Brides of Fu Manchu [VHS] [1966]

"The Brides of Fu Manchu", features Christopher Lee's second appearance as Sax Rohmer's unforgettable oriental villian the fiendish Dr. Fu Manchu. Like his other memorable screen character of Dracula, Christopher Lee went on to play Fu Manchu in a number of films that progressively decreased in quality and originality however here we find him in fine form in another of his maniac attempts to achieve world domination. Having already been played by veterans Boris Karloff and Warner Oland Christopher Lee in his turn made perfect casting as Fu Manchu and his commanding presense and voice plus total commitment to breathing life into a cardboard villian made memorable viewing through the first three or four entries in the Fu Manchu series.

In "The Brides of Fu Manchu", we have the madman up to his usual no good when he kidnaps the daughters of prominent world scientists and engineers who in exchange for their daughters lives he then forces to work on his wild scheme to create a death ray that can wipe out whole cities. Naturally in this film Fu Manchu once again faces his arch nemesis Nayland Smith who performs here almost the same role as Prof Van Helsing did against his arch enemy Dracula. "The Brides of Fu Manchu". opens with strangely similiar reports of the daughters of some of the world's most prominent industrialists and scientists disappearing which are soon followed by these men resigning their posts to begin work with some unknown foreign organisation. After an unsuccessful attempt is made to kidnap the partner of Heinz Drache a German in London, Scotland Yard headed by Nayland Smith begin to suspect that there is some diabolical pattern behind the kidnappings. Smith begins to suspect that Fu Manchu is behind the scheme despite believing he is dead and so begins a long cat and mouse game between him and his old enemy. Fu Manchu makes himself known to the authorities when with the use of this deadly new ray he announces over the radio that he intends to liquidate "The Winsor Castle", which unfortunately for the authorities is not the palace but a pleasure ship by that name. Zeroing in on Fu Manchu's whereabouts Smith also discovers where the daughters or "Brides" of all the scientists are being held prisoner and just as Fu is about to launch his death ray against a meeting of top international heads of state at St. Paul's Cathedral, he manages to break into Fu Manchu's isolated headquarters. After the authorities manage to scramble Fu's death ray the mad doctor then increases the power of the ray to levels which cause the whole complex to blow up. Rescuing the young women from their prisons just in time Smith gets the women to safety up in the mountains where the explosion also removes the psychic hold that Fu Manchu has held over them but not before he issues one more warning that "the world has not heard the last of me yet!"

Set in an unclear time somewhere during the 1920's all the Fu Manchu film versions contained elements of the 1960's within them which made it difficult to really set them within any specific time frame. Over and above everything else however they always guaranteed an enjoyable tale that never required heavy thought or analysis. Many critics at the time felt that the substitution this time around of Douglas Wilmer (who at this time was still best known for playing Shelock Holmes on the BBC),for Nigel Green who had played Smith in the first Fu Manchu film "The Face of Fu Manchu", weakened the story considerably. Certainly when viewing the next film in the series "The Vengenance of Fu Manchu", it is easy to see that it took at least one more film in the series for Wilmer to really make the character his own. What we do have here however is Christopher Lee well and truly enjoying his role as the evil mastermind and receiving very able support yet again from beautiful Chinese actress Tsai Chin playing his evil daughter Lin Tang. She happily continued in this role throughout the series. In "Brides" her role is a bigger one than in the previous film and she makes the most of her screen time in her role of the ruthless daughter who is more than a match for her evil father. Tsai Chin was destined for more success after these Fu Manchu movies when she appeared in a couple of the Roger Moore James Bond Films. Supporting performances here while capable do tend to pale into the background beside the playing of Christopher Lee and Tsai Chin. Joseph Furst and Marie Versini as Otto Lentz and his daughter Marie who are placed prominently in the kidnap scheme score well in their scenes and Indian actor Salmaan Peerzada also has some good scenes in his role of Abdul who helps engineer the escape plans from Fu Manchu's headquarters where the "Brides" are held captive. Since it is hard to place the film in any specific time it is best just to appreciate the great visual qualitites of the production from Fu Manchu's vivid Oriental Robes to the attempts at "advanced technology" in Fu's mountain headquarters. Director Don Sharp who worked with Christopher Lee in a number of his Hammer Studios efforts works well here at keeping the action moving and does especially well in the exciting climax of the film where time closes in for the death ray to be launched and Nayland Smith racing against time manages to outwit and scramble Fu Manchu's signals just in time to avoid disaster. Christopher Lee has some top dramatic moments as well such as his torture scenes over the snake pits and when during the fast moving build up to the climax he looses all reason and increases the power of the ray to his own ultimate detriment.

Total escapism but of the most enjoyable kind is the best way to view "The Brides of Fu Manchu". While not up to the previous effort "The Face of Fu Manchu", in overall quality it still makes great viewing and it is always pleasing to see Christopher Lee so well cast in a role as he his here. Plenty of evil doings and wild schemes for world domination where always part of the landscape in the Fu Manchu stories and "Brides" doesn't disappoint. Enjoy!