THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU is far from a great, or even good movie. But it's fast-paced and trashy enough to hold my attention, and features enthusiastic performances from Christopher Lee and Richard Greene.
The plot is as lurid as pulp trash gets. Fu Manchu and his daughter inflict a deadly snake bite on a group of women. Through his latest diabolical invention, Fu Manchu has figured out a way to prevent the venom from harming the women, but it will slowly kill any man whom she kisses (thus the original US title, KISS AND KILL).
One of those men is Fu Manchu's nemesis, Nayland Smith, who manages to survive his snake bite-kiss long enough to track Fu Manchu down and confront him. What happens next? You'll have to watch it and see! Suffice it to say that Fu Manchu does get to say his famous last line, "The world will hear from me again!" It's all pretty juvenile and silly, but infamous schlock master Jess Franco injects enough nastiness and T&A to keep things interesting. I don't see the racism which many critics seem to feel plagues the series reflected in this movie. It's just a bit of harmless off-the-wall fun, and one of director Franco's better movies.
Unfortunately, it was followed by THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU.
The plot is as lurid as pulp trash gets. Fu Manchu and his daughter inflict a deadly snake bite on a group of women. Through his latest diabolical invention, Fu Manchu has figured out a way to prevent the venom from harming the women, but it will slowly kill any man whom she kisses (thus the original US title, KISS AND KILL).
One of those men is Fu Manchu's nemesis, Nayland Smith, who manages to survive his snake bite-kiss long enough to track Fu Manchu down and confront him. What happens next? You'll have to watch it and see! Suffice it to say that Fu Manchu does get to say his famous last line, "The world will hear from me again!" It's all pretty juvenile and silly, but infamous schlock master Jess Franco injects enough nastiness and T&A to keep things interesting. I don't see the racism which many critics seem to feel plagues the series reflected in this movie. It's just a bit of harmless off-the-wall fun, and one of director Franco's better movies.
Unfortunately, it was followed by THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU.