1968's "The Blood of Fu Manchu" was the 4th of 5 Christopher Lee entries, but with director Jesus Franco at the helm the series had now sunk to a new low, on location shooting in Brazil and Spain showing a lower budget than ever with a nothing cast taking center stage at the expense of Lee and daughter Tsai Chin. Gotz George is supposed to be playing the same character, Carl Janssen, introduced by Joachim Fuchsberger in "The Face of Fu Manchu," but the participation of Richard Greene, replacing Douglas Wilmer for these two, is totally wasted with his Nayland Smith incapacitated by a poisoned kiss administered by a female assassin sent out for his benefit. In what turned out to be her screen swan song, Shirley Eaton ("Goldfinger") actually shot her lone scene for one of her two Sumuru titles for producer Harry Alan Towers ("The Million Eyes of Sumuru" and "The Girl from Rio"), unaware of her presence in this film for many years. Fu's hidden fortress deep in the Brazilian jungle is often referred to as being as busy as Grand Central Station, waiting for the cavalry to arrive while various nondescript characters come and go with dull repetitiveness. Howard Marion Crawford at least has more to do for once, and again Christopher Lee holds his own in admirable fashion, a chore when he's off screen so often, Franco's incessant zoom lens accompanied by poorly integrated stock footage for the series finale "The Castle of Fu Manchu."
Review of The Blood of Fu Manchu
