the fiendish plot of dr . fu manchu
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some funny bits from the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu (1980), starring peter sellers as fu manchu and nayland smith .
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the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu, from left: clement harari, peter sellers, 1980, © orion
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the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu
is not actually the longest title of any
fu manchu
movie as 1924' s
the further mysteries of dr. fu manchu
( containing the same number of words but more letters) was slightly longer .
' s
fu manchu
stories, fu manchu' s daughter and dr. petrie (a friend of nayland - smith), do not appear in this movie .
the movie actually had little resemblance to any earlier
fu manchu
film or original sax rohmer
fu manchu
story .
one of two movies with famous fictional asian central characters which had a long title and were released in the usa in 1980 - 81 within six months of each other. the movies were the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu (1980) and charlie chan and the curse of the dragon queen (1981) .
he acted in films with a long list of stars, including sellers in ‘‘the party’’ and ‘‘the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu’’; lewis in ‘‘which way to the front? ’’ and ‘‘hardly working’’; marlon brando and jack nicholson in ‘‘the missouri breaks’’; and james garner and julie andrews in ‘‘the americanization of emily. ’’
first
fu manchu' feature film in eleven years, the last had been sax rohmer' s the castle of fu manchu (1969) starring christopher lee .
regular characters in sax rohmer' s
fu manchu
stories, fu manchu' s daughter and dr. petrie (a friend of nayland - smith), do not appear in this movie .
in search of a secret formula to prolong his life, dr. fu manchu must battle his arch rival, a scotland yard detective named nayland smith, for the right to world domination. peter sellers stars as both nayland smith and dr. fu manchu in his final film appearance .
thus we return to one of our established mummies, peter sellers. his own posthumous movie, the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu (1980), is an oh - my - god - crazy - offensive yellowface farce starring a 168 - year - old fu manchu, and is full of gong blasts, casual racial slurs, and eyelid tape. this two - hour piece of shit is based on a novel by sax rohmer, the pseudonymous creator of fu manchu (first published story: “the mysterious mummy”), and has sellers playing both fu manchu and nayland smith, longtime nemeses. “he is evil to my good, yea to my nay, yin to my yang, ” smith remarks, having had a previous clash with fu manchu in—where else? —a pyramid in egypt .
—why are there no fatal falls in the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu, the mummy, or lolita? no shattered glass in eyes without a face? perhaps the template is flawed. like freud, “we must be prepared to admit that there are other elements besides those which we have so far laid down, ” and that we’ve overlooked some denominators shared between mummies and the uncanny .
fu manchu was always a problematic character in this respect. the fu manchu films were the subject of protests and petitions as early as 1932. during world war ii, with china joining the allies in the fight against imperial japan, rohmer’s publishers suspended the series, leading to a seven - year gap between books, and the us state department shut down production of a republic pictures film featuring the character. even when the franchise was revived in the late 1950s, there was a sense that fu manchu had become an embarrassment; christopher lee played fu in five films in the 1960s, but these have rarely been shown on tv because of pressure by anti - defamation groups. by the late ‘70s, the character’s reputation had become so toxic that even the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu — a blatant satire starring peter sellers — was greeted with protests .
cloud cuckoolander: as a result of years of torture at fu manchu' s hands, nayland smith insists on keeping a lawnmower with him at all times. fu manchu is even able to take him out of commission for a large portion of the movie by stealing the mower .
—the beginning of the film doesn’t necessarily coincide with the beginning of the cycle .
and, for that matter, they' re not so funny anyway. the movie has some good moments (what peter sellers comedy could not have ?), but the story never really involves us, the characters aren' t all that interesting once you get beyond the makeup and the funny names and it' s a bit disappointing that
the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu
doesn' t grab the obvious opportunity to satirize all the old boris karloff lateshow specials .
christiane’s body rejects the face graft; meanwhile, the police become suspicious at the uncanny resemblances between the discovered victims, and (as in the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu) dispatch a decoy to dr. genessier’s office to ensnare him. the decoy is captured, but in the final scene, christiane saves her, and releases genessier’s laboratory doves and dogs, the latter of which tear genessier’s face off. christiane, with a dove perched on her arm, wanders off. doves are homing pigeons, so if it’s guiding her anywhere, it’s probably returning somewhere it’s been before .
i would like to be able to say that the megawatt tackiness and jaw - dropping bad taste of that sequence is indicative of the film as a whole, but the “rock a fu” sequence has a vulgar, shameless energy that’s largely missing from the rest of the film. it’s egregiously awful, whereas the remainder of the film is overwhelmingly, unintentionally sad. and incredibly, incredibly dull. the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu offers the sad spectacle of a great artist (and deplorable human being) prostituting his tremendous gifts for one last mercenary paycheck. listen closely, and you can hear the muted sighs of a dying man’s disappointment and regret in sellers’ every scene .
the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu premiered after sellers’ death, and was panned by the critics mercilessly and regretfully, as if he ought not to have survived long enough to make it. there is a certain poignancy in the central story - line: his minions attempt to locate a life - giving elixir while the aged fu manchu is kept alive by increasingly violent electric shocks. unfortunately, sellers’ touching, finely detailed performance as dennis nayland - smith – an ‘old - school’ englishman in flannel trousers, houndstooth checkered jacket and wool tie – sadly went unnoticed in the rain of adverse criticism .
when fu manchu drops the sword, terry picks it up and hacks him to death. while terry frees sheila and carries her away, nayland smith and von berg incinerate fu manchu' s followers using the same weapon. safely aboard a ship bound for england, nayland smith tosses the sword over the side so that the world will be safe from any future fu manchu .
the mask of fu manchu is a 1932 pre - code adventure film directed by charles brabin. it was written by irene kuhn, edgar allan woolf and john willard based on the 1932 novel of the same name by sax rohmer. starring boris karloff as fu manchu, and featuring myrna loy as his depraved daughter, the movie revolves around fu manchu' s quest for the golden sword and mask of genghis khan. lewis stone plays his nemesis .
fu manchu' s 168th birthday celebration is dampened when a hapless flunky spills fu' s age - regressing elixir vitae. fu sends his lackeys to round up ingredients for a new batch of elixir, ... see full summary »
villain protagonist: the film is very much fu manchu' s story, with nayland smith just being a bystander for the most part .
during its initial release, the mask of fu manchu was criticized by the chinese government, and the chinese embassy in washington launched a formal complaint against the film for its hostile depiction of the chinese. the speech where fu manchu tells his followers to
kill the white man and take his women !
was singled out for strong criticism. [ 2 ]
mcleod is killed by one of fu manchu' s men during a robbery attempt, after mcleod kills one of fu manchu' s men. when that fails, an emissary offers to trade barton for the priceless artifacts. despite terry' s misgivings, sheila persuades him to take the relics to fu manchu without smith' s knowledge. however, when fu manchu tests the sword, he determines that it is a fake (nayland had switched them). terry is whipped under the supervision of fah lo see, who is attracted to him. meanwhile, fu manchu has barton' s corpse delivered to sheila. when nayland tries to rescue terry, he is taken captive as well .
the name of the rare canary diamond was
the star of leningrad
.
before master of kung fu — one hundred years ago, in fact, in 1913 — a trashy pulp novel called the mystery of dr. fu manchu became an unexpected bestseller on both sides of the atlantic. in mystery, the english writer arthur sarsfield ward (using the pen name sax rohmer) created the character who would introduce a new archetype to popular fiction: the world - conquering criminal mastermind .
known for playing multiple characters in movies, peter sellers plays four roles in this movie, two of them cameos. the characters included dr. fu' fred' manchu, sir dennis nayland smith, a mexican bandito and an antique dealer .
the mummy is an ingredient in fu manchu’s longevity elixir, which restores his youth, with a side effect: the face - clutchingly awful finale has fu manchu inexplicably possessed by elvis. thus fu manchu, the west’s caricature (( as long as we’re on fu manchu, we can also contemplate his archetypal inverse: the obsequious charlie chan, most famously played by a yellowface warner oland, who’d also played fu manchu. bruce lee was screentested for the part of charlie chan’s “number one son”—a role he would’ve inherited from keye luke. luke would go on to become the first asian actor to play charlie chan, the same year he played david carradine’s mentor master po in kung fu, and one year before overdubbing the voice of the lead villain in enter the dragon, who fights by hiding in a hall of mirrors .) ) of asian supremacism, assumes a caricature of white culture—yellowface in whiteface .
around seventeen years prior to this film, peter sellers once appeared in an episode of the telegoons (1963) in 1963 called the telegoons: the terrible revenge of fred fu - manchu (1964) .
on dr. fu manchu' s 186th birthday, someone spills his age - reversing elixir, and the evil doctor sends his minions off to find the ingredients to make more. the first item they need is the star of leningrad diamond which they steal while it is on exhibition in washington. the fbi needs help in solving the crime so they send for nayland smith, a retired scotland yard investigator and an expert on his nemisis fu manchu .
the name of the hot - air balloon was
the spirit of wiltshire
.
a 1980 parody of the fu manchu novels and films, best known in retrospect for being the final (completed) film of peter sellers, who died a few days before it was released .
on dr. fu manchu'' s 186th birthday, someone spills his age - reversing elixir, and the evil doctor sends his minions off to find the ingredients to make more. the first item they need is the star of leningrad diamond which they steal while it is on exhibition in washington. the fbi needs help in solving the crime so they send for nayland smith, a retired scotland yard investigator and an expert on his nemisis fu manchu .
third spoof asian characterization in a decade for actor peter sellers. sellers plays a parody of fu manchu, dr. fu' fred' manchu in this movie. in _ soft beds, hard battles _, sellers played a japanese military officer prince kyota whilst in' neil simon'' s murder by death (1976), sellers played sidney wang, a spoof of charlie chan .
sir denis nayland smith (lewis stone) of the british secret service warns egyptologist sir lionel barton (lawrence grant) that he must beat fu manchu in the race to find the tomb of genghis khan. the power - mad fu manchu (boris karloff) intends to use the sword and mask to proclaim himself the reincarnation of the legendary conqueror and inflame the peoples of asia and the middle east into a war to wipe out the
white race
. sir lionel is kidnapped soon afterward and taken to fu manchu. fu manchu tries bribing his captive, even offering his own daughter, fah lo see (myrna loy). when that fails, barton suffers the
torture of the bell
( lying underneath a gigantic, constantly ringing bell) in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to reveal the location of the tomb .
the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu consequently doesn’t feel directed so much as assembled, then grudgingly completed because that seemed a slightly preferable alternative to shutting down production and calling it a day. no one seems to be steering the ship. a handful of quirky, engagingly weird gags die at the hands of listless execution, like a sequence where the motley crew of international crime fighters decide they need a female constable to impersonate the queen as a decoy, so they hold open auditions of lady constables performing the kinds of acts that would get laughed off the gong show. helen mirren wins, of course, with a performance of “good ship lollipop. ” who is better suited to playing the queen? but the tone is all off; instead of raucous and irreverent, this sequence of mirren auditioning comes off as airless and grey .
peter sellers doing accents and talking dr. strangelove on nbc' s today show interview (1980 )
worthy opponent: fu manchu acknowledges nayland smith as this near the end of the movie, and even gives him his own supply of elixir vitae so that they can continue their rivalry for decades to come .
fu manchu' s 168th birthday celebration is dampened when a hapless flunky spills fu' s age - regressing elixir vitae. fu sends his lackeys to round up ingredients for a new batch of elixir, starting with the star of leningrad diamond, nabbed from a soviet exhibition in washington. the fbi sends agents capone and williams to england to confer with nayland smith, an expert on fu. nayland suspects fu will kidnap the king and queen and demand the george v diamond as ransom. scotland yard recruits alice rage to stand - in for the queen. fu nabs the
fake
queen; rage becomes enamored of fu and aids him in his quest for the george v diamond .
synopsis: “fu manchu’s 168th birthday celebration is dampened when a hapless flunky spills fu’s age - regressing elixir vitae. fu sends his lackeys to round up ingredients for a new batch of elixir, starting with the star of leningrad diamond, nabbed from a soviet exhibition in washington. the fbi sends agents capone and williams to england to confer with nayland smith, an expert on fu. nayland suspects fu will kidnap the king and queen and demand the george v diamond as ransom. scotland yard recruits alice rage to stand - in for the queen. fu nabs the ‘fake’ queen; rage becomes enamored of fu and aids him in his quest for the george v diamond. ” (courtesy imdb )
the name of the musical playing at the theater was
the gay crusader
.
as mentioned above, there was a martial arts vogue sweeping the nation concurrent with the nostalgia boom. along with the fu manchu license, marvel held an option on the tv show kung fu, the genre - mashing chopsockey western starring david carradine. tasked with creating a vehicle for fu manchu, writer steve englehart and artist jim starlin essentially combined the two properties, bringing the contemplative tone of kung fu into rohmer’s lurid pulp world. they chose for their protagonist a naïve young man, raised in a monastic setting, now adrift in a western world that he little understands. like kwai chang caine, he possesses remarkable fighting skills, but seeks only to live in peace; yet he is continually drawn into conflicts not of his choosing — conflicts, in this case, with the forces of fu manchu. and just to give the conflict a personal stake, the protagonist is, in fact, fu manchu’s own son .
peter sellers’ ferociously uneven career should have ended with his idiot saint of a gardener - turned - guru in being there walking on water, having transcended this corrupt spiritual realm and evolved into a higher state of being. after all the bad movies sellers made, and all the turmoil and unhappiness that characterized his personal and professional life, it would have been glorious for his career to end on a note of absolute peace and tranquility. instead, sellers ended it by donning an elvis - style blue - and - white, rhinestone - studded jumpsuit, a goatee, and a pompadour, and singing the following lines from “rock a fu” as the title character in 1980’s the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu: “from san francisco to peking / confucius say this cat’s the king / the cops they tell you i ain’t nice / fu knows how to fry that rice. ”
but don’t bother to go looking for it, because you won’t find it. though it was one of the first mainstream comics to be deliberately conceived and executed in long story arcs, perfectly suited for collection, you can’t buy it in paperback. no part of master of kung fu ’s classic ten - year run has ever been reprinted. unless you’ve got the original issues, you’re out of luck. and it’s all because of that criminal genius, dr. fu manchu .
the cameo: burt kwouk, who co - starred with sellers as kato in the pink panther films, makes a brief appearance at the start of the film, during which fu manchu tells him ,
your face is familiar .
—mummies tend to have counterparts of the opposite sex: billy lo and ann miller, eric draven and shelly webster, fu manchu and helen rage, imhotep and helen grosvenor, humbert and lolita, quilty and vivian, beatrix and bill, christiane and dr. genessier. the actors who played them were all married .
again there are telltale resonances between this film and others in our expanding mummyverse. the film opens as fu manchu, whose ludicrous weeping - willow hair resembles the geezered - up billy lo’s, is about to be administered a longevity elixir by one of his si - fan (( “the most diabolical secret oriental organization in the world, ” and a near - homophone of bruce lee’s original genderqueered birth name, sai fon .) ) dacoits. “your face is familiar, ” fu manchu tells him for no reason (( no reason within the movie, i mean. it’s most likely a reference to the fact that the extra, burt kwouk, acted alongside sellers in the pink panther and appeared in two fu manchu films. this is another example of the phenomenon of the uncanny double vision that marks a mummy sighting: fu manchu can apprehend kwouk’s familiarity, but not his identity .) ); when the bumbling servant accidentally destroys the elixir, an enraged fu manchu commands his other servants to “bury him alive in the red ant hill”—which resembles imhotep’s punishment .
—mummy movies tend to be parts of series, sequences, or revivals: polanski’s apartment trilogy, the game of death series and its imitators, kung fu, the ring, the dozen - or - so installments of the mummy, the half - dozen fu manchu films, lolita and its remake, kill bill ’s two volumes (with others possible), and so on .
ok! maybe it is not the best film making but it is fun, and is the last hurrah for one of the great comic actors of all time. a gentle spoof of all of those fu manchu films over the years, (and frankly better than many of them) it contained many of the hallmarks of sellers films such as playing multiple roles (fu manchu and nemesis nayland smith) using comic actors of similar stripe (sid caesar) re - uniting with bert kwouk (his man - servant in many of the pink panther movies .) this was also the farewell film of actor david tomlinson and john le messeur both of whom retired from films after this. the movie is a fun romp with a mix of the absurd slapstick and the witty dialog of the characters. one of my favorite lines happens after a line of dacoit assassins appear in front of fu manchu and he says
you can' t fool me with a cheap cinematic trick .
this was very fitting farewell to a great comic genius .
the project must have been just the kind sellers loved to work on. he plays two of the major roles in the movie, the ancient fu manchu and the unflappable nayland smith of scotland yard. he also turns up in a variety of other disguises, as a chinese chef, a foppish antique dealer and the young fu. the roles required complex makeup jobs (as old fu, he looks like one of madame tussaud' s bad dreams); then sellers plays around with accents, props, all the schtick he can dream up .
—the curse’s cyclical nature is betokened by annular objects: a shot of a roulette wheel introduces the game of death ’s title sequence; a spiral staircase leads up to trelkovsky’s room in the tenant; eric draven fights to reclaim his wedding ring; the mummy was based on the hg wells story “the ring of thoth”; freud exemplifies “the ring of polycrates” as uncanny (( the title alludes to a ring that polycrates threw into the sea but returned to him in the body of a fish .) ); nathaniel in “the sandman” seeks a ring to offer to olympia; a mysterious millstone sits in nayland smith’s yard in the fiendish plot…; and then there’s the ring and circle of iron .
gainax ending: things get very strange in the last fifteen minutes or so, which has nayland smith' s house suddenly sprouting a hot air balloon, flying to china, and then smith for some reason just giving fu manchu the diamond he needs to finish the elixir vitae. the strangeness then gets turned up to eleven in the final moments, when the rejuvenated fu manchu suddenly performs a rock musical number .
captured by fu manchu, the party is sentenced to death or enslavement, but not before sheila manages to bring terry back to his senses. sheila is to become a human sacrifice, nayland smith is to be lowered into a crocodile pit, and von berg placed between two sets of metal spikes inching toward each other. terry is prepared for another dose of the serum, which will make him a permanent slave of the whims of fu manchu' s daughter .
yellow face: surprisingly enough, played completely straight. the film never once lampshades or even acknowledges the fact that fu manchu is being played by a white man in heavy make - up .
however, nayland smith manages to free himself, terry, and von berg. using one of fu manchu' s own weapons—a death ray that shoots an electric current—the men incapacitate the arch - villain as he raises the sword to execute sheila .
face heel turn: after being captured, alice suddenly falls deeply in love with fu manchu for some reason (loosely implied to be a shared love of musical theatre) and helps him steal the crown jewels .
fatal falls. clockwise from top left: trelkovsky, eric draven, edna gruber, yousef bey, billy lo, dr. land
for the ‘double’ was originally an insurance against the destruction of the ego, an ‘energetic denial of the power of death’, as rank says; and probably the ‘immortal’ soul was the first ‘double’ of the body. this invention of doubling as a preservation… led the ancient egyptians to develop the art of making images of the dead in lasting materials… but when this stage [ of primary narcissism ] has been surmounted, the ‘double’ reverses its aspect. from having been an assurance of immortality, it becomes the uncanny harbinger of death. —sigmund freud, “the uncanny”
on his 168th birthday, dr. fu manchu (sellers) is set to take a dose of his age - regressing elixir vitae. unfortunately, an incompetent henchman sets himself on fire and uses the elixir to douse the flames, leaving the supervillain with only a few months to gather enough diamonds to create a new elixir. fu manchu soon targets the crown jewels of the british royal family, and scotland yard calls his old rival, nayland smith (also sellers) out of retirement. smith has gone a little... odd as a result of a previous period of being captured and tortured by his nemesis, but he comes up with a plan to save the jewels, including having a talented policewoman, alice rage (helen mirren) impersonate the queen .
the movie' s original director was richard quine who had directed peter sellers' previous film the prisoner of zenda (1979). quine was the film' s director during pre - production. however, the two fell out over that movie prior to
fu manchu
starting filming .
the plot, in hindsight, is also just a little morbid, given sellers' recent death. as fu manchu, he plays a 168 - year - old man who starts fading fast after a clumsy assistant spills the vial containing his youth potion. manchu has to reassemble the secret ingredients, including a precious jewel, and so he stages an international crime wave. but his life force is ebbing low, and there are scenes where his assistants feed him jolts of electricity to keep him turning over. it is just a shade hard to laugh at some of these scenes so soon after the funeral .
fu manchu was certainly one of the big names, but — for a number of reasons — presented a problematic figure around which to build a franchise. foremost of these was the inherent storytelling problem of having a baddie as the name above the title. the powers at marvel decided early on to use fu manchu in an antagonistic role, and to build a book around around a protagonist opposing him. not nayland smith — who to be frank was never a particularly interesting character — but someone new, and modern; someone without the baggage of smith or petrie, through whom a new audience could find an entry point for a sixty - year old franchise .
jean hill of hill irish dance school brings the culture of ireland to oklahoma dancers .
but if fu manchu was not the first fictional villain to embody these simmering racial anxieties, it was in him that all the storytelling possibilities came together. the character became wildly popular, and remarkably durable. rohmer wrote about fu manchu off and on until 1959, and he appeared in many films; but his true legacy is in the many, many subsequent villains of fiction to be modelled — in whole or in part, consciously or not — on the devil doctor of limehouse. there were legions of outright knock - offs, most of them lost now to obscurity, and deservedly so. but some were as memorable as the good doctor himself. flash gordon ’s ming the merciless, marvel baddies the mandarin and the yellow claw, the shadow ’s shiwan khan, james bond’s enemy doctor no — all straight - up homages to fu manchu. but elements of the character show up even where the ethnic signifiers are absent, in the likes of doctor doom, or in the batman’s immortal arch - enemy ra’s al - ghul, even in star trek ’s khan .
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frankenstein is a resurrected mummy, so we know just what kind of curse the curse of frankenstein delivers. this film was the first of hammer films’ occult classics, the third of which was, naturally, a reboot of the mummy, starring christopher lee .
there are some amusing exchanges, for instance, when fu manchu is informed of a new disaster befalling his organisation, he says “that is good news. ” – “why is it good news, master? ” – “because i’m in no condition to receive bad news. ” in another scene fu manchu’s minions attempt to kidnap queen mary at the botanical gardens by disguising themselves as englishmen…and flowers. but the script lacks discipline and the supporting cast – including helen mirren, david tomlinson, sid caesar, john le mesurier, steve franken and burt kwouk – lacks direction, suffering irrevocably from sellers’ tampering. by the time the film finishes with a rejuvenated fu manchu impersonating elvis presley for no particular reason, it becomes painfully obvious that all involved had run out of both steam and ideas .
master of kung fu is the story of shang - chi — a name which means “the rising and advancing of a spirit” — raised by his nefarious father in the isolation of a fortress compound, where no western influence could penetrate. shang - chi’s upbringing is a perverse experiment in using innocence as a tool of evil. he is raised with a reverence and respect for all life, and grows into a youth of near - superhuman martial prowess and impeccable moral character. but he has been lied to, since birth — taught to idolize his father as a paragon of all that is good and righteous. when shang - chi comes of age, fu manchu orders him to travel to london, and to kill his father’s enemy, dr. petrie. shang - chi, believing petrie to be evil, willingly undertakes the mission, and heads off into the big world for the first time, like candide recast as an assassin. but nayland smith intervenes and confronts shang - chi with evidence of his father’s villainous career. realizing the monstrous deception that has deformed his entire life, shang - chi rebels against fu manchu .
before the closing production number sends the film out on an appropriately horrifying note, fu manchu has another moment of unexpected pathos in which the famously self - loathing sellers acts out his internal war through his dueling doppelgängers. for reasons i’m not sure anyone involved in the production even understood, sellers’ evil doctor ends the film by giving his ostensible nemesis smith the secret to eternal youth as part of an image makeover .
clockwise from top left: christiane’s “face”; dr. genessier’s first victim, disguised and reflected; a masked christiane regards herself in the mirror; edna gruber, faceless and bandaged .
none of this was precisely new. there’s more than a little of professor moriarty in the doctor’s makeup, and the honorable - adversary relationship between fu and smith cannot help recall that between the great detective and his nemesis. (smith even has a sidekick, dr. petrie, who narrates his adventures .) nor was fu manchu popular fiction’s first would - be conqueror of asian extraction. that dubious honor one goes to one kiang ho, a harvard - educated warlord who featured in an 1892 “scientific romance” called tom edison jr. ’s electric sea spider, or, the wizard of the submarine world, which i mention here primarily for its irresistible title. for kiang ho, you see, was just a warm - up act for dr. yen how, from m. p. shiel ’s the yellow danger, a hysterical racist screed from 1898; a half - chinese / half - japanese military strategist, yen how unites the two countries and unleashes all the limitless hordes of asia upon the unsuspecting west .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
burt kwouk: as fu manchu' s servant. kwouk worked with peter sellers on four pink panther movies. upon seeing him in this film, seller' s character says ,
your face is familiar
. this can be interpreted as both a reference to them having appeared in those four films as well as a reference to kwouk' s uncredited appearances in two
fu manchu
films which starred christopher lee .
—lee, kubrick, nabokov, polanski, tarantino (( in a 2009 interview, tarantino claimed he isn’t religious but believes in “past lives. ”) ), and humbert were all atheists. many of the narratives concern tampering with the occult or playing god: dr. genessier, imhotep, fu manchu, top dollar, and those seeking revenge (contra romans 12: 19). our word for “uncanny” derives from the scottish for occult. linking mummyism to divine retribution seems reductive, but it’s telling that many religions promise a remission of the cycle of death and rebirth .
in this episode of the bloody pit brian lindsey and i discuss the character' s various film incarnations with special concentration on karloff' s scenery chewing villainy in mgm' s lavish the mask of fu manchu (1932) and christopher lee' s 1965 to 1969 five film run as a more accurate version of the character for producer harry allan towers. we also touch on the novels, the 1940 republic serial and the last (so far) big screen attempt to use fu in peter sellers' final film in which the star plays both fu and his nemesis sir nayland smith. we both fear that the possibilities of a modern adaptation of these sax rohmer stories are next to nil but we do give a few suggestions about what would be necessary to accomplish such a difficult (and probably financially ruinous) task .
christopher frayling, quoted in
fu manchu
, in newman, kim (ed .), the bfi companion to horror. london, cassell, 1996, pp. 131 - 32; isbn 0 - 304 - 33216 - x
unfortunately, the movie itself gives him little support. the screenplay doesn' t seem to have been thought through on the level of small details, and details are what make movies like this funny. the hazard in these enterprises is that the story sounds so funny (fu manchu needs secret youth elixir, stages raid on british crown jewels) that the screenplay is never pushed to the next level of detail. by contrast, the inspector clouseau movies always felt meticulously thought - out .
but even if the legal issues were somehow resolved, it’s doubtful that master of kung fu would ever be reprinted — because fu manchu has become an untouchable character. the devil doctor is now a symbol of attitudes that were once all too prevalent, attitudes that we would prefer to forget. such a character can never again be played straight; the only way to approach the archetype is through a protective layer of irony — as was done with the mandarin, in iron man 3 — and even then you risk giving offense. (the fact that china is now the biggest overseas market for us films only compounds the irony — and the risk. )
consider the name of the game of death. neither bruce lee’s original project nor the final product had anything to do with games. games are abstract, constructed metaphorical systems bound by rules, experiences that are also doppelgangers of experience. the game of death is a fake death, but the death of what? and for whom is the game of death a game ?
even in master of kung fu, there’s some visual stereotyping. there are none of the slitty - eyed, buck - toothed caricatures that make (say) the 1940s blackhawk so excruciating to read, but the inconsistencies of the coloring are troublesome. the jaundiced yellow skin tones of fu manchu and shadow - stalker, seen above, are pretty horrific, especially given that most of the other asian characters are colored more realistically. (oddly, shang - chi’s unnatural orange pigmentation doesn’t “read” as stereotypical, as he is the only character, asian or western, to be so colored. it marks him out, giving a unique visual signature as a literal and metaphorical “golden boy. ” )
it will enhance any encyclopedic page you visit with the magic of the wiki 2 technology .
the latest releases on dvd of this movie by warner bros have restored the above scenes .
. due to such criticism, the 1992 vhs release of the film removed several scenes containing the most criticized lines of dialogue, such as the
kill the white man
speech, and the scenes of myrna loy in an orgiastic frenzy while witnessing a torture whipping .
fu manchu is offstage for long stretches, but he casts a shadow over the entire series — so that when he does occasionally emerge, he gains a renewed grandeur. his periodic appearances, in massive, intricate story arcs unfolding over a year or more’s worth of issues, feel truly epic .
many of the issues we’ve discussed appear in wittgenstein’s posthumous writings, like his notion of “family resemblance” (which resembles our idea of paratransmission), or his famous analogy between language and games, but maybe nowhere more than in the regard of the face, his incessant analogies between faces and intrinsic meaning—“the face is the soul of the body, ” he wrote .
there’s even a real - life connection between the two films, as with the crow: bruce lee personally instructed roman polanski in kung fu (yes, really) .
peter sellers had such a weak heart, that he was advised not to make this film at all. he ignored that advice and did the movie anyway. chillingly prophetic was part of the film' s storyline where fu manchu keeps his heart beating by intermittently giving himself electric shocks. the movie was sellers' final film. the picture debuted about a month after sellers' passing .
this is complex, provocative stuff, even for 2013. for all its occasional missteps, master of kung fu is not only beautiful, ground - breaking comics storytelling — it advances the conversation on race with a candor and fearlessness not often seen in pop entertainment. it reclaims the fu manchu archetype from the realm of camp, only to slyly interrogate and eventually dismantle that archetype over the course of its run. that these stories are only available in moldering back - issue bins seems criminal; it is sad to think that one day they shall be gone forever, as the ravages of time render their pages brittle and discolored — another sort of yellow peril — before turning them to dust .
is this reputation deserved? certainly fu manchu, as originally conceived, is a vile caricature, and rohmer’s early books are filled with casual anti - asian slurs and nativist rhetoric. rohmer — who had once been a newspaper reporter, covering the limehouse crime beat — offered the the mealy - mouthed “hey, some of my best friends are chinese” excuse so typical of the bigot. in his autobiography, he wrote: “of course, not the whole chinese population of limehouse was criminal. but it contained a large number of persons who had left their own country for the most urgent of reasons. these people knew no way of making a living other than the criminal activities that had made china too hot for them. ”
while we reflect on a moment of poignancy, what happens next is bizarre in the extreme. smith is left to ponder as to whether to take the elixir (which fu has already taken and is now once again young and virile) and is questioned as to “what on earth’s going on nayland? ”smith simply says, “i’m not entirely sure” while looking lost and confused. fu reappears and sings us out with a questionable faux - rock number called “rock a fu”. we then get a few moments of smith still looking confused while the song plays out and we end on a freeze frame of sellers’ fu - manchu miming to a rather poor song. as endings go it isn’t a classic. in fact it surely smacks of a lack of any clear idea of what to do with the film. that is the last moment of sellers on film we are left with. not chance on that lake, walking on the water as sellers slipped off into the unknown. instead we are left with sellers dressed up in “yellow - face” in an elvis costume miming to a terrible song .
—theft and trespass are recurring motifs: billy lo, beatrix kiddo, quilty, humbert, edna gruber, trelkovsky, fu manchu, imhotep, nina sayers, and eric draven either have important things stolen from them or orchestrate thefts themselves. and billy lo, beatrix kiddo, quilty, humbert, trelkovsky, fu manchu, imhotep, and eric draven all commit some b & e or inveigle themselves into someplace forbidden. kidnapping is also common. these crimes are all built into the archetypal raid of the mummy’s tomb; with respect to identity, possession constitutes theft, trespass, and kidnapping .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
writer doug moench is a white liberal, and he works to give even fu manchu a certain dignity, portraying his anti - western xenophobia as a reaction to occidental racism, “the hate that hate produced” — malcolm x as supervillain. but from our contemporary viewpoint, where race is understood as primarily a social construct, we still find in master of kung fu some jarring notes of racial essentialism. certainly a panel such as this one (at right) must give us pause .
the bad guy wins: fu manchu steals all the diamonds, rejuvenates himself and even manages to snag himself a hot girlfriend, with nayland smith only managing to temporarily inconvenience him. having said that, smith does succeed in retrieving everything else that the doctor stole... mostly because he decided to just give back all the stuff he didn' t need .
most remember carradine, if not for his comeback as bill in kill bill (in which his face is mostly concealed), then as the actor who launched a career in yellowface as kwai chang caine in the tv series kung fu. carradine ate bruce lee’s lunch in all sorts of ways: lee originally conceived kung fu as the warrior, but was rejected for the lead role because warner brothers deemed american audiences unready for an asian man playing an asian man—they favored the more “serene” carradine (( ed spielman, the credited creator of kung fu, disputes this account. i guess it’s possible they independently pitched movies about a wandering chinese martial artist exiled in the american west to warner bros. at the same time—but, hmm. at any rate, regarding the decision not to cast an actual asian, abc’s vice president reportedly said, “if we put a yellow man up on the tube, the audience will turn the switch off in less than five minutes. ”) ). caine’s grandfather is played by dean jagger (who played dr. land), and in kung fu: the movie, carradine starred alongside brandon lee, who played caine’s son. (that’s right: carradine played the role of brandon lee’s father while playing brandon lee’s father’s role .) brandon lee then went on to play his own grandson in kung fu: the next generation, while carradine played his own grandson, also named kwai chang caine, in kung fu: the legend continues. in his memoir years later, carradine wrote: “i was a fake. when i left the series after four years i knew nothing about kung fu. ” (though he spawned fakes of his own—an asian caine impersonator stars alongside the bruce lee impersonator in the dragon lives on. )
if you’ve never read one of the man of bronze’s adventures this podcast can serve as an introduction to him and his world. although the character is not very well known these days, doc savage has a long and storied history. born out of the fertile imagination of the great lester dent in the depression of the 1930’s he is the perfect heroic man meant to exist as a beacon of nobility for people to aspire to emulate. an adventurer and righter of wrongs with an unbreakable code of ethics, savage was the type of pulp fiction hero that could be enjoyed by readers of any age looking for fast action and wild plots. yes, the violence often gets brutal in a doc savage novel but the bad guys will always be the ones that end up on the unfortunately placed sharp stick or at the bottom of that undiscovered deadly pit.
the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu is a 1980 comedy film , primarily notable as the final film of peter sellers , david tomlinson and john le mesurier . pre-production began with richard quine as director . by the time the film entered production , piers haggard had replaced him . peter sellers handled the re-shoots himself . based on characters created by sax rohmer , the film stars sellers in the dual role of fu manchu , a stereotypical chinese evil genius , and english country gentleman detective nayland smith . released only two weeks after sellers death , the film was a commercial and critical failure . it was also the final screen appearance for tomlinson , who retired from acting shortly before its release . 
the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu is a 1980 comedy film, primarily notable as the final film of peter sellers, david tomlinson and john le mesurier. pre-production began with richard quine as director. by the time the film entered production, piers haggard had replaced him. peter sellers handled the re-shoots himself. based on characters created by sax rohmer, the film stars sellers in the dual role of fu manchu, a stereotypical chinese evil genius, and english country gentleman detective nayland smith. released only two weeks after sellers death, the film was a commercial and critical failure. it was also the final screen appearance for tomlinson, who retired from acting shortly before its release.
the fiendish plot of dr. fu manchu is a 1980 comedy film, primarily notable as the final film of peter sellers, david tomlinson and john le mesurier. pre-production began with richard quine as director. by the time the film entered production, piers haggard had replaced him. peter sellers handled the re-shoots himself. based on characters created by sax rohmer, the film stars sellers in the dual role of fu manchu, a stereotypical chinese evil genius, and english country gentleman detective nayland smith. released only two weeks after sellers death, the film was a commercial and critical failure. it was also the final screen appearance for tomlinson, who retired from acting shortly before its release.