The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	90:01
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 Douglas Wilmer Heinz Drache Marie Versini Howard Marion-Crawford Tsai Chin Rupert Davies Kenneth Fortescue Joseph Fürst Roger Hanin Harald Leipnitz Carole Gray Burt Kwouk
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	Bruce Montgomery

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In this sequel to The Face of Fu Manchu, the deadly doctor is again bent on world domination, this time through the use of a death ray hidden in the Atlas Mountains which uses sound waves that can destroy buildings or even whole cities. His target is the international peace conference being held in London. Can Nayland Smith thwart the evil Oriental's plan? You will have to watch it to find out, or at least hazard a reasonable guess.

    This film has similar production values to the first instalment, with some good sets and plenty of outdoor location shooting. As in the first film, the story starts with a scientist (Rupert Davies) and his daughter being kidnapped. Fu has kidnapped a group of young women (the Brides of the title) in order to force their fathers to work on his death ray. The script is sufficiently self-referential for Petrie to remark that he has a sense of deja vu, and that this is what happened "last time".

    Most of the cast and crew from Face return in this sequel. Christopher Lee improves on his performance in the first film, as though he was more comfortable in the role. His eye makeup seems to be more stable, which may have had an effect. Tsai Chin returns as his daughter. Howard Marion Crawford is again Dr Petrie, while unfortunately Nigel Green is absent, replaced as Nayland Smith by Douglas Wilmer. Wilmer tries hard but he is not as convincing as Green in the role. Burt Kwouk, familiar to most viewers as Cato from the Pink Panther films, makes his first appearance in the series as one of Fu's Dacoit henchmen.

    Tasmanian-born Don Sharp again directs with much the same flair that he showed in the first film. Brides drifts towards the end into silliness, but for all that this is an enjoyable film. Not as good as the previous instalment, but still a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes.

Video

    This film gets an excellent video transfer.

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. I am not able to confirm if this is the original aspect ratio, but it looks like it is. The first film was shot in 2.35:1, but there seems to be no obvious cropping in this transfer.

    This is a sharp and luminous transfer, with all details clear. Colours are rich and warm, with flesh tones accurately portrayed.

    The transfer has been done from a print in superb condition, with few film artefacts present. There is an occasional spot or speck of dirt, but these are few and far between. No film to video artefacts were noted. I wish all films of the period could be presented in such a pristine fashion.

    There are no subtitles on this single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The single audio track is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono affair, which is the original format of the soundtrack, and so there is no surround information available.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The audio is somewhat constricted and lacking in body, and there are several examples of distortion, such as at 15:51, 33:58 and 73:51.

    The music is by Bruce Montgomery and while it is fairly pedestrian, for the most part it suits the on-screen action.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras provided.

    This film is also available on a Region 2 DVD. From the reviews of this release, it appears to use the same or a similar transfer, and has identical content as far as extras are concerned, i.e. none, so I would have to call this a draw.

    This is an enjoyable if not always politically correct adventure, and a reasonably good entry in the Fu Manchu series. Recommended if you are a fan.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio is of average quality.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall