THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU (1967)
Article 2430 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-23-2007
Posting Date: 4-7-2008
Directed by Jeremy Summers
Featuring Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Tsai Chin

Fu Manchu attempts to become the head of a super crime syndicate and engineers a plan to do away with his foe, Nayland Smith, at the same time.

This isn’t really a bad Fu Manchu movie; the plot is straightforward and easy to follow, and the basic story is interesting (even if certain plot elements don’t stand up to close scrutiny). Yet, it made me realize just how much the whole sixties Fu Manchu series disappointed me. I’m glad they made the attempt, but as a whole, I found the movies to be rather glum and just not much fun. The character of Fu Manchu seems detached in these movies, and neither the scripts nor Christopher Lee’s performance do much to alleviate this problem. The most imposing thing about Lee’s Fu Manchu is his height, and that simply isn’t enough to bring the movies to life. The heroes are little better; Nayland Smith never comes alive as a character in any of the movies I’ve seen, and I just don’t think he’s supposed to be this dull. At their best, the movies seem competent but uninspired, as if everyone was working for the paycheck but little else. I think there was some potential for this series that never got realized.