Die dreizehn Sklavinnen des Dr. Fu Man Chu

The nefarious Fu Manchu is bent on world domination, and he has built a heinous gizmo in the Atlas Mountains of French Morocco which will bring the world's governments to heel. His contrivance is able to transmit massive energy charges in the form of soundwaves. In order to handle the technology, Fu Manchu needs western scientific experts, and he acquires these men by the fiendish ploy of kidnapping their daughters (all beautiful 20-somethings) and threatening to chuck the girls into his ghoulish snakepit. Unfortunately for the Chinese arch-villain, Assistant Commissioner Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard is on the case ....

If the 'Fu' films which came after this one were considerably worse in quality, then they must have been execrable. This dire effort is difficult to watch, and two reviews would not be sufficient space to list all the improbabilities and nonsense contained herein. Portentous music and mock-heroic acting by Douglas Wilmer (Nayland Smith) and Christopher Lee (Fu) sit uneasily with cheap fibreglass sets and weak stunt choreography.

Nayland Smith and his sidekick Dr. Petrie are obviously meant to be Holmes-Watson imitations. The film is set in some vague period of the early 20th century, with Edwardian touches (uniforms of jailers and nurses, telephone handsets) but with aircraft and automobiles of later periods. Marie Lenz (Marie Versini) dresses like a 60's girl, with her short skirts and mink coat. The captive girls and Fu's daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) sport the ultimate in 60's lacquered coiffure, which seems to stay in place no matter how they are chained to pillars, held over snakepits or roughed up by Fu's guards. One of the girls has a very exposed black bra, hardly an Edwardian garment.

When Marie and Franz are attacked near the Tower of London, Fu's men obligingly come at Franz one at a time, rather than overwhelming him - a curious behaviour trait repeated elsewhere in the film. Marie is a nurse, but she attends the ballet in a mink coat and sits in the royal box.

"They live only to serve me," says Fu of the beautiful girls whom he can hypnotise with a glance. So why does he chain them to pillars? Petrie has a suspiciously modern-looking wireless set in his home, and an even more suspiciously convenient uncle at the BBC. Nayland Smith laughably orders 'three carloads' of police officers to accompany him to Limehouse, and makes a personal call to the Home Secretary on a whim. Worse follows.

Bert Kwouk, the ever-present British-Chinese actor, plays Feng, Fu Manchu's reliable technical boffin. Feng is worried about the power loads that Fu is demanding, because they might start a 'chain reaction' (an electro-magnetic chain reaction? huh?) Nobody even attempts to explain how the millions of tons of equipment found its way to Morocco and got assembled without the knowledge of the French authorities. Why do the men in the sham police vehicle drive to the scene in Fu costumes, and put on police uniforms once they are in situ?

At the end, the ominous voice of Fu Manchu tells us that we will hear from him again. That is the most dreadful moment in the film - the threat of a sequel.

The second film in producer Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu series is the only one to be filmed entirely in England, and went before the cameras only one month after "The Face of Fu Manchu" premiered in the USA. This compact little thriller is harmed by some last-minute cost saving measures, made in response to the disappointing boxoffice returns of the first film. It was not filmed in cinemascope and was processed in eastmancolor, the cheaper cousin of technicolor. The resulting film is dark and actually ugly-looking at times; its predominant color is washed-out red.

Choosing to emphasize the sexual aspects of his story, Towers arranged an international beauty contest to find the world's most beautiful women to play the title roles. The contest, held after the film was already finished, was a publicity ploy to generate interest in the film as it sat on the shelf for almost one year before release. The "brides" were actually actresses and models, cast through standard agencies and for their willingness to appear in nude scenes for the racier European version.

A lesser film than "Face", "Brides" is still an acceptable diversion, especially considering the nosedive the series would take after this. It would be director Don Sharp's last film in the series, and his considerable contribution would become evident after his departure.

Second entry in Fu Manchu-Christopher Lee series set in London and based on Sax Rohmer's characters . At the film there are action, adventures, thrills, sadism and atmospheric outdoors filmed in London . Produced , as always, in average budget by Harry Allan Towers and also written under pseudonym of Peter Breck . Christopher Lee returns in this second chapter as the evil powerful Fu Manchu , the ominous genius who doesn't give up easily, and is out to destroy world or bent on conquering it . This time has designed a fantastic scheme , kidnapping scientific's daughters (Marie Versini , Carole Gray , among others) forcing them to develop a deadly ray gun . The beautiful girls are tortured by Fumanchu and his nasty daughter . Inspector Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard Nayland is his perennial adversary and arch-nemesis , he takes the center of attention when undergoes the dangerous mission. When Nayland Smith is assigned the case along with his assistant Dr. Petrie(Howard Marion Crawford) go into the action . Nayland Smith enlists the help a German scientist named Franz (Heinz Drache) against evil-doer emperor Fu.

This is a bizarre blending of thriller , suspense , action , intrigue and fantastic adventure . This exciting , diverting picture is full of Chinese killers, British adventurers , abducted scientists and megalomaniac villains . Christopher Lee with his usual stoic acting as Fu displays efficiently his abilities and killing mercilessly people . Fine 1920s atmosphere with good sets and old vehicles . Not as nice as ¨Face of Fumanchu¨-also by Don Sharp- still amusing and entertaining. Good performance by Douglas Wilmer as Nyland Smith who in previous and subsequent episodes was interpreted by Nigel Green , and Richard Greene , as always supported by Dr. Petri from ministry of Interior played by Howard Marion Crawford . The villain T Sai Chin stand out as Fu Manchu's daughter . International and cosmopolitan cast formed by European actors from diverse countries as British as Douglas Wilmer ,Rupert Davies , Carole Gray ; German as Heinz Drache , Haralz Leipnitz ; French as Marie Versini , Roger Hanin ; Chinese as Eric Young and Burt Kwouk who played the Peter Sellers's contender in Pink Panther series.

The best installments were ¨Face of Fu Manchu(1965, Don Sharp)¨, and ¨Brides of Fu Manchu( 1966, Don Sharp)¨ , followed by the inferior ¨Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967 by Jeremy Summers ) and most critics felt the outing ¨Blood of Fumanchu¨ was one of the weakest entries along with ¨The castle of Fu Manchu¨, both of them directed by Jess Frank with similar casting , plenty of stock-shots and a Z-series style. Rating : 5,5 , average .

Sequel to "The Face of Fu Manchu", "Brides..." is even better if you look movies just to be entertained. It's the kind of silly, funny, absurd, kinky time capsule movie that never loses his charm. Of curse, plot holes and mistakes are a plenty (it's in the 20's but girls looks very 60's) but Lee's terrific performance and a good cast full of familiar faces (even Pink Panther's Cato is here!) helps to sustain interest. Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie are a later version of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, but Fu Manchu is the main character here, cruel, sadistic and totally evil, probably the best villain ever, sadly forgotten today due to his racial connotations. The franchise will continue on three more films, but "Face..." and "Brides..." (both directed by Don Sharp) are the real thing. By the way, the 5 films are available now in a box set released in Spain by Manga Films (region 2), but beware: the last 2 movies (by Jesus Franco) are in Spanish without subtitles.

Surviving his cataclysmic demise at the end of Don Sharp's The Face Of Fu Manchu (1965), Christopher Lee dons the stick-on Eastern eyelids a second time, utterly and entertainingly unconvincing as Sax Rohmer's villain-to-end-all villains. With his daughter and resident henchmen led by Burt Kwouk (Kato in the Pink Panther series), Fu is now blackmailing the world's top scientists to create a doomsday device by kidnapping their daughters. Douglas Wilmer replaces The Face Of Fu Manchu's Nigel Green as Neyland Smith, Fu Manchu's lantern-jawed arch nemesis from Scotland Yard, and battles all manner of Cartoon oriental stereotypes before rescuing the reluctant harem from the firey finale. Lee utters the immortal words `The world shall hear from me again!", thus ensuring a further three sequels (Vengeance..., Castle... and Blood Of Fu Manchu, all released in 1968) for producer Harry Allen Towers - the last two in the series helmed by Spain's infamous hack Jess Franco (whose filmic Midas Touch could grind the Star Wars series to a halt!).