2/5 Not quite the pit of despair, but close...
  by Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
The entry of Jess Franco to Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu series signalled the beginning of the end. Fast, cheap and amazingly bad, Franco is one of the few directors who could make Michael Winner look like Stanley Kubrick by comparison. After all, it takes denial on an Olympian scale to have David De Keyser dub three separate characters IN THE SAME SCENE or to include black and white stock footage from 'A Night to Remember' in a colour film (in The Castle of Fu Manchu) and think that if you tint it blue no-one will notice...

'The Blood of Fu Manchu' is marginally the better of his two Fus, but its still a major step down for the Christopher Lee series. Fully restored, but really no better for it, the presentation is enough reason for disappointed Fu Fans to consider adding it to their collection. The print is the best you're likely to see (the film is marginally better shot than most of Franco's efforts) and the extras package is more entertaining than the film (although the same can be said of mending a faulty waste-disposal). The first of a two-part documentary gives a brief background to the series with some candid observations from Tsai Chin and Shirley Eaton, as well as a somewhat more relaxed than usual Christopher Lee, countering Franco's unwarranted enthusiasm; one of the two trailers actually makes the film look good (quite an achievement); and the notes on the Fu Manchu novels are enlightening.

Incidentally, this print credits Peter Welbeck - Towers' regular pseudonym - as writer, but the film was actually written by Manfred Barthel and Jaime Jesus Blacazar.


When even Harry Alan Towers admits a film is bad, you know you're in trouble. On the featurette on The Castle of Fu Manchu he recalls turning to the amazingly untalented and prolific Jess Franco after seeing the final cut and telling him "You've done something I didn't think was possible: you've killed Fu Manchu." And how...

Badly directed, written, acted, photographed, recorded - heck, I'm willing to bet that even the catering was bad on this one - it's a real ordeal even for the most devoted Fu Manchu fan. If you thought the series couldn't get worse after the astonishing use of black and white stock footage from 'A Night to Remember,' you ain't seen nothin' yet. And not seeing it is probably the best thing to do by far.

But, for Fu Fanatics, the disc is still a must buy, if only for the extras and the presentation. The second of the two-part documentary descends into Jess Franco telling Christopher Lee stories about other films, but the rest of the package is well put together and Blue Underground's transfer is the best the film has probably ever looked (not much of a compliment, it's true). Now, if only we could get this kind of presentation on the highly enjoyable initial entry 'The Face of Fu Manchu' or its two immediate sequels 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' and 'The Vengeance of Fu Manchu' - they may not be masterpieces, but they're a lot more fun than these FuBar foulups!


5/5 Christopher Lee will do until a real Chinaman shows up!
  by Perry Der (Gainesville, FL)
In the amount of time it takes to write this, you will know that I was supremely happy to open my Amazon package and play these two discs back-2-back on a Sunday evening. It was like watching "Creature Features" in the 70's all over again. It brought back good memories and helped erase the fiasco known as "Peter Seller's Fu Manchu". ugh!

If you are particularly offended by white guys playing Asians, don't get this. If you are a collector, get it while it's still in circulation. You get two films for a pretty cheap price. The prints are very clear. As a Chinese guy, I keep wondering why no studio will get an actual Asian to play either Fu Manchu or Charlie Chan. It blows my mind.

In a nutshell, you vill not be velly solly for purchasing this combo!