The Blood of Fu Manchu

The fourth film in the revived Fu Manchu series from hit-and-run international film producer Harry Alan Towers is the first one directed by Jesus (Jess) Franco, a cult icon best known for the staggering quantity of his films, as well as their usually appalling quality. In hindsight, Towers and Franco were destined for each other. Both were specialists in speedy international productions and each usually juggled more than one project at a time.

"Fu Manchu's Kiss of Death" (the shooting title) was filmed back-to-back (or perhaps simultaneously) with the next film in the series "The Castle of Fu Manchu" and shows evidence of having been written on the fly. The script is loosely constructed and constantly sidetracks itself with multiple subplots and far too many characters. The most intrusive involves the a South American bandit chief, whose protracted exploits take up so much screen time that viewers just walking in would think they were in the wrong theater. Probably designed to show off the Brazilian exteriors, it is tempting to say that these sequences look like rejected scenes from "The Wild Bunch", but that would be giving Franco's footage too much credit.

As evidence that Towers was not above ripping off himself, the film opens with a sequence that is a remake of the opening of "Brides of Fu Manchu", with women chained to pillars in an underground hideaway. As in "Brides", one is led to a snake pit but, instead of being lowered in, she is gingerly bitten in the throat by one, thereby becoming the carrier of the title's kiss of death. The contrast between the lighting, staging and sets in these two sequences gives ample testimony of how low the series had fallen in just two years.

The ever-present Maria Rohm (AKA Mrs. Harry Alan Towers) shows up as a jungle missionary wearing a gaucho hat and red leotards. She gets involved in yet another subplot about a proto-Indiana Jones leading a medical expedition. Apparently, this plotline exists only to provide the hero, afflicted with the death kiss, with a miraculous cure at the last minute.

While the rest of the cast was having fun in the Brazilian jungles, stars Christopher Lee and Richard Greene never leave the studio in Madrid, Spain that was home to all the film's interiors. Guest star Shirley Eaton appears in one brief scene that appears to be an outtake from one of the two Su-Muru films she was making for Towers at the time. (The second was also directed by Franco.)

It's hard to believe that this film (retitled "Kiss and Kill") got major USA playdates in 1968 as a solo feature.

The evil Fu Manchu continues his endless quest for world domination but first; he has developed a plan to eliminate his arch-enemies (of which Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith is top priority). So our oriental master-criminal has kidnapped 10 of the most beautiful women on the planet and stuffed their bodies with the world's deadliest poison. Their orders are to seduce the enemies and kill them with "the kiss of death". His fiendish plan almost succeeds but Smith survives the assault and goes after Fu Manchu, who shelters in the jungles of South America. The premise of this sequel sounds promising enough but, don't be fooled, it's a terribly boring and unexciting film. There are so many things wrong with this production I don't even properly know where to start. For starters, the screenplay introduces way too many characters and actually none of them are worth mentioning. There's no tension and there's a total lack of gore and sleaze, as well (considering Jess Franco signed for the direction, I was at least hoping for this). There are a lot of battle sequences but they're painfully tame and tedious. Franco makes no use of the great jungle-location at all and the editing is lousy. Judging by his emotionless performance, Christopher Lee wasn't interesting in repeating the Fu Manchu role for the fourth time at all. Jess Franco also directs on automatic pilot, meaning without the slightest bit of passion or motivation. For him this was just another easy-money job in between some euro-trash cinema highlights like "99 Women" and "Marquis de Sade: Justine". The absolute best Fu Manchu film remains the 1932 "Mask of Fu Manchu" (starring Boris Karloff), although Don Sharp's efforts "the Face of…." and "The Brides of …" are pretty good as well. There's absolutely nothing to recommend about this one, so avoid unless you're a perfectionist...or really REALLY bored.

If you read the plot synopsis of "Blood Of Fu Manchu" it sounds like exploitation gold, but don't get your hopes up: it doesn't make the most of its premise (to put it kindly). Despite noted smut peddler Jess Franco in the director's chair, it is quite tame, and despite being part of the Fu Manchu series, a stereotypically fat, unshaven, cackling bandit has by far the most screen time (Shirley Eaton fans will also be disappointed; her part is a 2-minute cameo). Location filming in Brazil and Christopher Lee's commanding (even if unconvincing) performance are pretty much its only assets. ** out of 4.

Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) is hidden with his evil daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) in a lost city he has found in the jungles of South America. He discovers a poison deadly for men through kiss and he abducts ten women to infect them with the poison to destroy his enemies. Then he sends one woman to London to kiss his greatest enemy, the Scotland Yard agent Nayland Smith (Richard Greene). Nayland is blinded by the poison and his friend Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford) travels with him to the jungles in South America to seek out Fu Manchu expecting to find an antidote. They team up with agent Carl Jansen (Götz George) and soon they learn the scheme of Fu Manchu for world domination.

"The Blood of Fu Manchu" is a silly and lame adventure of the infamous Fu Manchu by Jess Franco. The acting is dreadful and the plot is confused and boring with no emotion. The speeches of Howard Marion Crawford and Götz George are very difficult to be understood and most of the women are beautiful actresses. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): Not Available on DVD and Blu-Ray

This solid, sumptuous adaptation the Fu Manchu series (the director's first of two) is further evidence of both Christopher Lee's tremendous character acting and that Spanish director Jess Franco actually did make some good movies. This movie is not "perfect" by any means, but Franco milks the meager budget for every dime and delivers maximum scale for this bizarre pulp epic. He delivers on all the sex, violence, and the macabre you would expect from a Franco flick and also manages to create a sense of dignity and responsibility about the whole thing (with much help from Lee's focused performance). Anyway, good stuff. Especially if you are in to adventure serials and/ or jungle exploitation films. Don't miss out on a newly discovered classic. Blue-Underground's DVD of the uncut, beautifully rendered remastering should revert many of the film's most passionate critics into true believers.