The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1965
Running Time	92:08
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Don Sharp
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Christopher Lee Nigel Green Joachim Fuchsberger Karin Dor Howard Marion-Crawford Tsai Chin James Robertson Justice Walter Rilla Harry Brogan Poulet Tu Peter Mosbacher Edwin Richfield Joe Lynch
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	Christopher Whelen Gert Wilden

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    "The world shall hear from me again!"

    Dr Fu Manchu was the creation of Sax Rohmer, whose exotic sounding name concealed the identity of the Irishman Arthur Sarsfield Ward. First appearing in print in 1912, Fu featured in novels and stories for more than 40 years. Over the years Rohmer toned down the racist elements, and the seemingly immortal Fu involved himself in the fight against Fascism, attempted to install a puppet US President and even worked with the Chinese Communists. His ever-present nemesis was Sir Denis Nayland-Smith of the British Secret Service, formerly Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard. The early novels also featured Dr Petrie, who is Watson to Nayland-Smith's Holmes. Petrie soon receded into the background in favour of a new protagonist in each book, who assists Nayland-Smith in foiling Fu's sinister schemes.

    Fu first came to the screen in 1924 in a silent serial. Starting in 1929 there was a short series of films with Warner Oland, the Swedish actor who was the first (and best) screen Charlie Chan. In 1932 MGM produced The Mask of Fu Manchu, which featured Boris Karloff as the fiendish Doctor and Myrna Loy as his daughter. This film is notable for the quality of production, as well as some racist material that was censored from the print I saw many years ago. There was also a serial in 1943 and a TV-series in 1956.

    In the mid 1960s, Christopher Lee was cast as Fu Manchu in a new series of films, sanctioned by Rohmer's widow. Lee, though obviously not Oriental, looks the part as Fu, whom Rohmer described as tall, slender and having an overwhelming, hypnotic presence. Mrs Rohmer stated that Lee looked exactly like the tall Asian that Rohmer had glimpsed many years earlier and who had inspired the character.

    The Face of Fu Manchu is set during the late 1920s or early 1930s. The films begins with a pre-credit sequence of Fu's execution by beheading in Tibet, witnessed by Nayland-Smith. But of course Fu is not dead. A scientist, Professor Muller (Walter Rilla), is kidnapped. Fu wants the secret of the Black Hill poppy from him, a formula that contains the secret of Universal Death, which Fu thinks Muller has obtained from the Tibetan Lama. To keep the professor in line, Fu also kidnaps the professor's daughter Maria (Karin Dor), despite the best efforts of Nayland-Smith and Maria's fiancée to prevent it.

    However, it appears that a part of the formula is still missing, so Fu has to obtain the papers of the Younghusband expedition from a local museum to learn the secret of the Lama. Can Nayland-Smith thwart Fu's evil designs?

    This British-German co-production is played as a straight adventure, with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek. As Dr Petrie exclaims early in the film: "Not the Yellow Peril again!". This film has everything from clever disguises (which anyone in the audience can immediately see through) to instruments of torture and death to bombs dropped by hand from aeroplanes. The dialogue is not always very good but sometimes it is quite funny, such as when Fu interrupts a BBC news broadcast with the words "Attention, attention, this is Fu Manchu. Stand by for an important message."

    The film benefits from economical, fast paced direction by Don Sharp. The performances are good, particularly Nigel Green who is a definitive Nayland-Smith. It is a pity that Green did not appear in any of the sequels. Howard Marion Crawford is also good as Petrie, though he does not have much to do. In an odd and morbid coincidence, both actors would die from overdoses of sleeping tablets, Green in 1972 and Marion Crawford in 1969. Christopher Lee looks a little uncomfortable in his Oriental makeup, and seems to have a bit of trouble relaxing into the part. He makes little attempt at a Chinese accent, being content to speak in that mannered, carefully pronounced fashion in which the cinematic world thinks Asian people speak English.

    The Face of Fu Manchu is great fun and captures the essence of the pulp stories on which it is based. The success of this film would lead to four sequels, of steadily diminishing quality. The last in the series, The Castle of Fu Manchu, is almost incomprehensible.

Video

    The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Unfortunately, the transfer is not as good as it could have been. The image is bright and clear enough, though shadow detail is pretty poor, with night scenes being quite murky. Colours are generally muted, as is the case with many British films of the 1960s. Even the occasional bright colours are not as rich as they could be. The bottom edge of the frame also appears to be lighter in tone than it should be, such as at 42:03 and 72:31.

    A lot of small film artefacts can be seen. Virtually all, apart from a large dark spot at 61:56 that looks like a burn, are small white spots. Most of the time they are barely noticeable, though there occasionally is a storm of them, such as at 8:34.

    Some film grain is evident throughout, with some especially grainy footage at 72:03.

    An attempt has been made by the makers of this transfer to increase the sharpness level through the use of edge enhancement. At times it is very noticeable, such as at 12:26 and 12:41. This makes the transfer look processed and slightly unnatural. There is also some slight blurring in action sequences, particularly those in low light levels. At 1:58, the film jumps briefly to the right in what could be described as more "telecine quake" than "telecine wobble".

     This single layered disc has no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Like the video transfer, the audio transfer is not as good as it should have been.

    The sole audio track, in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, has a shrill aspect to it probably caused by overcompression and consequent loss of upper frequencies. There are also a few instances where the audio is distorted, such as at 13:21, 40:50 and 77:10. Dialogue is still clear and easy to understand, but some may find the quality of the sound irritating.

    The musical score by Christopher Whelen is quite ordinary, and does not really add anything to the film.

    There is no surround nor subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras are provided.

    This film is also available in Region 2. Judging by the reviews, it is the same or a very similar transfer to the one we have here, with the original theatrical trailer as an extra. Unless you want the trailer, there is no reason to prefer the Region 2 release over the Region 4.

    This is an excellent film based on the Fu Manchu character, capturing the spirit of the books and not taking itself completely seriously. It is a pity that the transfer is substandard.

    The video quality is slightly below average.

    The audio quality is below average.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall