The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)
Directed by Don Sharp

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.

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...