As 13 Noivas de Fu Manchu

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.

This is the sequel to 'The Face Of Fu Manchu'. Once again Harry Alan Towers is the writer/producer, Don Sharp is the director, and Christopher Lee plays the fiendish Dr Fu Manchu, criminal mastermind. Fu Manchu's arch enemy Nayland Smith is played this time around by Douglas Wilmer ('The Vampire Lovers'), replacing Nigel Green. I miss Green but Wilmer is pretty good and Lee is terrific as always. Smith's Watson-like sidekick Dr. Petrie is once again played by Howard Marion-Crawford, and Tsai Chin returns as Fu Manchu's evil daughter Lin Tang. Horror buffs will get a kick out of seeing Heinz Dracher ('Circus Of Fear') as Franz and Rupert Davies ('Witchfinder General') as Jules Merlin. Also keep an eye out for Burt "Kato" Kwouk as Fu Manchu's assistant Feno. The plot concerns Fu Manchu's development of a death ray with which he plans to dominate the world. He kidnaps beautiful girls from various countries who are the daughters of prominent scientists or politicians to force them to cooperate. But Nayland Smith (who is kind of Sherlock Holmes to Fu Manchu's Moriarty) is soon onto his scheme and it becomes a race against time to stop Fu Manchu from taking over the world. I always thought that Sax Rhomer's Fu Manchu was a terrific villain, but in these politically correct times it's unlikely we'll see him return to our movies screens. Even the recent comic adaptation 'The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen' left his character out. Lee makes a perfect Fu Manchu even if he is sometimes let down by a mundane script and budgetary limitations. 'The Brides Of Fu Manchu' is just as entertaining as 'The Face Of Fu Manchu', so if you enjoyed the first movie you'll have fun watching this one. There were three more movies in the series and it is generally thought that each was progressively worse than the last, so proceed with caution...

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 main attractions of 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' are to see all the Fu Manchu films with Christopher Lee and Lee himself, to see how he fares as this fiendish character. Have always loved Lee and he was/is rightly considered a legend. So charismatic and imposing with one of the most immediately distinctive voices for anybody anywhere, he is reason enough to see anything that he starred or appeared in regardless of their overall quality (and not every film he did was good).

Do feel that 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' fits under that not particularly good but watchable category. The first of four sequels, all inferior to the entertaining first film 'The Face of Fu Manchu', it is for me, and quite a number of others it seems, the best of the sequels or at least the least bad. One can see a decline in quality compared to the first film, a decline that got worse with each succeeding film, there are a good deal of problems and it is one of those films that are tricky to rate and review. But at the same time it is oddly entertaining and watchable.

While 'The Face of Fu Manchu' is a much better-looking film, 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' does have style and eerie atmosphere in especially the lighting. The sets are reasonably well designed. It doesn't look too awful considering its low production costs while, due to incomplete-feeling editing and some erratic photography, hardly being visual refinement (it is though compared to what came later in the series). Didn't find it a dull film at first and while the film is silly some of it is entertaining silliness in alternative to exhausting. Don Sharp returns as director and does ably if not as skillfully as before.

It's some of the cast that help elevate 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' from what could have been a mess with a few merits to just about watchable. Lee as one would expect is a powerful presence throughout, though is underused which is something that great actors like Lee should never be. Douglas Wilmer is no Nigel Green, but is a more than serviceable substitute and actually comes over quite well. Meanwhile Tsai Chin is deliciously nasty in her role.

Conversely, 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' did lack suspense and the silliness increasingly went overboard from personal opinion. Some of the film did get tedious in pace and with the torture/sadism getting increasingly gratuitous at the expense of any genuine tension and suspense and some of it felt repetitive. The music had haunting moments but generally intruded too much and didn't really fit.

Ending was not a surprise, could see it coming from miles away, and felt rushed. The script was truly mundane and a tonal muddle from trying to include too much and not doing enough with any of it, also didn't flow very well. The rest of the cast have little to do and struggle to do anything with what they're given. The tension would have been more if the abducted girls' roles and acting weren't so limited and one-dimensional in a way that any genuine fear and desperation is lost.

Overall, has a lot of problems but the best, or least bad, of the sequels in a series where the only good film is the first 'The Face of Fu Manchu'. 5/10

"The Brides of Fu Manchu" is the second of five Fu Manchu movies produced by Harry Alan Towers and starring Christopher Lee.The film is definitely the most entertaining of all the Fu Manchu films.The production values are top notch and the film is well-directed and acted.This time Fu Manchu wants to conquer the world("In a few moments,the entire world will capitulate to me.This is the destiny of Fu Manchu."-Fu Manchu).Fu Manchu's new evil plan is to send explosive energy via sound waves to small receivers placed in various cities throughout the world.It's up to Nayland Smith(Douglas Wilmer)to stop him...Anyway I enjoyed this film and you should too,if you like British horror/crime cinema.All the actresses starring in it are beautiful,especially Tsai Chin,the evil daughter of Fu Manchu.Fu Manchu returns a year later in "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu"(1967).