User Reviews

The evil Fu Manchu, once again played by Christopher lee, is back, and he has found the perfect way or so he thinks, to get rid of his enemies and get the world power that he feels he so richly deserves! With the aide of his equally evil daughter (Tsai Chin), he collects 10 of the most beautiful women in the world who will be his pawn in doing his bidding each of them, at a special time, are bitten by a tiny green snake which will give them the power to plant a kiss on one of Fu Manchu's enemy, killing them quickly but painfully.

Even though they tested with one of Fu Manchu's servants, it doesn't work on the ones he wants to dispose of, only blinding them, but leaving the girl dead. Fu Manchu does have the anecdote to the victim not eventually succumbing, and of course, he has a motive for not necessarily wanting them all to die. The goal is for the victims to lead Fu Manchu to Richard Greene, the ultimate source of what the master villain wants.

A silly adventure, if you are in the mood for such a thing, this is basically a series of different situations around the world where the chosen female strikes. Lee is decent, but after a while, you just feel the urge to rip that mustache off his face. Chin is certainly as evil as the similar Myrna Loy in the 1932 shocker "The Mask of Fu Manchu", and fortunately, this is more subtle with its stereotypes. But after a while, the silliness wears thin, and you long for the villains to be dispatched to where there will be no follow-up.

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.

Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu and a plot involving a bevy of nubile beauties killing heads of Governments with poison kisses.Surely your set for an enjoyably kitch Hammer film.Sadly no and the reason is probably Jesus(or "Jess" as he's billed here)Franco.This film is every bit as awful as everyone says it is.Put simply there are no redeeming features.Badly made in every possible way and worst of all utterly boring.Lee does very little and what he does makes no sense.I only managed about 45 minutes of this tripe before giving up.I refuse to believe anyone has sat through the entire running time unless they were tied to a chair or have masocistic tendencies.Incredibly the same team made another Fu Manchu film which is said to be even worse-which must've taken some doing!

Breaking out of the daze from Voodoo Passion (1977-also reviewed),I started trying to decided what title I should next watch from auteur film maker Jess Franco. Seeing the sealed box set on my shelf waiting to be opened,I got ready for the first chapter of Fu Manchu by Uncle Jess.

View on the film:

Sitting in a five film set, Indicator present a fantastic edition of the title,packed with detailed documenteries, audio commentery and a transfer that retains the film grain, whilst having a clean soundtrack and a print where the colours pop on the screen.

Detailed in Stephen Thrower's excellent book Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jess Franco, that in the first of what was to become a long collaboration with producer Harry Alan Towers, (who also co-wrote the script) that sudden money issues led to footage from three different movies being used,in an attempt to cover the budget troubles.

Co-writer (with Manfred R. Kohler and Towers) / directing auteur Jess Franco & his regular cinematographer of this era Manuel Merino, leap over the behind the scenes difficulties, with a sleazy Adventure atmosphere, gazing on the women chained up by Fu Manchu (played with a menacing edge by Christopher Lee) with Uncle Jess's distinctive playing of the zoom-in like a trombone, landing on the exposed skin of the ladies (whose chained up appearance, looks towards Uncle Jess's future take on the WIP genre), which is matched by Jazzy brightly coloured dissolves towards Lopez, (played by a snarling Ricardo Palacios) and the mapping of Fu Manchu's plan.

Getting the rights to the characters, but not Sax Rohmer's novel, the writers swiftly mix the Euro Spy baddie ambitions of Fu Manchu and his daughter, (played by an alluring Tsai Chin, later to co-star in Shang-Chi from Marvel) with the dashing adventure of Dr. Petrie trying to save Nayland Smith from the poison of Fu Manchu.

...I'd rate it a 0. I almost never write IMDb reviews or any of even the shortest blurbs but after having seen this piece of sh1t I was extremely compelled to say at least SOMETHING.

I have been having my fun with the previous 3 films, mostly due to the factor of the cheesy and unintentionally hysterical scenes, dialog, and most of all acting by the awesome Nigel Green - the ORIGINAL Nayland Smith. I guess when the script for THIS film approached either him or his agent, they came to their senses and passed on this piece of turd. At least the previous three had an actual "plot". Those were films that were poorly written, but at least well lit/shot and "directed". By no means were great films, but the hilarious (by modern standards) writing and acting made those films very watchable. A good way to have a laugh.

Now comes along Jesus Franco and the co, and completely SH1TS on everything. You could already tell the film is going downhill when in the first few minutes you find your attention wander off somewhere. I mean, I usually give films a "15 minute rule" where I will watch 15 minutes of the film even if it's downright atrocious just to see if it will get any better (...and even then, I still do finish the film) but even after 15 minutes, I couldn't even understand what the FUK was going on? It was going absolutely nowhere. There is no plot you can follow, the characters are downright moronic, Sancho Lopez - fat dirty Mexican bandit stereotype, oh man, how I hated his guts. The setting makes no sense, no merit. Okay, at least in the earlier Fu Manchu's the characters said some stupid things, but they constantly spew idiotic sh1t in this one. This was atrocious garbage, not in the least entertaining even in a bad way. Boring to tears. Complete and utter retardation of their limits. I don't know what the fuk was everyone smoking, especially the writer ("..a poison..to kill a poison..") when he wrote this piece of gutter trash. This was the worst of my masochistic experiences, I'm surprised I didn't already cut my wrists to slowly bleed, even though that would amplify the pain even more-so. If I was insane and had a gun, I'd blow my brains out...that's how bad this filth is.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000/10

The last time I saw this was almost 7 years ago, and all I could remember was that Nayland Smith goes blind and that it was very boring. Having been initiating myself into the Franco cult though, I actually enjoyed this quite a bit on my second viewing. It's impossible to accept Christopher Lee as an Asian man, but he still makes for an imposing villain. I also liked the supporting character of Carl Jansen, even though he makes some pretty boneheaded decisions. Unfortunately the character of Sancho Lopez really hinders my enjoyment of certain scenes. I think he was supposed to be a likable jerk in the Tuco tradition, but Ricardo Palacios lacks the charisma to remain sympathetic even while doing bad things. Franco milks the budget for all it's worth, and there are only a few telltale signs of how meager his means were (such as a little cave being shot from many angles to suggest a huge fortress). I was also surprised at how well he did with the action scenes.

My favorite thing about Blood of Fu Manchu were some of the oddball touches throughout. There's a Mayor who detains Carl Jansen for three days simply because "good chess players are hard to come by", and the delightfully whiny Dr. Petrie. To give you an idea of what a sod this guy is, he actually whines about not being able to reach his thermos full of tea when stuck in Fu Manchu's dungeon. And at one point he complains about the South American climate, berating himself for having gone there in the first place. This despite the fact that his reason for coming along is the impending death of his friend Nayland Smith! This film may have a lot of haters, but I really enjoyed it.

(I also noticed a major connection with another Franco film. Both this and The Demons feature women dealing out kisses of death, though The Demons deals with it in a darker manner. I wonder if this pops up in any other Franco films. In this case it could just be an incidental connection, since this film was written by Harry Alan Towers.)

Christopher Lee made several Fu Manchu films in the 1960s and I've seen them in no particular order. In my review after having seen THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU, I wrote that I'd seen the absolute worst FU MANCHU film ever made. Well, perhaps I spoke too soon, as this terrible movie is every bit as craptastic. Both films manage to take a somewhat interesting character (FU Manchu) and make him about as interesting as an avocado (a mushy one at that). Christopher Lee has all the charisma and charm of a block of wood, as he says and does practically nothing! Despite being an excellent horror actor, here dressed as a Chinese man (a very tall and Caucasian looking one), he appears as if no one has written him any dialog and he occupies very little screen time. When he does appear, he just stands there expressionless--like a somewhat Chinese version of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Now if this were all, perhaps the film would still be worth watching. Don't assume this, please, as the rest of the film is even worse. Rarely have I seen a plot so hopelessly convoluted, contradictory and nonsensical. Here are some of the many problems:

--Although the film is supposed to be set in Brazil, it switches between there and "nearby" Southern Mexico. Did anyone involved with the film look at a map? The two locations, however, are probably at least 3000 miles apart--yet they can walk to or take a horse to the other place in what seems like a few hours tops!

--Fu Manchu has put poison in 10 ladies' system so when they kiss a man, he dies almost instantly. You see this happen at the beginning and end of the film. However, when Nayland Smith is kissed full on the lips by one of these hypnotized killers, he goes blind only (because he's the hero in these god-awful flicks). And, this is later cured in a way that is sure to make you laugh.

--When one guy dies from poison and falls down a waterfall, when he's bobbing around in the water, you can see him blinking his eyes.

--When the ladies go on assignments to kill, they travel around the globe and are accompanied by Manchu's henchmen--making it a pretty complicated affair. Why not just have the henchmen shoot the intended victims in the face?! It's much easier and more cost-effective. Even a cinder block dropped on their heads or electric lamp tossed into their tub would be easier and make more sense.

--How do they make a comic book-like film and yet have almost no energy expended whatsoever? The fights are in slow-motion, there is no suspense and it all just limps along--making it a very boring movie.

--Why do Manchu's henchmen NEVER make a sound when they are attacked by surprise? In one scene, the German dude does this again and again to pick off the baddies and not once do the dummkopfs call out for help!!

--How does a small tussle at the end of the film result in Manchu's complex exploding? It just looks like they ran out of film and decided to stage a very, very small pyrotechnic explosion and say "hurray, we won!" and end it.

--How does Manchu get so many willing henchmen? He never treats them well, disposes of them right and left and brings them halfway around the globe to the South American jungle...and WHY the South American jungle?!

--Why were there so many naked women in this film? Again and again, there seemed to be little reason to rip off ladies' blouses other than to give the audience a cheap thrill. And, if you are going to make a nudie film, why not get attractive women?!

The confusing aspects of the film abound--with many, many more examples. Frankly, this film appears to have been written by lemurs. I can't decide which of the two final Christopher Lee films about Fu Manchu is worse and frankly, you'd have to pay me a lot to see them again so that I could definitively decide.

These films suck and aren't even fun to watch. If the film makers didn't care enough to work out the plot or produce a watchable film, why should people both as well?

The Blood of Fu Manchu starts in the jungles of South America where super villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) has found an ancient lost city that contains the secret to a deadly poison, using the ancient lost city as a base Fu Manchu infects ten beautiful women with the deadly Snake poison that means that their kiss will be fatal. Fu Manchu sends the women across the world to deliver the 'kiss of death' to his ten greatest enemies including agent Nayland Smith (Richard Greene) of Scotland yard, Nayland is kissed by one of the women & is blinded by the poison with his death imminent he & his assistant Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford) decide to travel to the jungles of South America in search of Fu Manchu & a possible antidote on the word of his agent there Carl Jansen (Götz George). Once there Nayland meets up with Jansen & they head deep into the jungle to find Fu Manchu, find an antidote & stop his plan for world domination...

This Spanis, German, English & American co-production was directed by Jess Franco who I probably rate as the worst filmmaker in living history, I just think the majority of his two hundred plus films that I have seen are absolutely abysmal with a few exceptions that were probably just lucky flukes with The Blood of Fu Manchu being more of the same. The character of Fu Manchu was created by British writer Sax Rohmer who wrote thirteen books featuring him & there had already been several films with Fu Manchu, maybe most notably the classic The Mask of Fu Manchu(1932) with Boris Karloff. The script was written by producer Harry Alan Towers & is poor, the basic concept about hypnotised women infected with some sort of secret Snake poison has a certain charm but in the hands of Franco it's wasted & just an excuse to show chained up women menaced by men holding Snakes. The basic plot is poorly thought out, it's never clear what Fu Manchu's plan is really or why this so called deadly poison takes days to work, there's no urgency in Nayland's impending death, no urgency in what Fu Manchu is trying to do & there's no sense of threat to the outside world either, we never even see a world leader for example. At 90 odd minutes The Blood of Fu Manchu is incredibly boring, there's no pace & the plot just plods along with no sense of excitement. Imagine a really, really low budget James Bond adventure complete with international locations, a super villain with an army of henchmen, a daft plot to take over the world & a British superhero & you still can't imagine how bad The Blood of Fu Manchu is, there's also a really fat & annoying Mexican bandit thrown into the mix to waste some time. The ending is also a disaster, why no-one shoots Fu Manchu at the end is beyond me & a really wimpy explosion is about the best the makers could offer.

As one would expect from Franco the film looks cheap & is badly made throughout, the lost city set & the costumes look like they are left overs from a school pantomime. The period details are all over the place too, while in London there are proper vintage Victorian cars & costumes yet later in the film modern skyscrapers & cars are seen & the costumes seem to have been picked at random with Ursula Wagner wearing what looks like a cheap Cowgirl outfit for no apparent reason. Despite the pulp comic book plot Franco still manages to include some cheap sleaze with half naked chained up women, a Snake biting a woman's breast & a bit of nudity. There's not much violence here, a Snake is crushed by a block, there are a few really badly staged fights & shoot-outs & not much else.

Filmed in Spain & Brazil, some of the locations look alright but Franco's awful pans & camera zooms just annoy & he can't stage or direct a decent action set-piece to save his life. It's all so lifeless, dull & poorly done. The acting varies, Christopher Lee deserves better than this tripe while Shirley Eaton's cameo was taken from outtakes from another film & used without her permission.

The Blood of Fu Manchu is more crap from Franco, what should have been a fun comic book adventure ended up being a dreary, badly made waste of time with the usual Franco trademarks of bad production values & chained up women. A real waste. Producer Towers, director Franco & star Lee reunited for the subsequent The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969).