The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
Directed by Don Sharp

Film Review

The enormous popularity of Sax Rohner's Fu Manchu novels - published between 1913 and 1959 - resulted in several of these being adapted for cinema in the early era of sound, the best known being The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), which starred Boris Karloff.  It would be three decades before the Oriental crime lord returned to the big screen, with Christopher Lee once more stepping into Karloff's shoes (as he had previously done as The Monster in Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)), in the first of a series of lowish budget features produced by Harry Alan Towers.  Rohmer's now dated adventure novels were given a new lease of life after the success of the first James Bond movie Dr No (1962), whose central villain was a direct homage to Rohmer's criminal mastermind.  Towers sought to capitalise on the popularity of the Bond films by offering up an Edwardian equivalent in which the principal good guy, Nayland Smith, would be every bit as tough, resilient and charismatic as Sean Connery's agent 007.

With its action set-pieces (including a protracted cross-country car chase involving vintage cars) and stylish production values, The Face of Fu Manchu looks as if it owes more to Ian Fleming than it does to Sax Rohmer, although it is by far the best of the five Fu Manchu films made by Towers.  After this impressive opener there came two fairly respectable sequels - The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) - but the series ended in a less than spectacular vein when exploitation director Jesus Franco came on board and finished it off for good with the risible The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969).

The Face of Fu Manchu's main asset is the casting of Nigel Green in the role of Fu Manchu's nemesis, Sir Denis Nayland Smith.  With his imposing physique and commanding voice, Green had an arresting screen presence that meant he was as well-suited as the opponent to the über-charismatic Lee as Peter Cushing had been in Hammer's Dracula films.  Dour and determined, Green's portrayal of Nayland Smith looks as if it may have been closely modelled on Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes, an impression that can only be reinforced by Howard Marion-Crawford's Dr Petrie, a stumbling sidekick who is struggles to be more than a second rate Dr Watson.  Despite being perfect for the part, Green refused to reprise the role of Nayland Smith in the subsequent Fu Manchu films and so it fell on the less impressive shoulders of Douglas Wilmer and Richard Greene - one of many reasons why the later Fu Manchu films produced by Towers fail to hold a candle to the first.

The Face of Fu Manchu not only boasts a strong cast (Joachim Fuchsberger is excellent as the tormented captured scientist Jannsen and James Robertson Justice makes a memorable appearance), it is also superbly directed by Don Sharp, whose work here surpasses his impressive Hammer horror outings, The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966).  The attention to period detail is apparent in every scene and this adds to the film's gritty realism, whilst the photography and music contribute an aura of expectant dread throughout, lending a Mabuse-like power to Lee's chillingly sadistic villain.  The opening sequence depicting the apparent execution of Fu Manchu is hauntingly eerie and sets the tone brilliantly for the grim good-versus-evil confrontation that ensues.  If only the film's producer had been able to retain Nigel Green's services for its sequels we might have had a series of British adventure-thriller films to rival the popularity of the Bond movies, rather than an ignominious descent into bargain basement absurdity.

Film Synopsis

In the early 1900s, Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, a senior British police commissioner, attends the formal execution of arch-criminal Fu Manchu in China.  Not long after his return to London, Nayland Smith has reason to think that the criminal mastermind is still in action and preparing his next dastardly scheme for world domination.  An eminent biochemist, Professor Ernst Muller, is abducted and forced against his will to distil a deadly poison from the Black Hill poppy, a plant that grows only in Tibet.  At present, the poison is effective only at sub-zero temperatures.  Operating from his underground base on the River Thames, Fu Manchu intends stealing a formula known only to the Tibetan monks that will render it deadly at any temperature.  As a demonstration of his intent, he wipes out an entire village in Essex.  Nayland Smith realises that he has only hours to save the world from its most ruthless and formidable adversary.  As the redoubtable police commissioner searches for his opponent's secret lair, Fu Manchu savours victory, knowing that he will soon have in his hands the means to fulfil his great ambition.  But first, it is time for Nayland Smith to die...