Le Masque d'or

It didn't surprise me in the least that The Mask Of Fu Manchu was produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures. Even though the title is a bit of a misnomer. It isn't about The Mask Of Fu Manchu, it's about the mask and sword of Ghenghis Khan which Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu wants to discover and appropriate for himself so he can become a kind of Far Eastern Mahdi.

Cosmopolitan Pictures was the production outfit of William Randolph Hearst and while it's main reason for existence was to produce films for Marion Davies, it did produce other films. The Hearst press, especially on the West Coast was very big in stirring up anti-Chinese and anti- Japanese feelings among the white people constantly using the phrase The Yellow Peril to describe how if they're allowed to emigrate her they'll be taking over in a few generations. The fictional Fu Manchu fit the Hearst agenda quite nicely.

In the Fu Manchu stories it's like Professor Moriarty was the main protagonist. Fu Manchu's particular Holmes is Commissioner Nayland Smith played by Lewis Stone as stout a representative of the United Kingdom and their imperial pretensions as ever went out in the noon day sun.

As I said Fu Manchu is after the warrior symbols of Ghengis Khan so he can lead the Oriental people to their rightful place. Interestingly this Oriental messiah seems to have a number of black slaves doing his bidding in the film. The British government as personified by Nayland Smith wants archaeologists Jean Hersholt, David Torrance and Lawrence Grant to find the tomb and get this so the British can display it at the British Museum in London as a symbol of their superiority. Grant is kidnapped and tortured by Karloff, but Grant's daughter Karen Morley and her boyfriend, future Durango Kid Charles Starrett takes her father's place on the expedition.

Though I think that The Mask Of Fu Manchu is every bit as racist in its attitudes as The Birth Of A Nation, like The Birth Of A Nation it has some great performances. Led of course by that master of horror, Boris Karloff. Karloff played so many different and varied types in his long career, being Chinese was no big deal for him to play. Later on Karloff kind of made it up to the Chinese people by playing the educated detective Mr. Wong who unlike Charlie Chan never spoke in fortune cookie aphorisms.

Myrna Loy is Fu Manchu's 'unworthy' daughter and this is at the height of the phase in her career where she played Oriental temptresses. She conceives a real liking for Starrett to turn him into her Occidental boy toy. She's a willing and eager accomplice in her father's dirty deeds, perhaps to show herself as worthy.

The Mask Of Fu Manchu is as racist a film as you can get, but it's also holding up quite well as entertainment. And who was ever more sinister on the screen than Boris Karloff playing anything?

The Mask of Fu Manchu is a bit campy, but if you've got a theme planned for Halloween of old horror movies, you might want to add it to the list alongside some other Boris Karloff classics. Boris stars, in heavy makeup, as Dr. Fu Manchu, who's on the lookout for Genghis Khan's lost treasure. His minions will do anything to find it, including steal it off of museum curators who tried to find it legitimately.

Lewis Stone is the head of the good guys, or if you're looking at it another way, the opposition team. Lawrence Grant, Jean Hersholt, and Charles Starrett try to find the treasure, but along the way, Lawrence gets kidnapped and held ransom. His daughter, Karen Morley, who's in love with Charles, gets involved in the adventure, and all three of the remaining try to rescue Lawrence and maintain the treasure.

Myrna Loy, in her early days, costars as Boris's daughter, and she's quite the villainess who enjoys power and violence. This one's not as scary as Frankenstein, but it's fun if that's your theme for the weekend. Where else will you be able to find Lewis Stone fighting his way through a pit of alligators, or Jean Hersholt strapped to a chair while giant spikes close in all around him? That's some pretty scary stuff for the soon-to-be Judge Hardy and Heidi's Grandfather!

THE MASK OF FU MANCHU has recently had several minutes of missing material restored to it, footage that has not been seen in decades. This longer cut of the film is currently enjoying a limited theatrical release, and it would be nice to see that followed by a DVD release. Probably one of the best of the films to be based on author Sax Rohmer's stories (along with FACE OF FU MANCHU and DRUMS OF FU MANCHU), it would be nice to see a potential DVD release possibly include commentary by Boris Karloff's daughter, Sara, or a look at the making of the film. Karloff commented in interviews that MASK was a troubled production, with constant changes to the script throughout the filming. In spite of that, the final film manages to capture the feel of the pulp tales that inspired it.

The Mask of Fu Manchu easily could have served as inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Archaeologists dashing to retrieve relic to save Western Civilization. Feats of derring-do. Scenes of despicable torture and heroic bravery. What makes this movie even better is in Raiders you know Dr. Jones will win. The Nazis are mere obstacles in his path to run over. But in this movie, Boris Karloff's performance as the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu makes the Nazis seem like mere shadows of a threat compared to his evil genius. His Fu Manchu is a villain you not only fear, but respect. Myrna Loy as his daughter is wickedly good. While the sparks put off by Fu Manchu's diabolical invention are impressive special effects, they are nothing in comparison to the sparks emitted by the young, scantily clad Myrna Loy.

Created by British author Sax Rohmer, the evil Dr. Fu Manchu appeared for the first time in 1912, in a story serialized in one of the many pulp magazines of those years. While originally a personification of the racism present during the time of its creation (the infamous "Yellow Peril"), Fu Manchu has become one of the most famous characters in science fiction, serving as model to other villainous character as one of the earliest examples of the Supervillain archetype. The fascinating evil genius (and his nemesis, Sir Denis Nayland Smith) appeared in so many successful novels that of course, film adaptations became the next step, resulting in many different versions of the stories made since the first British film serial in 1923. Many talented actors like Harry Agar Lyons, Warner Oland and Christopher Lee have played the famous criminal, but the most famous interpretation of Fu Manchu is definitely the one done by horror legend Boris Karloff in the 1932 film, "The Mask of Fu Manchu".

Based on Rohmer's story of the same name, "The Mask of Fu Manchu" is the story of the discovery of Ghengis Khan's tomb, where his legendary Mask and Sword are supposed to be hidden. British archaeologist Sir Lionel Barton (Lawrence Grant) has discovered the exact location, but he is kidnapped by Dr. Fu Manchu's (Boris Karloff) criminal gang, in order to proclaim himself Kahn's heir and lead the Asian nations to a war against the British empire. Knowing this, Sir Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone) takes his own group of archaeologists and, along with Barton's only daughter Sheila (Karen Morley) and her fiancée Terry (Charles Starrett), attempt to find Kahn's tomb before Fu Manchu, hoping to rescue Sir Lionel Barton in the process. However, Dr. Fu Manchu and his daughter Fah Lo See (Myrna Loy) will prove to be terrible enemies for the British agent and his team.

Written by the prolific writer Edgar Allan Woolf (with Irene Kuhn and John Willard as collaborators), the film is as faithful as possible to its pulp novel origins, keeping the essence of the Rohmer's series of books in both style and substance. As in the novels, the story flows at a fast pace, mixing horror and science fiction as the adventurers must face the criminal mastermind, who here is presented as a fascinating and very powerful adversary of Smith and his team. In fact, it could be said that the writers seemed more interested in the villains than in the heroes, as Fu Manchu and his daughter are easily the most developed characters. The treatment of Fah Lo See is really interesting, as the script (written in the years before the Hays Code) allows her to be a very sexual predator, and as wicked as her father.

"The Mask of Fu Manchu" was directed by Charles Brabin, a very experienced director of silents who after the introduction of sound, directed several "talkies" before retiring. Brabin's experience in Silent films may be the reason behind the very visual flare of the movie, as he gives an amazing use to Tony Gaudio's cinematography to create one of the most stunningly looking pieces of science fiction of the 30s, truly capturing the "feeling" of the pulp novels where the story had its origins. As the writers, Brabin seems to fall in love with his villains, and injects them the haunting mix of sadistic eroticism that previous incarnations of Fu Manchu lacked. Interestingly, this movie, Brabin's 8th film with sound, was also the first "talkie" directed by Charles Vidor, who here received his first chance as an assistant in a big studio movie.

As written above, it's the villains what make "The Mask of Fu Manchu" special, and fortunately, the cast portraying them was the most perfect one for the job. Myrna Loy is simply gorgeous as Fah Lo See, and while her role doesn't have too much screen time, she makes every scene memorable as Manchu's daughter. Legendary horror icon Boris Karloff makes wonders in the role of Fu Manchu, as he takes the character of the evil genius to higher levels of monstrosity. While the make-up (by Cecil Holland) is not as effective as the ones by Jack Pierce at Universal, Karloff manages to be a very convincing Fu Manchu in probably the best representation of the character. As Fu Machu's nemesis, Lewis Stone shows the necessary dignity and wit of the British gentleman he is portraying, but sadly his screen time is very limited and instead we get more of the mediocre performances by Karen Morley and Charles Starrett, who look very weak as the romantic couple.

It seems like time hasn't been nice to this film when compared to other films inspired by pulp novels, and not only because of it's constant racism towards the Asians (like with the novels, the "Yellow Peril" stereotype is quite notorious), but mainly because it uses devises so typical of adventure films today, that it make the film look dated and clichéd; however, taking into account the times when this movie was made, one can see it as the possible source of those clichés. On a different subject matter, the movie indeed suffers from the bad performances of those put on the main spotlight, as like many directors that started in silent films, Brabin struggles with the most dialog-based scenes. Still, Karloff, Loy and Stone shine despite Brabin's own problems and the lack of talent of the two lead actors.

True, "The Mask of Fu Manchu" looks campy and terribly dated by today standards, but it certainly has many characteristics that make it worthy of the title of "classic". It's horror elements are few, but it's an enormously influential film for the action and adventure genres (an influence that can be traced even to the "Indiana Jones" series). While not exactly a perfect movie, "The Mask of Fu Manchu" delivers a nice pack of thrills and fun, and one of Karloff's finest performances. 7/10