The Face of Fu Manchu

Plot

The beheading of Dr Fu Manchu is witnessed in China by his nemesis, Nayland Smith. Back in London, however, it is increasingly apparent to Smith—now assistant commissioner in Scotland Yard— that the international criminal mastermind is still operating. Smith determines that a hypnotized actor took Dr Fu Manchu's place. The villain kidnaps the esteemed Professor Muller, whose research holds the key to realizing an ancient Tibetan legend. A deadly poison created from the seeds of a rare Tibetan flower—the Blackhill poppy—is supposed to carry the secret of eternal life. A pint of this poison is powerful enough to kill every person and animal in London.

Nayland Smith correctly deduces that Professor Muller received his supply of Blackhill poppy seeds from illegal drug trade. When Fu Manchu cut off the drug trade, the poppy seeds could only be acquired from Hanuman, a warehouse owner who is secretly in cahoots with Fu Manchu.

Nayland Smith meets Hanuman in his warehouse to question him on the whereabouts of Professor Muller. Hanuman pulls a gun on Smith, who is able to knock him out and flee.

Smith deliberately ignores Hanuman's secretary, whom he recognizes as Lin Tang, Fu Manchu's daughter and partner-in-crime. Lin Tang recognized Nayland Smith and told Hanuman to kill him.

Hanuman and Lin Tang go to a secret base under the River Thames. There, Lin Tang informs her father that his nemesis is interfering with their plans. Meanwhile, Professor Muller has refused to divulge how to extract the poisonous essence from the seeds. Fu Manchu has his henchmen kidnap the professor's daughter, Maria. After watching the execution-by-drowning of one of Fu Manchu's female servants, Professor Muller reveals that the Grand Lama gave key documents to Professor Gaskel during the Younghusband expedition and are currently locked in a vault in a guarded room of the Museum of Oriental Studies.

Disguised, Lin Tang infiltrates the museum and plants a listening device. Their henchmen enter through the sewers and are killed by Nayland Smith and his allies, who discover that Gaskel has emptied the vault. Lin Tan hears all. She and her father escape, emerging in Gaskel's study where Fu Manchu hypnotizes Professor Gaskel. In Fu Manchu's underground lair, Professor Gaskel and Professor Muller translate the Younghusband papers on stabilising the poisonous essence at room temperature.

Cast

Credits adapted from the booklet of the Powerhouse Films Blu-ray boxset The Fu Manchu Cycle: 1965-1969.

Production

Development

The film was the idea of producer Harry Alan Towers, who said he decided that "the time was ripe for Fu Manchu. It has all the ingredients of Sherlock Holmes plus a touch of the Kaiser's Yellow Peril. I bet more people have heard of Fu Manchu than Mao Tse-Tung. And anyway these days you couldn't have a better nationality for a villain."

Sax Rohmer had died in 1959 and Towers bought the film rights for Fu Manchu off Rohmer's widow for a reported $70,000. Towers called Fu Manch "the best damn villain ever created." (In 1963 MGM reported it had hired Charles Beamont to write The Mask of Fu Manchu for producer Henry Weinstein but the film was never made.

Towers said his intention from the beginning was to make "four or five of these" but denied the films were made to cash in on the James Bond craze:

No relationship. Action, adventure, open-air, escapism – yes – but nothing to do with Bond-ism – Fu Manchu's atmosphere is a kind of timeless Never Never land. Bond is gimmicky and with-it.

Sax Rohmer's widow said "poor old Ian Fleming pinched Fu Manchu for Dr No and claimed she even asked Fleming to ghost write some new Fu Manchu books but the author declined.

Towers decided to make it a period film (it is set in 1912) because it "adds to the plausibility".

Don Sharp said he was recommended as director by the film's completion guarantor. Harry Alan Towers' previous films had been going over budget and schedule, and the producer had to use a new director; Sharp's name was put forward and the film began an association between Sharp and Towers.

Sharp said "you never know what his [Fu Manchu's] motives are. I mean, he may want to rule the world, blow it up, corner the gold or seduce all the women. The script doesn't say. So we just keep everything moving fast so the audience doesn't have time to think 'but that's impossible' until they get outside."

Shooting

Filming took place between 20 February and 25 March 1965. The film was shot on location in Ireland, with Towers commenting:

It's a good country for location work; the British quota helps; on costs, there is not much difference between making a film here and in Britain – both sets of unions see to that. Ardmore? It seems to be doing alright with the present film – and Ireland will always be attractive as long as filmmakers and their artists are seeking refuge from super tax.

Lee recalled "The conditions were execrable. The weather was bleak and miserable. Everyone on the unit was croaking under the impact of flu. The elderly German actor Walter Rilla almost died. We worked in a number of ramshackle, dilapidated dwellings abandoned by their occupants and the water ran all the time down the walls."

The main location was the deserted Kenure House in Rush, County Dublin. Other scenes were shot in Skerries, Dublin docks and Kilmainham Gaol. Director Don Sharp said Harry Alan Towers had to pay off members of the IRA so they could film at the prison.

In his memoirs, Lee praised the "decisive" direction of Sharp:

I was desperately in need of a sure direction, and he was just the man to provide it. As a rule I believed in approaching a new picture with the idea of the script as no more than a guideline, partly because it will be changed and I'd seen actors who were word-perfect completely floored by the differences, and partly because there must be some room tor good ideas to sprout spontaneously, but with Don there was no uncertainty. He d spent a couple of years on a script and when he called the opening shot he had the whole thing worked out to his own satisfaction. He wanted every word on the page spoken and in the same order.

Lee also recalled the make up for his role was complication. "It took two and a half hours to put on and left me extremely uncomfortable. My features were rendered immobile— I had only my eyes left with which to act. And at that, my eyelids were fixed and unable to blink."

Soundtrack

The British version of the film was scored by Christopher Whelen, while the German release version was scored by Gert Wilden. A tie-in song, "Don't Fool with Fu Manchu" performed by The Rockin' Ramrods, was not heard in the film.

Release

The film was sold to Seven Arts for US release for $200,000.

In order to promote the film in the U.S., "Fu Manchu for Mayor" posters were done up and distributed in New York City during the mayoral election.

Reception

Critical

The New York Times did not like the film, saying:

The Face of Fu Manchu, back again after all these years, is about as frightening as Whistler's Mother. If this slow, plodding, simple-minded little color melodrama were not so excruciating, it might have been acceptable farce. Christopher Lee, as the old evil one, complete with waxy mustache, looks and sounds like an overgrown Etonite. Fu Manchu, fooey.

Rohmer's widow called the film "really quite good. They didn't stick to the book, but they did it very well. They kept it in the right period and mood, which was clever. I don't like the idea of Fu Manchu being bought up to date."

Box office

The film was commercially successful enough to result in four sequels. "The first one should have been the last one", Lee wrote in 1983, "because it was the only really good one."

Towers would also make two films based on another Sax Rohmer character, Sumuru.

Sequels

The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)

The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967)

The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968)

The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)