The Vengeance of Fu Manchu

"The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" (1967), directed by Jeremy Summers, marks the third and final appearance of Christopher Lee as the infamous criminal mastermind in the 1960s Fu Manchu series. While the film attempts to breathe new life into the franchise, it ultimately falls short of its predecessors, offering a somewhat tepid conclusion to Lee's portrayal of the character.

Set against the backdrop of a globe-spanning criminal conspiracy, the film follows Fu Manchu's elaborate plot to discredit and destroy his nemesis, Nayland Smith, by creating an evil doppelganger. This premise, while intriguing, is not fully realized, often getting lost in a maze of subplots and poorly developed supporting characters.

Christopher Lee, as always, brings a commanding presence to the role of Fu Manchu. His performance remains the highlight of the film, infusing the character with a cold, calculating menace that elevates every scene he's in. Lee's ability to convey Fu Manchu's intelligence and cruelty with subtle facial expressions and measured delivery of dialogue is truly remarkable, especially considering the sometimes clunky script he's working with.

One standout scene involves Fu Manchu's meticulous preparation of his Nayland Smith duplicate. The sequence effectively showcases the villain's attention to detail and scientific prowess, while also highlighting the film's makeup and special effects, which are quite impressive for the time. This scene encapsulates the film's potential, blending suspense, horror, and science fiction elements in a way that, unfortunately, the rest of the movie struggles to maintain.

Director Jeremy Summers seems to struggle with the material, failing to capture the exotic atmosphere and tension that marked the better entries in the series. The pacing is often uneven, with long stretches of exposition interspersed with action sequences that lack true excitement or innovation. The globe-trotting nature of the plot, which should have added to the film's scope and excitement, instead feels disjointed and poorly integrated.

The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Douglas Wilmer, returning as Nayland Smith, gives a solid if unremarkable performance, while Tsai Chin once again shines as Fu Manchu's daughter Lin Tang, providing a worthy foil to Lee's calculated villainy. However, many of the other characters feel underdeveloped, serving more as plot devices than fully realized individuals.

The film's production design and cinematography are adequate but fail to capture the lush exoticism of the earlier entries in the series. The budget constraints are often apparent, particularly in some of the more ambitious set pieces that fall flat due to unconvincing effects or lackluster execution.

Thematically, "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" attempts to explore ideas of identity and the nature of evil, particularly through the doppelganger plot. However, these potentially interesting concepts are never fully developed, lost in the shuffle of convoluted plotting and action set pieces.

It's worth noting that, like its predecessors, the film is a product of its time and contains problematic portrayals of non-Western cultures and stereotypical depictions that modern viewers will likely find offensive. While this was unfortunately common in the genre and era, it does detract from the film's appeal to contemporary audiences.

"The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" is a film that will likely appeal primarily to completists and die-hard fans of the series or Christopher Lee's work.

While it offers some entertaining moments and the always-welcome presence of Lee as the titular villain, it ultimately fails to live up to the potential of its premise or the better entries in the Fu Manchu series. The film serves as a somewhat disappointing conclusion to Lee's portrayal of the character, hinting at what might have been with a stronger script and more assured direction.

For those interested in 1960s pulp adventure cinema or the evolution of the Fu Manchu character on screen, "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" may be worth a watch. However, casual viewers or those new to the series would be better served by starting with earlier, stronger entries in the franchise.

Try, try, try again. That should be evil super mastermind Fu Manchu's motto. After one failed attempt after another that pretty much ends up in his hideout / palace spectacularly exploding, for his credit he always returned on his quest for world domination. As each scheming plot being more diabolical than the last, but the quality of these features were also on the slide. Same formula, but well-worn. Despite Christopher Lee returning dressed up in make-up as Fu Manchu, his presence seemed lacking with a script that didn't really offer him all that much to do. "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" would be the third film internationally produced by Harry Alan Towers, but director Don Sharp of the previous two films is replaced and it shows in the final product. "Vengeance" isn't all that bad, but it's bounded by feeble writing and lackadaisical direction for most part making it quite an uninterestingly limited and convoluted venture. The story follows Fu Manchu and his daughter return to China to his isolated palace hideaway in the hills where he plots his vengeance against his arch rival commissioner Neyland Smith of Scotland Yard, while hosting a criminal diplomat for gaining support to lead the world's criminals. While this had two sub-plots within the narrative, neither one projected much excitement with its elaborate developments and the location work felt rather stagy with less adventure and scope. The local Hong Kong locations were done through Shaw Brother studios. Director Jeremy Summers brought a crisply polished tinge, but the execution is drably projected with a less than speedy pace. Too few hardy set-pieces, but its misogynistic edge is still evident in some torture sequences. The performances are decent. Douglas Wilmer admirably acquits himself as Neyland Smith and Howard Marion-Crawford gives a fine-tuned performance as his friend Dr. Petrie. A methodical Lee is given small opportunities and so is and effective Tsai Chin's, maybe even more so minor as Manchu's sadistic daughter. Horst Frank venomously overdoes Lee in the evil stakes and a beautiful Maria Rohm flaunts around. Patchy serial comic-strip entertainment.

After THE FACE OF FU MANCHU (1965), the first and best of the 5 film series devoted to Sax Rohmer's Oriental villain and produced by Harry Alan Towers, my second favorite is the third film in the series, THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU (1967). Unlike the first two which were directed by Brit B movie auteur Don Sharp, this film was helmed by Brit TV veteran Jeremy Summers who that same year directed Vincent Price in HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS and Bob Cummings in 5 GOLDEN DRAGONS.

Summers brings a TV director's pacing and no-nonsense approach to the material which is a real plus when the script is less than it should be. As an old theatre director I worked with used to say... "If you can't be good, be fast". VENGEANCE also benefits from the location shooting in Hong Kong which helps to lend an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Also the use of predominantly Asian actors as Fu's minions (not the case with the other titles in this series) adds an extra element of credibility.

Douglas Wilmer returns as Fu's nemesis Nayland Smith having replaced Nigel Green after the first film. This time around he has very little to do as he is mostly catatonic throughout most of the movie. That's because he's actually someone else who has been surgically altered to look like Nayland Smith and is programmed to kill his Chinese housekeeper and then shut down. He is arrested for murder and convicted and sentenced to be executed. Throughout the proceedings he does nothing to defend himself, leaving his friends baffled.

This one aspect of the plot seems to bother most people concerning this film (surely Dr Petrie could spot him as a fake) but logic is hardly a primary component in a Fu Manchu story and so it didn't bother me. A few years earlier a similar plot was used on THE OUTER LIMITS. I just went where the movie took me which is how I watch films whether they are good or bad. In the end, of course, good triumphs over evil and Fu is left uttering his famous line "The World Shall Hear From Me Again."

This Warner Archive DVD-R looks very good for a non-restoration and the soundtrack is loud and clear. The one disadvantage of a Warner DVD-R is that there are no subtitles which are always a great help in understanding what is going on and for picking up dialogue that you might have missed. For those concerned with political correctness, if you're watching a Fu Manchu movie then you have no business complaining about Asian stereotyping or Christopher Lee as the Oriental arch-villain. It's Saturday Matinee time and that's all this movie was ever meant to be...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Fu Manchu and his daughter Lin Tang(Tsai Chin)return home to China.This time Fu Manchu kidnaps a Christian missionary working in China,who is also a surgeon.He is kidnapped to perform an operation on one of Fu's dacoits to make him look just like Nayland Smith.However he wants duplicates made of all the major police chiefs of the world,to discredit them as well.He calls Rudolph Moss(Horst Frank),the head of American syndicate,to join him.Christopher Lee is again amazing as a Fu Manchu-the film is pretty well-made and exciting.Followed by two euro-trash cheapies "The Blood of Fu Manchu" and "The Castle of Fu Manchu".

This has got relatively more torture scenes than the overrated FACE OF FU MANCHU although they are nowhere as imaginative and adult comics/pulp flavored as in the classic MASK OF FU MANCHU. Minor points of interest: feeble and failed attempt to add some sensuality by a few uninspired nightclub scenes with Maria Rohm, one karate-style fight scene, and the presence of one Oriental among the good guys and one Westerner among Fu's camp to break down good guys - bad guys pattern along racial lines.