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).
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).