An executioner's axe can't quite get rid of the evil Fu Manchu whom the Chinese government believes is deprived of the top of his body in the first scene, and fortunately it's a different actor, not the real Christopher Lee. Outside that little bit, with this other man only having a minute of screen time (and no dialog), Lee doesn't pop in as the colorful robe wearing mastermind until half an hour in.
British government agent Nigel Green is now on the case of capturing Lee after the deception is revealed, and Fu Manchu goes after professor Walter Rilla by kidnapping his daughter (Karin Dor) with the help of the evil Lin Tang (Tsai Chin), Lee's daughter who like the Myrna Loy version of this character in the 1932 version is into watching pain. There's secret traps and threats of torture, including a drowning device.
While the knowledge that Lee's version of this character would return for four more films impacts the ending of each of the films, at least this one drew me in. Others I've seen of the series are genuinely bad, more dull than tacky, even though I'd use that adjective to describe this one which uses some jaw dropping language to indicate racial assumptions. This is the best of the series, but still not a very good movie.
British government agent Nigel Green is now on the case of capturing Lee after the deception is revealed, and Fu Manchu goes after professor Walter Rilla by kidnapping his daughter (Karin Dor) with the help of the evil Lin Tang (Tsai Chin), Lee's daughter who like the Myrna Loy version of this character in the 1932 version is into watching pain. There's secret traps and threats of torture, including a drowning device.
While the knowledge that Lee's version of this character would return for four more films impacts the ending of each of the films, at least this one drew me in. Others I've seen of the series are genuinely bad, more dull than tacky, even though I'd use that adjective to describe this one which uses some jaw dropping language to indicate racial assumptions. This is the best of the series, but still not a very good movie.