March 19, 2008
The Castle of Fu Manchu
"Therefore, I am displeased."
Starring: Christopher Lee, Richard Greene, Howard Marion Crawford, Tsai Chin, Gunther Stoll
Rating: 6/10
Directed By: Jesus Franco
Runtime: 98 minutes
Starring: Christopher Lee, Richard Greene, Howard Marion Crawford, Tsai Chin, Gunther Stoll
Rating: 6/10
Directed By: Jesus Franco
Runtime: 98 minutes
The fifth and final film in Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu series, Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) suffered a horrible critical and box office drubbing upon it's release. Significantly a step below it's predecessors (Face, Brides, Vengeance and Blood) and relying on footage from A Night to Remember (1958), Campbell's Kingdom (1957) and Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), Towers himself saw the end was here. "I said to Jesus when I'd viewed the print, 'oh, you'd done something that was impossible. You've successfully killed Fu Manchu.'" Not as bad as all that, Castle of Fu Manchu does indeed finish the series and provides a modicum of entertainment as a double-header with Blood of Fu Manchu.Fu this time wants to freeze the oceans as a display of his might and has no trouble trying out his new plan which, as always, alerts Nayland Smith (Richard Greene) and Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford). Petrie is smart enough to worry about the instability of Fu's new power but after spending the previous film mostly blind Smith wants action and he soon gets it as Fu kidnaps Professor Heracles (Gustavo Re), the world's foremost expert on crystallizing water. Fu's laboratory is bad-ass and he has every bong-looking implement ever, all bubbling and smoking up a storm. Heracles immediately sells out an (uncredited) Professor Kessler, heart guy, as he has a dickey heart and Fu tells him with Kessler he can cure it. Smith and Petrie rush to Kessler's side and the discovery of his hot secretary, Ingrid (shamelessly uncredited), is made. Kessler is stolen away right under Smith's nose and Smith is pissed. A little tenuous reasoning, a lit cigarette and they're off.
The rest of the plot is rather incomprehensible and you don't really need much more anyway. Fu Manchu continues throughout to show how completely ruthless and diabolical he is, which is really the selling point in the first place. It's not called Castle of Nayland Smith. Fu has no patience at all. He commands, things happen. Period. He has no compunction about using opium to draw in henchmen, as well as use it for nefarious doings of his own. "My hand stretches out to turn water into ice and transform safety into the deadliest peril, " says Fu and he Goddamn means it, threatening, "in four days I shall bring desolation to mankind." This is just the kind of savage shit he was into in the novels and Christopher Lee's in rare form in Castle. He gestures, he commands, he flat-out exudes menace. Fu is willing to sacrifice his own troops and he completely blows a dam apart because a) he wishes to convince Kessler to play it his way and b) because the workers refused to carry his shit up the mountain to his castle. He's a real "you don't do it and you're fucked" kinda boss. 
Smith is much more his active self in this film. Smith swims to Fu's island himself and jets easy as pie to the radio room where he calls in help. Fu's got a clever gas trap ready, though. He really is insidious. Once again blind luck goes Smith's way and the Si-Fan has to resort to fisticuffs. Smith is ready, "hip-bumping" enemies to the ground; kinda like the "hokey-pokey" as a kung-fu style. Still, he ECW's three opponents through tables and takes on one Kendo-stick wielder! Kessler and Ingrid fall victim to a water trap and Ingrid does her best to pull Kessler down and kill him in panic. Despite this, Kessler rescues himself and the girl, laying down the smack along the way and, once untied with Smith, the trio stands ready for whatever Fu can bring.Castle of Fu Manchu, though not on a par with Franco's previous effort nonetheless felt enough like a Fu Manchu story (albeit the worst one) to provide some enjoyment and is no worse a series entrant as the worst Bond would be - and I'll go on record as saying even the worst Bond is better than 85% of the crap out there just because it's a Bond but there are some less-than-stellar Bonds. Same with Castle of Fu Manchu. Not bad but there are way better Fu Manchu efforts. Jess Franco himself shows up as Inspector Ahmet and Christopher Lee, as I mentioned earlier, plays Fu to the hilt. Definitely worth a view if a Fu Manchu fan and it rounds out the 1960s series; for the rest, throw it in after Blood of Fu Manchu and fall asleep to it.