hollywood. To list various highlights:

* Like I said, the rampant racism throughout. Other people appear in yellowface. Actual people from far east Asia are seen but most don't speak at all.

* Fu Manchu can be a real dick. He has several torture devices that look like wackiness you'd expect a Bond villain to have. A series of spikes slowly closing in on someone, a guy placed directly underneath a constantly ringing giant bell (and he taunts the victim with food and gives him what turns out to be salt water), etc. Hell, he even uses a severed hand to be a troll and scare the good guys.

* Fah Lo See clearly gets off on two of the black servants (yes, a group of muscular black men not wearing a lot of clothes) whipping a poor white dude, so she's a sadist. She smokes opium in a later scene.

* The heroes are archaeologists, so some have made comparisons to Indiana Jones.

* There are homoerotic undertones. The Dr. may swing both ways.

Oh, and there's more but I don't want to spoil more than I already have.

The movie overall is ridiculous but fun pulp, despite the offensive nature of it viewed with the eyes of current attitudes. The short runtime and the content insures it's never dull. The sets and costumes are all pretty lavish and at times there's some great shots involving light and shadows. What an odd but still intriguing curio.

I'll return tomorrow night.