The Face of Fu Manchu

The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Don Sharp

Starring: Christopher Lee, Nigel Greene, Joachim Fuchsberger, Karin Dor, Tsai Chin

From: Hallam Productions/Constantin Films

It was the West German involvement in this production that made me DVR this film when it played on TCM this past Monday. As Constantin Films from that country were one of the producers, this is why Joachim Fuchsberger & Karin Dor-who I’ve seen in some German genre movies from that decade-went to the British Isles for the UK producers, including Harry Alan Towers-more on him at the end. It was also from a director I knew (Don Sharp) so color me intrigued.

It’s a matter of fact that the role of Fu Manchu in motion pictures has predominately been played by white dudes, despite the character’s Chinese origins. This is even regrettable when Christopher Lee is in the role, as he was here. The plot is hokum concerning an “ancient Tibetan flower” that can be used to kill every form of life in London; Fu kidnaps a scientist & forces him to create this formula. The setting is the UK a few decades beforehand, although it was filmed in Ireland. Something bad happens in the county of Essex; hopefully no one reading this is from there!

Dor had the mostly thankless role of the scientist’s daughter and Fuchsberger teamed up with Fu’s biggest enemy (Scotland Yard detective Greene) to stop him. Tsai Chin is another name I’ll bring up, mainly due to her currently still acting today and the memorable henchwoman trope she played here. It was largely what I expected: Manchu was a rather immoral villain, there is intrigue, action, the stereotypes of other white people in yellowface as the Pacific Rim Asians act in a devious manner, etc. I’m not condoning those stereotypes yet I was still entertained. The familiar faces did well with what they were given and “fun thriller” is the term I’ll use to describe this film. 

As for Harry Alan Towers, he was a producer who was in the business for 40 some odd years and made plenty of genre schlock yet was clearly successful to have had such a lengthy career. Many films w/ Christopher Lee, several directed by Jesus Franco, a relationship w/ Golan-Globus, The Mangler, and two of his final pictures co-starred Christoph Waltz years before Tarantino. What a legacy.