Die Maske des Fu-Manchu

It didn't surprise me in the least that The Mask Of Fu Manchu was produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures. Even though the title is a bit of a misnomer. It isn't about The Mask Of Fu Manchu, it's about the mask and sword of Ghenghis Khan which Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu wants to discover and appropriate for himself so he can become a kind of Far Eastern Mahdi.

Cosmopolitan Pictures was the production outfit of William Randolph Hearst and while it's main reason for existence was to produce films for Marion Davies, it did produce other films. The Hearst press, especially on the West Coast was very big in stirring up anti-Chinese and anti- Japanese feelings among the white people constantly using the phrase The Yellow Peril to describe how if they're allowed to emigrate her they'll be taking over in a few generations. The fictional Fu Manchu fit the Hearst agenda quite nicely.

In the Fu Manchu stories it's like Professor Moriarty was the main protagonist. Fu Manchu's particular Holmes is Commissioner Nayland Smith played by Lewis Stone as stout a representative of the United Kingdom and their imperial pretensions as ever went out in the noon day sun.

As I said Fu Manchu is after the warrior symbols of Ghengis Khan so he can lead the Oriental people to their rightful place. Interestingly this Oriental messiah seems to have a number of black slaves doing his bidding in the film. The British government as personified by Nayland Smith wants archaeologists Jean Hersholt, David Torrance and Lawrence Grant to find the tomb and get this so the British can display it at the British Museum in London as a symbol of their superiority. Grant is kidnapped and tortured by Karloff, but Grant's daughter Karen Morley and her boyfriend, future Durango Kid Charles Starrett takes her father's place on the expedition.

Though I think that The Mask Of Fu Manchu is every bit as racist in its attitudes as The Birth Of A Nation, like The Birth Of A Nation it has some great performances. Led of course by that master of horror, Boris Karloff. Karloff played so many different and varied types in his long career, being Chinese was no big deal for him to play. Later on Karloff kind of made it up to the Chinese people by playing the educated detective Mr. Wong who unlike Charlie Chan never spoke in fortune cookie aphorisms.

Myrna Loy is Fu Manchu's 'unworthy' daughter and this is at the height of the phase in her career where she played Oriental temptresses. She conceives a real liking for Starrett to turn him into her Occidental boy toy. She's a willing and eager accomplice in her father's dirty deeds, perhaps to show herself as worthy.

The Mask Of Fu Manchu is as racist a film as you can get, but it's also holding up quite well as entertainment. And who was ever more sinister on the screen than Boris Karloff playing anything?

The Mask of Fu Manchu is not perfect. The dialogue does feel corny to me, Karen Morley overacts dreadfully that it was difficult to take her hysteria seriously and Lewis Stone makes a piece of wood more animated. However, the black and white cinematography does show crispness and atmosphere and the sets and costumes are beautiful. The score is haunting and while occasionally silly the story is fun and never felt dull. The tortures were both scary and amusing, and I got some entertainment from the scene with the crocodiles. While Charles Starrett is not the most convincing of actors he does make up for it by his sexiness. The two best performances come from Myrna Loy and especially Boris Karloff. Loy is lustful and incredibly magnetic, while Karloff seems to be having the time of his life.

All in all, The Mask of Fu Manchu is a flawed film but it is a decent and fun one. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This was a bit different with Boris Karloff playing an Asian "bad guy." He plays "Fu Manchu," and man who sets out to get Genghis Khan's mask and sword which supposedly will give him the power to rule over millions of people.

Despite the classic film casting of white people to play Asians, I found Karloff to be "cool" looking as was his evil daughter, a young Myrna Loy. I like Karen Morely, usually, but not in here where she plays an almost-hysterical daughter of one of the good guys.

"Fu Manchu" shows some of his unique methods of torture, nothing graphic, thankfully - not like today's blood and guts.

Some of this is amateurishly-done but overall it still a legitimate amount of real horror and terror and the cast certainly is entertaining. ("Andy Hardy" star Lewis Stone also is in here along with Jean Hersholt and Charles Starret.)

Summary: a decent and almost-mystical adventure story that doesn't overstay its welcome, either, at a tidy 68 minutes. Pretty good stuff.

The Mask of Fu Manchu is a bit campy, but if you've got a theme planned for Halloween of old horror movies, you might want to add it to the list alongside some other Boris Karloff classics. Boris stars, in heavy makeup, as Dr. Fu Manchu, who's on the lookout for Genghis Khan's lost treasure. His minions will do anything to find it, including steal it off of museum curators who tried to find it legitimately.

Lewis Stone is the head of the good guys, or if you're looking at it another way, the opposition team. Lawrence Grant, Jean Hersholt, and Charles Starrett try to find the treasure, but along the way, Lawrence gets kidnapped and held ransom. His daughter, Karen Morley, who's in love with Charles, gets involved in the adventure, and all three of the remaining try to rescue Lawrence and maintain the treasure.

Myrna Loy, in her early days, costars as Boris's daughter, and she's quite the villainess who enjoys power and violence. This one's not as scary as Frankenstein, but it's fun if that's your theme for the weekend. Where else will you be able to find Lewis Stone fighting his way through a pit of alligators, or Jean Hersholt strapped to a chair while giant spikes close in all around him? That's some pretty scary stuff for the soon-to-be Judge Hardy and Heidi's Grandfather!

THE MASK OF FU MANCHU has recently had several minutes of missing material restored to it, footage that has not been seen in decades. This longer cut of the film is currently enjoying a limited theatrical release, and it would be nice to see that followed by a DVD release. Probably one of the best of the films to be based on author Sax Rohmer's stories (along with FACE OF FU MANCHU and DRUMS OF FU MANCHU), it would be nice to see a potential DVD release possibly include commentary by Boris Karloff's daughter, Sara, or a look at the making of the film. Karloff commented in interviews that MASK was a troubled production, with constant changes to the script throughout the filming. In spite of that, the final film manages to capture the feel of the pulp tales that inspired it.