Film Review
Such was the success of
The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
that its producer Harry Alan Towers must have felt he was on to a winner
and a sequel was soon rushed into production, for release late the following
year.
The Brides of Fu Manchu
was the second of the five
Fu Manchu
films produced by Towers, with Christopher Lee at his most coldly
malevolent as the Oriental prince of darkness. Unable to come up
with an original storyline, Towers (credited under his pseudonym Peter
Welbeck) recycled virtually the entire plot of the preceding film, with
the result that the most significant difference between the two films
was the replacement of Nigel Green with Douglas Wilmer in the principal
good guy role of Nayland Smith - not, it has to be said, a change for the better.
In common with most sequels,
The
Brides of Fu Manchu suffers from a distinct air of complacency
that is evident in just about every department, with the result that
whilst the film is entertaining it is noticeably inferior to what went
before. Green's presence as the grimly steely Nayland Smith is
certainly missed and Douglas Wilmer is a pale imitation, out-classed by
his amiable sidekick Howard Marion-Crawford and almost totally eclipsed
by the villain of the piece. Lee's suffocatingly charismatic Fu
Manchu remains one of the grislier manifestations of pure evil to grace
a British film, even when he has on his payroll a certain Burt Kwouk.
The writing and casting are not the only let-downs. Don Sharp's
direction is also below par, although the action scenes are faster and
feistier and, overall, the film is somewhat better paced than Tower's
first
Fu Manchu film.
Roger Hanin was presumably thrown into the cast list to make the movie
more appealing to a French cinema audience, Hanin having recently made
a name for himself in France in characterless tough guy roles in films
such as
La Valse du gorille (1959) and
Le Tigre aime la chair fraîche
(1964). Even though the imagination and flair were already
lacking, this second
Fu Manchu
romp was enough of a success for Towers to knock out three further
sequels, milking one cash cow until it had run completely dry.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In 1924, the Chinese criminal mastermind Fu Manchu sets up his
headquarters in North Africa and organises a series of
kidnappings. All of the victims are young women, the daughters of
famous scientists, industrialists and politicians. Fu Manchu's
aim, as ever, is world domination, and to that end he has also
kidnapped Professor Merlin, who has almost perfected a process that
will convert radio waves into a concentrated energy beam. The
first experiment shows the devastating power of Merlin's invention as
it destroys an ocean liner. This time, Nayland Smith and his team
at Scotland Yard will have their work cut out for them...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.