I have seen several Fu Manchu films and he was a popular character from the 1920s all the way up to the 1970s--having appeared in many American and British films and serials. He was a demented and power-mad genius--sort of like Dr. No or Blofeld or Dr. Evil. However, in this rather listless installment, the menace of evil is very, very subdued and the film never delivered on its promise.
Unlike other Fu Manchu films, in this one he is NOT the main character. Warner Oland plays Manchu and looks a lot like his Charlie Chan character. He is only in about 10 minutes worth of film despite his high billing in the movie. His purpose is to see Anna May Wong's character and reveal to her that she is his daughter--and that he expects her to help him carry out his revenge. So, one day, Wong is a sweet cabaret dancer and the next she's expected to carry out a plan for murder--and at first she agrees wholeheartedly. Having her become his evil accomplice wasn't a bad idea, but what sank this film was by having Manchu killed soon after this. This "brilliant" villain sure wasn't very careful and got himself killed rather easily. Additionally, Wong's character was a real negative because she never really could make up her mind whether or not to be evil--spending so much of the film bouncing back and forth---and in the process losing all the cruel menace that SHOULD be part of any Fu Manchu picture.
An additional deficit in the film is how they used veteran actor Sessue Hayakawa. I wasn't upset to see a Japanese man playing a Chinese man--heck, for Hollywood, that's a lot closer to realistic than the usual White Westerner playing Asian roles of the era. Instead it was a completely mindless plot device thrown into the film towards the end. While his and Wong's characters barely interact, there is a love scene that appears out of no where AND makes no sense since the lady was already in love with another man. It looked as if there may have originally been much more to this but it was somehow cut, at least in part, from the film and they forgot to completely remove traces of this subplot.
So, what looked like an exciting adventure film turned out to be a rather dull little film. The only big plus for the film were the great sets--they really were cool and made this B-movie look more like a higher budget feature film.
So much promise--so little delivered.
Unlike other Fu Manchu films, in this one he is NOT the main character. Warner Oland plays Manchu and looks a lot like his Charlie Chan character. He is only in about 10 minutes worth of film despite his high billing in the movie. His purpose is to see Anna May Wong's character and reveal to her that she is his daughter--and that he expects her to help him carry out his revenge. So, one day, Wong is a sweet cabaret dancer and the next she's expected to carry out a plan for murder--and at first she agrees wholeheartedly. Having her become his evil accomplice wasn't a bad idea, but what sank this film was by having Manchu killed soon after this. This "brilliant" villain sure wasn't very careful and got himself killed rather easily. Additionally, Wong's character was a real negative because she never really could make up her mind whether or not to be evil--spending so much of the film bouncing back and forth---and in the process losing all the cruel menace that SHOULD be part of any Fu Manchu picture.
An additional deficit in the film is how they used veteran actor Sessue Hayakawa. I wasn't upset to see a Japanese man playing a Chinese man--heck, for Hollywood, that's a lot closer to realistic than the usual White Westerner playing Asian roles of the era. Instead it was a completely mindless plot device thrown into the film towards the end. While his and Wong's characters barely interact, there is a love scene that appears out of no where AND makes no sense since the lady was already in love with another man. It looked as if there may have originally been much more to this but it was somehow cut, at least in part, from the film and they forgot to completely remove traces of this subplot.
So, what looked like an exciting adventure film turned out to be a rather dull little film. The only big plus for the film were the great sets--they really were cool and made this B-movie look more like a higher budget feature film.
So much promise--so little delivered.