The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu

Without checking, I'll hazard a guess that very few of the Chinese characters in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu are actually from the East. Certainly none of the main oriental characters are, with Warner Oland leading the way in 'yellowface' to play Sax Rohmer's sadistic villain Fu Manchu. I guess no Chinese actor would be happy to play the role given how anti-Asian the story is, the film playing upon the West's fear of the 'yellow peril'.

The film opens in 1900, during the anti-foreign uprising in China known as the Boxer Rebellion. Reverend Mr. Eltham sends his young daughter Lia to the safety of the house of Fu Manchu (Oland); however, when Western gunfire kills Fu Manchu's wife and child, the once affable Chinaman vows to take revenge, and, years later, uses Lia (Jean Arthur) to get even with those responsible.

An early talkie, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is technically crude, with the performers clearly struggling to make the transition from silent to sound. Thus we get quite stagey, over-the-top melodramatics from many of the cast, with Oland being seriously hammy as the antagonist. In a way, I feel that this adds to the charm of the piece, although I can see why some might find the performances a problem. My main issue with the film is that it is OVERLY talky, as though director Rowland V. Lee wanted to make the absolute most of this new advancement in movie-making: as is often the case with cartoonish villains, Fu Manchu doesn't just kill his enemies and be done with it -- he tries to bore them to death first with a long speech about his incredible intellect.

Unsurprisingly, Fu Manchu's superior mind proves no match for Inspector Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard, who outsmarts the villain, rescuing Lia and handsome Dr. Jack Petrie (descendant of a General at the Boxer Rebellion) from a gruesome death in the nick of time.

Very early talkie featuring pre-Charlie Chan Oland as mad Doctor, primitive with slow stretches, but watchable. They couldn't stray far from the microphone, so some scenes are VERY static with nobody moving. Comic relief just plain stupid. Interesting trivia: William Austin (Sylvester) later played Batman's butler, Alfred, in serials, while Neil Hamilton (Jack Petrie) MUCH later played Commissioner Gordon in the 60s TV Series. O. P. Heggie, a very wooden Nayland Smith, gained immortality as the blind hermit who befriends the monster in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

...and you'll feel like watching this film was time well spent. Perhaps it was the job Warner Oland did here as Fu Manchu that got him the role of Charlie Chan over at Fox, because he is sensational in the part. He transitions from humanitarian to a one-man killing machine on a quest for vengeance against those he holds responsible for the death of his wife and only child. Their deaths occur in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion when a troop of soldiers fire on Fu Manchu's house. The Europeans are after the boxers, and Fu Manchu's family is just collateral damage to them. At the time of the rebellion, Fu Manchu has a young two year old European female ward (Jean Arthur). He uses the power of hypnotism he holds over her to get her to help in his dirty work without her ever remembering anything that happened.

Twenty years later Fu Manchu has killed off all those he finds responsible except one man and his offspring, and this leads him to England. A detective from Scotland Yard figures out what is going on, and the surviving family members including Fu's ward are holed up in an old dark house trying to get the Chinese mastermind to show himself. The complicating factor is that one of Fu Manchu's targets (Neil Hamilton) and Fu Manchu's ward (Jean Arthur) have fallen in love.

This film is pretty static, but then it is one of the first talking films and the placement of the microphone and camera demanded this. Oland and Hamilton are great in their roles, and everybody else is OK except Jean Arthur. She is really playing this one over the top, like she thinks she is still in a silent picture and expecting the villain to tie her to a railroad track at any instance. She doesn't give a glimpse of the great performances that are to come.

Watch this one for Warner Oland, for the atmosphere, and for the general touch of class you find in all of the early Paramount talkies.

That famous quote, which appears at the end of Christopher Lee's Fu Manchu movies, is particularly appropriate for this new double feature from Kino Lorber for the first two Fu Manchu films which were made in 1929 and 1930. Both movies were big budget affairs from Paramount and showcased future Charlie Chan star Warner Oland. In fact it was these two pictures that got Oland the job of portraying Chan which he would do over the course of 16 movies made over a span of 7 years from 1931 until his death in 1938. Also appearing in these two films were Jean Arthur before she became a big star in the 1930s and Neil Hamilton long before he played Commissioner Gordon in the 1960s BATMAN TV series.

THE MYSTERIOUS DR. FU MANCHU sets the stage by showing how Fu Manchu developed his hatred for the British. The film opens during the Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901) where a stray artillery shell hits Fu's home killing his wife and young son. Unhinged by the experience, Fu vows vengeance on the British officer responsible for firing the shell and on his son and his grandson. MYSTERIOUS then moves forward to what was then a contemporary setting (1929) where Lia Eltham (Jean Arthur), a British orphan raised by Fu Manchu, becomes the instrument of his revenge. She is loved by the grandson of the Petrie family (Neil Hamilton). Fortunately Fu's plan ultimately fails leading to his "demise".

The success of MYSTERIOUS quickly led to a sequel, which unlike most sequels, was better than the original. Just as lavish in its settings as the first movie, THE RETURN OF DR. FU MANCHU benefited from the advance in sound technology which allowed for more camera movement and a less theatrical style of acting from the performers. Having escaped death in the first movie, Fu returns to try and get the last Petrie and fufill his revenge. He is opposed (as in MYSTERIOUS) by Sotland Yard Inspector Denis Nayland Smith (O. P. Heggie) who here, for some reason, is referred to only as Smith. After various escapes worthy of a Republic serial, Fu Manchu is vanquished once again. But is he?

For years these movies were very hard to find and the copies were of very poor quality. In fact, I didn't believe that decent prints existed until I saw this Blu-Ray. Hats off to Kino Lorber for bringing these films back in such good condition. The picture image is sharp and clear for movies of this vintage and the early sound has been cleaned up and is a revelation. Both movies come with astute and informative commentary by Tim Lucas which gives us background not only on the films, but on the Fu Manchu character and author Sax Rohmer. Oland would play Fu one last time in DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON (1931) with Anna May Wong (not availabe for this set). Fu's next feature appearance would be in MGM's THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932) with Boris Karloff...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

The eponymous Chinese gentlemen is sure that his house will be safe during the famous Boxer revolution that attempted to drive the foreign devils from their country at the start of the 20th century. Reduced to just the British legation, though, the Europeans fight back and his home is accidentally struck resulting in a devastating tragedy. This kindly gent now swears vengeance on those who instigated those killings and over a period of years, he narrows down his dwindling list of targets to just the London-based "Petrie" family. Luckily, Scotland Yard's finest - "Insp. Nayland Smith" (O. P. Heggie) is on the case to try and stop the body count from mounting - but is he a match for the fiendishly clever "Fu Manchu" (Warner Oland)? It's probably about twenty minutes too long this - and most of that could be cut from the rather meandering denouement; but Oland makes for quite an entertainingly vengeful villain and Heggie turns in a decent effort too as the shrewd detective. Otherwise, the lighting needed extra wattage and the dialogue maybe a little less verbiage as the story takes us down loads of secret passages and introduces us to the unforgiving ancestors. I actually had some sympathy with the baddies all along here and quite enjoyed this mystically charged thriller.