38 reviews
Christopher Lee returns in this fourth chapter as the evil Fu Manchu , this time has designed a fantastic gadget injecting gorgeous girls (Leni Von Friedl, among others) a venomous poison which reacts in a killing kiss . The beautiful girls are sent to seduce Nayland Smith (Richard Greene replaced Douglas Wilmer) and world leaders . When Nayland Smith is kissed by a death-kiss and he then strolls completely blinded , letting his assistant Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford) takes the center of attention . A blind Nayland Smith enlists the help an adventurer named Jansen (Gotz George) and an attractive woman (Maria Rhom, married to producer Harry Allan Towers) .
This is a bizarre blending of adventures , thriller and Spaghetti Western . This exciting picture is full of Chinese killers , British adventurers , and Cangaiceiros dressed in Mexican bandits-alike . Weak performance by Richard Greene as Nyland Smith who in previous episodes was best interpreted by Nigel Green and Douglas Wilmer . The villain T Sai Chin stands out as Fu Manchu's daughter and the murderous bandit Ricardo Palacios overacting as a sympathetic chief Cangaicero . This is the beginning of collaborating between Jesus Franco or ¨Uncle Jess¨ and the producer Harry Allan Towers and to be continued in several movies . Filmed in Madrid and Rio De Janeiro and well photographed by Manuel Merino . Atmospheric musical score by Daniel White , Jess Frank's usual.
Most critics felt this outing was one of the weakest entries along with ¨The castle of Fu Manchu¨ also directed by Jess Frank with similar casting , plenty of stock-shots and a Z-series style . Christopher Lee (Dr. Fu Manchu), Tsai Chin (Lin Tang) and Howard Marion-Crawford (Dr. Petrie) are the only actors to appear in all five Harry Allan Towers/Fu Manchu films . The best installments resulted to be ¨Face of Fu Manchu (1965, Don Sharp)¨ , and ¨Brides of Fu Manchu (1966, Don Sharp)¨ and the inferior ¨Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967 , Jeremy Summers) ¨.
This is a bizarre blending of adventures , thriller and Spaghetti Western . This exciting picture is full of Chinese killers , British adventurers , and Cangaiceiros dressed in Mexican bandits-alike . Weak performance by Richard Greene as Nyland Smith who in previous episodes was best interpreted by Nigel Green and Douglas Wilmer . The villain T Sai Chin stands out as Fu Manchu's daughter and the murderous bandit Ricardo Palacios overacting as a sympathetic chief Cangaicero . This is the beginning of collaborating between Jesus Franco or ¨Uncle Jess¨ and the producer Harry Allan Towers and to be continued in several movies . Filmed in Madrid and Rio De Janeiro and well photographed by Manuel Merino . Atmospheric musical score by Daniel White , Jess Frank's usual.
Most critics felt this outing was one of the weakest entries along with ¨The castle of Fu Manchu¨ also directed by Jess Frank with similar casting , plenty of stock-shots and a Z-series style . Christopher Lee (Dr. Fu Manchu), Tsai Chin (Lin Tang) and Howard Marion-Crawford (Dr. Petrie) are the only actors to appear in all five Harry Allan Towers/Fu Manchu films . The best installments resulted to be ¨Face of Fu Manchu (1965, Don Sharp)¨ , and ¨Brides of Fu Manchu (1966, Don Sharp)¨ and the inferior ¨Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967 , Jeremy Summers) ¨.
The fourth entry in the Fu Manchu series with Sir Christopher Lee is a very mild diversion at best. Lee, playing the dastardly arch villain, appears to be just going through the motions. This time, his fiendish plan is to abduct a dozen sexy young women, and use them as assassins. Their blood is filled with poison and they are dispatched to various major world cities to murder Fu Manchus' enemies. On the side of good are Fu Manchus' chief nemesis, Nayland Smith (Richard Greene), Carl Jansen, a so-called "archaeologist" (Gotz George), Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion-Crawford), and Ursula Wagner (Maria Rohm), a nurse.
Another collaboration between screenwriter / producer Harry Alan Towers and the extremely prolific director Jess Franco, this is going to be awfully disappointing for those people that love Francos' ultra-sleazy 1970s output. Titillation is minimal. As a jungle adventure / pulp nonsense bit of entertainment, it's okay, but it falls short of any potential. Overall, it lacks style and energy, and some viewers may even find it boring. Even the action scenes aren't very exciting. The location shooting in Spain and Brazil is adequate, and there are some very fine looking ladies (also including Shirley Eaton of "Goldfinger" fame as The Black Widow) to add to the scenic value.
Lee is just okay, unfortunately, although there is pleasure in watching Tsai Chin ("You Only Live Twice") as Fu Manchus' sadist daughter Lin Tang, and the lively Marion-Crawford. Ricardo Palacios is amusing as a bandit leader, but the film simply spends too much time with his uninteresting gang. Greene, credited as a "guest star", doesn't get all that much to do.
If you're a fan of Lee and / or Franco, you could definitely do better than this.
Five out of 10.
Another collaboration between screenwriter / producer Harry Alan Towers and the extremely prolific director Jess Franco, this is going to be awfully disappointing for those people that love Francos' ultra-sleazy 1970s output. Titillation is minimal. As a jungle adventure / pulp nonsense bit of entertainment, it's okay, but it falls short of any potential. Overall, it lacks style and energy, and some viewers may even find it boring. Even the action scenes aren't very exciting. The location shooting in Spain and Brazil is adequate, and there are some very fine looking ladies (also including Shirley Eaton of "Goldfinger" fame as The Black Widow) to add to the scenic value.
Lee is just okay, unfortunately, although there is pleasure in watching Tsai Chin ("You Only Live Twice") as Fu Manchus' sadist daughter Lin Tang, and the lively Marion-Crawford. Ricardo Palacios is amusing as a bandit leader, but the film simply spends too much time with his uninteresting gang. Greene, credited as a "guest star", doesn't get all that much to do.
If you're a fan of Lee and / or Franco, you could definitely do better than this.
Five out of 10.
- Hey_Sweden
- Mar 15, 2017
- Permalink
If you read the plot synopsis of "Blood Of Fu Manchu" it sounds like exploitation gold, but don't get your hopes up: it doesn't make the most of its premise (to put it kindly). Despite noted smut peddler Jess Franco in the director's chair, it is quite tame, and despite being part of the Fu Manchu series, a stereotypically fat, unshaven, cackling bandit has by far the most screen time (Shirley Eaton fans will also be disappointed; her part is a 2-minute cameo). Location filming in Brazil and Christopher Lee's commanding (even if unconvincing) performance are pretty much its only assets. ** out of 4.
- gridoon2024
- Feb 7, 2020
- Permalink
The fourth film in the revived Fu Manchu series from hit-and-run international film producer Harry Alan Towers is the first one directed by Jesus (Jess) Franco, a cult icon best known for the staggering quantity of his films, as well as their usually appalling quality. In hindsight, Towers and Franco were destined for each other. Both were specialists in speedy international productions and each usually juggled more than one project at a time.
"Fu Manchu's Kiss of Death" (the shooting title) was filmed back-to-back (or perhaps simultaneously) with the next film in the series "The Castle of Fu Manchu" and shows evidence of having been written on the fly. The script is loosely constructed and constantly sidetracks itself with multiple subplots and far too many characters. The most intrusive involves the a South American bandit chief, whose protracted exploits take up so much screen time that viewers just walking in would think they were in the wrong theater. Probably designed to show off the Brazilian exteriors, it is tempting to say that these sequences look like rejected scenes from "The Wild Bunch", but that would be giving Franco's footage too much credit.
As evidence that Towers was not above ripping off himself, the film opens with a sequence that is a remake of the opening of "Brides of Fu Manchu", with women chained to pillars in an underground hideaway. As in "Brides", one is led to a snake pit but, instead of being lowered in, she is gingerly bitten in the throat by one, thereby becoming the carrier of the title's kiss of death. The contrast between the lighting, staging and sets in these two sequences gives ample testimony of how low the series had fallen in just two years.
The ever-present Maria Rohm (AKA Mrs. Harry Alan Towers) shows up as a jungle missionary wearing a gaucho hat and red leotards. She gets involved in yet another subplot about a proto-Indiana Jones leading a medical expedition. Apparently, this plotline exists only to provide the hero, afflicted with the death kiss, with a miraculous cure at the last minute.
While the rest of the cast was having fun in the Brazilian jungles, stars Christopher Lee and Richard Greene never leave the studio in Madrid, Spain that was home to all the film's interiors. Guest star Shirley Eaton appears in one brief scene that appears to be an outtake from one of the two Su-Muru films she was making for Towers at the time. (The second was also directed by Franco.)
It's hard to believe that this film (retitled "Kiss and Kill") got major USA playdates in 1968 as a solo feature.
"Fu Manchu's Kiss of Death" (the shooting title) was filmed back-to-back (or perhaps simultaneously) with the next film in the series "The Castle of Fu Manchu" and shows evidence of having been written on the fly. The script is loosely constructed and constantly sidetracks itself with multiple subplots and far too many characters. The most intrusive involves the a South American bandit chief, whose protracted exploits take up so much screen time that viewers just walking in would think they were in the wrong theater. Probably designed to show off the Brazilian exteriors, it is tempting to say that these sequences look like rejected scenes from "The Wild Bunch", but that would be giving Franco's footage too much credit.
As evidence that Towers was not above ripping off himself, the film opens with a sequence that is a remake of the opening of "Brides of Fu Manchu", with women chained to pillars in an underground hideaway. As in "Brides", one is led to a snake pit but, instead of being lowered in, she is gingerly bitten in the throat by one, thereby becoming the carrier of the title's kiss of death. The contrast between the lighting, staging and sets in these two sequences gives ample testimony of how low the series had fallen in just two years.
The ever-present Maria Rohm (AKA Mrs. Harry Alan Towers) shows up as a jungle missionary wearing a gaucho hat and red leotards. She gets involved in yet another subplot about a proto-Indiana Jones leading a medical expedition. Apparently, this plotline exists only to provide the hero, afflicted with the death kiss, with a miraculous cure at the last minute.
While the rest of the cast was having fun in the Brazilian jungles, stars Christopher Lee and Richard Greene never leave the studio in Madrid, Spain that was home to all the film's interiors. Guest star Shirley Eaton appears in one brief scene that appears to be an outtake from one of the two Su-Muru films she was making for Towers at the time. (The second was also directed by Franco.)
It's hard to believe that this film (retitled "Kiss and Kill") got major USA playdates in 1968 as a solo feature.
- mark.waltz
- Feb 10, 2021
- Permalink
Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) is hidden with his evil daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) in a lost city he has found in the jungles of South America. He discovers a poison deadly for men through kiss and he abducts ten women to infect them with the poison to destroy his enemies. Then he sends one woman to London to kiss his greatest enemy, the Scotland Yard agent Nayland Smith (Richard Greene). Nayland is blinded by the poison and his friend Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford) travels with him to the jungles in South America to seek out Fu Manchu expecting to find an antidote. They team up with agent Carl Jansen (Götz George) and soon they learn the scheme of Fu Manchu for world domination.
"The Blood of Fu Manchu" is a silly and lame adventure of the infamous Fu Manchu by Jess Franco. The acting is dreadful and the plot is confused and boring with no emotion. The speeches of Howard Marion Crawford and Götz George are very difficult to be understood and most of the women are beautiful actresses. My vote is four.
Title (Brazil): Not Available on DVD and Blu-Ray
"The Blood of Fu Manchu" is a silly and lame adventure of the infamous Fu Manchu by Jess Franco. The acting is dreadful and the plot is confused and boring with no emotion. The speeches of Howard Marion Crawford and Götz George are very difficult to be understood and most of the women are beautiful actresses. My vote is four.
Title (Brazil): Not Available on DVD and Blu-Ray
- claudio_carvalho
- Jan 20, 2015
- Permalink
In spite of the fact that this is the 4th (I think) entry in Christopher Lee's Fu Manchu "series" (I'm assuming they don't all follow on from each other), it's the first one I've seen and if the rest of them are anything like this; I hope it's the last! I can't profess to know a great deal about this series having only seen one film in it; though I am familiar with the character Fu Manchu after having seen the 1932 Boris Karloff film. Christopher Lee is a great actor, but here he looks like he couldn't really be bothered; for a start, Fu Manchu is meant to be an oriental character, and Lee doesn't even try to put on an oriental accent! The plot follows Fu Manchu's quest for world domination and focuses on his bright idea of filling up a load of women with poison and using them to seduce ten of the most powerful men in the world. It actually doesn't sound like that bad a springboard for a decent film, adding in the jungle setting and a super villain, you'd really be forgiven for thinking that this film is going to be a lot better. Jess Franco takes the directors chair and it seems, as is often the case, he cared more about his paycheck than the film as it lacks suspense and excitement, the characters are mostly dull and the situation is not made the best of. Overall, this film may do something for fans of the series; but personally it hasn't made me want to see more of these films!
The evil Fu Manchu continues his endless quest for world domination but first; he has developed a plan to eliminate his arch-enemies (of which Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith is top priority). So our oriental master-criminal has kidnapped 10 of the most beautiful women on the planet and stuffed their bodies with the world's deadliest poison. Their orders are to seduce the enemies and kill them with "the kiss of death". His fiendish plan almost succeeds but Smith survives the assault and goes after Fu Manchu, who shelters in the jungles of South America. The premise of this sequel sounds promising enough but, don't be fooled, it's a terribly boring and unexciting film. There are so many things wrong with this production I don't even properly know where to start. For starters, the screenplay introduces way too many characters and actually none of them are worth mentioning. There's no tension and there's a total lack of gore and sleaze, as well (considering Jess Franco signed for the direction, I was at least hoping for this). There are a lot of battle sequences but they're painfully tame and tedious. Franco makes no use of the great jungle-location at all and the editing is lousy. Judging by his emotionless performance, Christopher Lee wasn't interesting in repeating the Fu Manchu role for the fourth time at all. Jess Franco also directs on automatic pilot, meaning without the slightest bit of passion or motivation. For him this was just another easy-money job in between some euro-trash cinema highlights like "99 Women" and "Marquis de Sade: Justine". The absolute best Fu Manchu film remains the 1932 "Mask of Fu Manchu" (starring Boris Karloff), although Don Sharp's efforts "the Face of
." and "The Brides of
" are pretty good as well. There's absolutely nothing to recommend about this one, so avoid unless you're a perfectionist...or really REALLY bored.
This film was viewed at 1.30 in the morning, and after viewing it was easy to see why it had been screened at that time. The star, Christopher Lee, was cast as an oriental super-villain with a crooked moustache. Lee made no effort to fake an oriental accent, probably due to the fact that he did not want a part in the sequel. The action scenes were the worst I have ever seen in a movie, although budding doctors may wish to watch this as a guide of how not to do a blood transfusion! The films saving grace was its use of un-nececery nudity, which earns it 3/10.
- renodbabek
- Aug 11, 2000
- Permalink
The 4th of the 5 Fu Manchu movies with Christopher Lee takes the villain to a new hiding-place in Brazil. He uses a snake venom to blind and kill his enemies. Immune girls are passing on the poison to the victims by a kiss of death. Carl Jansen (Götz George) finds Fu Manchu, and Nayland Smith urgently needs help because he's been kissed already. The whole movie makes no sense at all (even the trip to Brazil isn't necessary for Nayland Smith, since the antidote was available in England from the girl who gave the kiss), but I didn't worry much about logic because it is so much fun! Just a handful of examples: Dr Petrie is unshaken by any danger, but cold tea really upsets him... A bandit steals a book, then throws it away: "No pictures, only words! Terrible!" he says with the justified wrath of the illiterate. The governor keeps Jansen prisoner for three days under false accusation - and apologizes that "good chess players are hard to find"!
Ricardo Palacios as Lopez makes a much better co-villain than Horst Frank in the previous movie because he provides such a great difference: the short, fat, sweating, ugly bandit compared to the tall, lean, stiff, ascetic mastermind. Lopez is the first one with the guts to ask: How much do you pay?", and Lee dryly replies: Freedom is not measured in terms of money..." Brilliant moments, and the camera work with its close-ups and focusing is looking much more creative than the traditional job in The Vengeance of Fu Manchu". Last not least, more sexy girls than ever before! I voted 7/8/5/7/4 for the five movies.
Ricardo Palacios as Lopez makes a much better co-villain than Horst Frank in the previous movie because he provides such a great difference: the short, fat, sweating, ugly bandit compared to the tall, lean, stiff, ascetic mastermind. Lopez is the first one with the guts to ask: How much do you pay?", and Lee dryly replies: Freedom is not measured in terms of money..." Brilliant moments, and the camera work with its close-ups and focusing is looking much more creative than the traditional job in The Vengeance of Fu Manchu". Last not least, more sexy girls than ever before! I voted 7/8/5/7/4 for the five movies.
- unbrokenmetal
- Jul 23, 2009
- Permalink
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."
- kevinolzak
- Oct 22, 2020
- Permalink
This solid, sumptuous adaptation the Fu Manchu series (the director's first of two) is further evidence of both Christopher Lee's tremendous character acting and that Spanish director Jess Franco actually did make some good movies. This movie is not "perfect" by any means, but Franco milks the meager budget for every dime and delivers maximum scale for this bizarre pulp epic. He delivers on all the sex, violence, and the macabre you would expect from a Franco flick and also manages to create a sense of dignity and responsibility about the whole thing (with much help from Lee's focused performance). Anyway, good stuff. Especially if you are in to adventure serials and/ or jungle exploitation films. Don't miss out on a newly discovered classic. Blue-Underground's DVD of the uncut, beautifully rendered remastering should revert many of the film's most passionate critics into true believers.
- micahgallo
- Dec 4, 2003
- Permalink
- squeezebox
- Mar 10, 2005
- Permalink
Blood of FuManchu, The (1968)
1/2 (out of 4)
This here is technically the fourth film in the Christopher Lee/FuManchu series, although most fans just consider the first three to be a series and the final two just the work of Spanish director Jess Franco. No matter how you consider the series to work, there's very little doubt as to how bad this film actually is. FuManchu (Lee) and his daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) are hiding out in the Amazon jungle. FuManchu comes up with a new idea to take over the world and it's to send out ten beautiful women with poison on their lips to kill various world leaders. THE BLOOD OF FUMANCHU was released under countless titles including KISS AND KILL but no matter what you call it there's no doubt it's a horrible little picture that doesn't have a single thing going for it. Jess Franco has made a lot of bad films in his career but there's no question this here is the worst of the decade, which for the most part had some decent films that even non-fans thought were at least good. The biggest problem is that the entire story is a complete mess as you never really know if this film is trying to be serious or some sort of spoof. Lee pretty much sleepwalks through his role and it really doesn't appear that he's having any fun. Tsai Chin is about the only decent thing in the film but she isn't given too much to do and the rest of the supporting cast appear to have some sort of poison in their system as well. The film has a comic book vibe to it but there's not an ounce of energy to be found anywhere and what fun adventure there should be isn't anywhere to be found either. This production might have had a bigger than normal budget but nothing was done with it and in the end this is just a worthless film without anything going for it.
1/2 (out of 4)
This here is technically the fourth film in the Christopher Lee/FuManchu series, although most fans just consider the first three to be a series and the final two just the work of Spanish director Jess Franco. No matter how you consider the series to work, there's very little doubt as to how bad this film actually is. FuManchu (Lee) and his daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) are hiding out in the Amazon jungle. FuManchu comes up with a new idea to take over the world and it's to send out ten beautiful women with poison on their lips to kill various world leaders. THE BLOOD OF FUMANCHU was released under countless titles including KISS AND KILL but no matter what you call it there's no doubt it's a horrible little picture that doesn't have a single thing going for it. Jess Franco has made a lot of bad films in his career but there's no question this here is the worst of the decade, which for the most part had some decent films that even non-fans thought were at least good. The biggest problem is that the entire story is a complete mess as you never really know if this film is trying to be serious or some sort of spoof. Lee pretty much sleepwalks through his role and it really doesn't appear that he's having any fun. Tsai Chin is about the only decent thing in the film but she isn't given too much to do and the rest of the supporting cast appear to have some sort of poison in their system as well. The film has a comic book vibe to it but there's not an ounce of energy to be found anywhere and what fun adventure there should be isn't anywhere to be found either. This production might have had a bigger than normal budget but nothing was done with it and in the end this is just a worthless film without anything going for it.
- Michael_Elliott
- Feb 26, 2011
- Permalink
With the simple application of a droopy moustache and a touch of eyeliner, Christopher Lee is once again brilliantly transformed (can you detect a hint of sarcasm?) into tyrannical Asian despot Fu Manchu, who is still trying to conquer the world; this time, he is killing off his enemies using female assassins whose kisses have been made deadly through snake venom.
I love me a bit of Fu Manchu: the character seriously disturbed me as a youngster, his cruelty sending shivers up my spine (I think it might have been the Karloff incarnation that had this effect). Unfortunately, in the hands of the frequently crap Jess Franco, chills are in short supply with this entry in the series, which doesn't even deliver much in the way of unintentional laughs either, making it a pretty dull affair all round.
For a Franco film, the production values are actually pretty good, with reasonable location work and fancy sets, and the director throws in a little sleaze, with chained women subjected to torture and occasionally stripped to the waist for a snake bite to the breast. But with a dreary pace and some truly pointless scenes, the worst being those featuring an overweight bandit called Sancho Lopez (Ricardo Palacios), this is a real snoozefest.
It's a sorry sight watching a great actor such as Lee slumming it in such drivel, but at least he's not the only recognisable name making a fool of himself: TV's Robin Hood Richard Greene is also on hand as Fu's arch enemy Nayland Smith, and Bond babe Shirley Eaton appears as Black Widow.
I love me a bit of Fu Manchu: the character seriously disturbed me as a youngster, his cruelty sending shivers up my spine (I think it might have been the Karloff incarnation that had this effect). Unfortunately, in the hands of the frequently crap Jess Franco, chills are in short supply with this entry in the series, which doesn't even deliver much in the way of unintentional laughs either, making it a pretty dull affair all round.
For a Franco film, the production values are actually pretty good, with reasonable location work and fancy sets, and the director throws in a little sleaze, with chained women subjected to torture and occasionally stripped to the waist for a snake bite to the breast. But with a dreary pace and some truly pointless scenes, the worst being those featuring an overweight bandit called Sancho Lopez (Ricardo Palacios), this is a real snoozefest.
It's a sorry sight watching a great actor such as Lee slumming it in such drivel, but at least he's not the only recognisable name making a fool of himself: TV's Robin Hood Richard Greene is also on hand as Fu's arch enemy Nayland Smith, and Bond babe Shirley Eaton appears as Black Widow.
- BA_Harrison
- Jun 1, 2018
- Permalink
- morrison-dylan-fan
- Jun 9, 2022
- Permalink
All in all it feels like Hammer Horror meets Spaghetti Western meets Spanish Ed Wood.
The Fu Manchu films were always weak films and compared badly to many of the Hammer films of the period but this film represents a continued decline in quality from the previous trilogy and feels rather tired.
The plot is that Fu Manchu has discovered a deadly poison in the jungles of Central America which kills only men. The plot slightly derivative of the earlier 'Brides of Fu Manchu'in that Fu Manchu has kidnapped and chained scantily clad women for nefarious purposes, in this case to be used as carriers for the deadly poison to the far ends of the globe by kissing men to death! The Director Jesus Franco had a track record for making films with sadomasochistic themes so these elements are perhaps unsurprising.
Christopher Lee looks rather bored in this film and seems to be just reading out his lines.
The Fu Manchu films were always weak films and compared badly to many of the Hammer films of the period but this film represents a continued decline in quality from the previous trilogy and feels rather tired.
The plot is that Fu Manchu has discovered a deadly poison in the jungles of Central America which kills only men. The plot slightly derivative of the earlier 'Brides of Fu Manchu'in that Fu Manchu has kidnapped and chained scantily clad women for nefarious purposes, in this case to be used as carriers for the deadly poison to the far ends of the globe by kissing men to death! The Director Jesus Franco had a track record for making films with sadomasochistic themes so these elements are perhaps unsurprising.
Christopher Lee looks rather bored in this film and seems to be just reading out his lines.
International mastermind villain Fu Manchu and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang are hiding out in their secret underground lair in the deep jungles of South America planning next quest for world domination. This involves kidnapping 10 beautiful young women and infecting them with an ancient poison that one kiss from their lips will bring instant death. They are sent around the world to eliminate Fu Manchu's enemies and then eventually he would unleash this plague on the world.
After the disappointment of "Vengeance of Fu Manchu", what was to follow was truly scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Now in the hands of the infamously prolific director Jess Franco. The next two Fu Manchu entries would be the death of the series, which was started up by producer / writer Harry Alan Towers. Most people would label the 1969 "The Castle of Fu Manchu" as the worst, but for me it was easily "Blood". Both were sloppy, ramshackle and messily plotted, but "Blood" was downright flat and terribly dull for it. The uneventful side distractions (South American bandits) and overall padding just stalled the pacing and even magnifying the daftness of it all. The action was laboured and there was a real lack of adventure to this serial. Plenty of groping though, but not much else. For most part it's uninspired in its direction. We would see Christopher Lee and Tsai Chin reprising their roles with malevolent glee. Lee going about things in the usual diabolical manner and Chin as glassy as ever. Outside of these two performances, there's not much to it. Surprisingly the exotic jungle backdrop is made to good use by Franco. It looks low-rent, but while some of the previous films had that cheap quality they were better handled than this project. Its limitations really do show it up. Franco tries to bring his trademark (no, not the zoom. But there's plenty of it) use of sleaze and torture, but it just feels forced and becomes a tired method sapping out any real sense of fun. In other words it's dreary and unpleasant but not effective in its execution to have any sort of impact.
A wooden Richard Greene plays Fu Manchu's number one nemesis Nayland Smith, but the story doesn't really give his character all that much to do mainly keeping him rather secondary. So it's not much of a battle between the two and the characters the plot seems to follow (Gotz George & Ricardo Palacios) don't leave much of an impression. Although Howard Marion Crawford was an annoyance. The women in the cast are attractive and this is to serve an important notion in the plot's progression. Some of ladies to show up would be Maria Rohm, Lon von Friedl and Shirley Eaton.
After the disappointment of "Vengeance of Fu Manchu", what was to follow was truly scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Now in the hands of the infamously prolific director Jess Franco. The next two Fu Manchu entries would be the death of the series, which was started up by producer / writer Harry Alan Towers. Most people would label the 1969 "The Castle of Fu Manchu" as the worst, but for me it was easily "Blood". Both were sloppy, ramshackle and messily plotted, but "Blood" was downright flat and terribly dull for it. The uneventful side distractions (South American bandits) and overall padding just stalled the pacing and even magnifying the daftness of it all. The action was laboured and there was a real lack of adventure to this serial. Plenty of groping though, but not much else. For most part it's uninspired in its direction. We would see Christopher Lee and Tsai Chin reprising their roles with malevolent glee. Lee going about things in the usual diabolical manner and Chin as glassy as ever. Outside of these two performances, there's not much to it. Surprisingly the exotic jungle backdrop is made to good use by Franco. It looks low-rent, but while some of the previous films had that cheap quality they were better handled than this project. Its limitations really do show it up. Franco tries to bring his trademark (no, not the zoom. But there's plenty of it) use of sleaze and torture, but it just feels forced and becomes a tired method sapping out any real sense of fun. In other words it's dreary and unpleasant but not effective in its execution to have any sort of impact.
A wooden Richard Greene plays Fu Manchu's number one nemesis Nayland Smith, but the story doesn't really give his character all that much to do mainly keeping him rather secondary. So it's not much of a battle between the two and the characters the plot seems to follow (Gotz George & Ricardo Palacios) don't leave much of an impression. Although Howard Marion Crawford was an annoyance. The women in the cast are attractive and this is to serve an important notion in the plot's progression. Some of ladies to show up would be Maria Rohm, Lon von Friedl and Shirley Eaton.
- lost-in-limbo
- Nov 28, 2014
- Permalink
- TermlnatriX
- Apr 19, 2008
- Permalink
- lonchaney20
- Jul 18, 2010
- Permalink
- planktonrules
- Dec 9, 2008
- Permalink
The fourth of the British made Fu Manchu films starring Christopher Lee(STAR WARS MENACE), this shows the series desperately flagging and in dire need of a heart transplant. The other three films weren't exactly stunning but at least two of them were watchable enough. The problem here is that there seems to be lots of little plots without any overall cohesion. Jesus Franco's films are plagued with too many ancillary characters who don't mean anything to the film. Did we really need the entire plot with the bandits? The film could have survived quite easily without it. A new director and a change of direction for the series in this case meant ditching the characters and settings that made the other films as successful as they were. Richard Greene (Submarine Patrol) as Nayland Smith is hardly given any screen time at all and Tsai Chin's Lin Tang (Fu Manchu's daughter) is grossly over-looked here - she proves to be just as cruel and brutal as her father, if not more, in the previous films and there was so much more scope for her during those torture scenes. Instead of new characters that mean nothing, how about fleshing out the characters that we actually did like in the first place? At least Professor Petrie is given a bit more time here than he was before and the film is all the better for it. Christopher Lee does look rather uncomfortable in his make-up but is arguably the best thing about the film. The Bond-style of the previous flicks is still evident though, with Jesus Franco seemingly placing Fu Manchu in a hideout in the rainforest simply to get some shots of the jungle. There's the never-ending army of henchmen that Fu Manchu employs and various nasty devices in his base designed to maim and inflict pain. The scenes in which the kidnapped women are tied from the cave roof in their cells with as little clothing on as possible seems overtly tasteless, especially as it's not really fitting with the overall tone of this series.
The Blood of Fu Manchu is a bit of a mess really and bounces from plot to plot without any clear direction. It's a shame because the series' had much potential but it was squandered and left to fall into the hands of hack directors like Franco...
The Blood of Fu Manchu is a bit of a mess really and bounces from plot to plot without any clear direction. It's a shame because the series' had much potential but it was squandered and left to fall into the hands of hack directors like Franco...
- Dolph_Aircontrolsupply
- Apr 23, 2006
- Permalink
The Blood of Fu Manchu has very little going for it other than the fact that Sadean director Jess Franco seems to want to make the evil Chinese mastermind and his deliriously malevolent daughter, Lin Tang, the heroes of the film. Having been reduced to cameo status in the turgid previous entry in the series, The Vengeance of Fu Manchu, star Christopher Lee is now given plenty of screen time, numerous loving close-ups, and plenty of over-ripe dialog. He responds with a wonderfully spirited performance that is a joy to behold. Conversely, ostensible hero, Nayland Smith, played by a wooden Richard Green, is reduced to blind impotence, and sidekick Dr. Petrie comes across as a sputtering buffoon. The usually exciting climax is here rushed and perfunctory, as if Franco could not bear to kill off his villains. Franco never comes to grips with producer Harry Alan Towers' dreadfully wordy and convoluted screenplay, and the film bogs down for long periods of time in pointless sub plots and banal 'action' sequences. Fortunately, in the next and last film in the series, The Castle of Fu Manchu, a more confident Franco throws all caution to the wind and focuses almost entirely on Fu and Lin Tang, ironically, in the process, killing off the series forever.
- poolandrews
- Dec 24, 2011
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