THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU (1966)
Article 2305 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-18-2007
Posting Date: 12-4-2007
Directed by Don Sharp
Featuring Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Heinz Drache

Fu Manchu devises a scheme to bring the world under his power by the use of a long-distance death ray. Towards that end, he kidnaps the daughters of scientists in order to force the scientists to work for him.

This is the sequel to the first of the Christoper Lee Fu Manchu movies. I’ve heard it’s a bit of a disappointment after THE FACE OF FU MANCHU, but I haven’t seen that one in ages. I can compare it to THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU , though, and, though Don Sharp is not really a great director, at least I appreciated his respect for telling a coherent story. Still, the story itself is only middling to begin with, and Christopher Lee does seem to lack that evil spark that really brings the character of Fu Manchu to life; the movie doesn’t even really take advantage of his height to create menace. The footage towards the end of the movie looks very familiar; it looks like THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU copped quite a bit of footage for the beginning of that movie from the end of this one. At this point, I must admit I’m not impressed with the Lee Fu Manchu movies, but I still have to see the first one again.