THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU
(director: Don Sharp; screenwriters: from the novel by Sax Rohmer/Peter Welbeck; cinematographer: Ernest Steward; editor: Allan Morrison; music: Bruce Montgomery ; cast: Christopher Lee (Fu Manchu), Douglas Wilmer (Inspector Nayland Smith), Howard Marion-Crawford (Dr. Petrie), Tsai Chin (Fu’s Daughter), Marie Versini (Marie Lentz), Joseph Furst (Otto Lentz), Carole Gray (Michel), Heinz Drache (Franz Baumer), Rupert Davies (Jules Merlin), Salmaan Peer (Abdul), Harald Leipnitz (Nicky Sheldon), Roger Hanin (Inspector Pierre Grimaldi), Kenneth Fortescue (Sergeant Spicer); Runtime: 94; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: David Henley/Harry Alan Towers; Seven Arts (Warner Archive Collection); 1966-UK/West Germany)
“The second Fu Manchu in the series is weaker than the original The Face of Fu Manchu, but still enjoyable hokum.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The second Fu Manchu in the series is weaker than the original The Face of Fu Manchu, but still enjoyable hokum. Christopher Lee is still the engaging villain. The direction by Don Sharp (“The Dream Maker”/”Witchcraft”) is anything but sharp. It’s written without polish by Peter Welbeck (alias for Harry Alan Towers), and is based on the novel by Sax Rohmer (pseudonym of the British journalist Arthur Sarsfield Ward).. Notorious international Chinese criminal Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) kidnaps 12 daughters of international industrialists and scientists and forces the fathers to help him construct a death ray gun so he can destroy cities and thereby rule the world by force. If they don’t cooperate, Fu threatens to throw their hypnotized daughters into a snake pit.Scotland Yard’s Nayland Smith (Douglas Wilmer) and Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion-Crawford) note the kidnapping of Marie Lentz (Marie Versini), the daughter of the German scientist Otto Lentz (Joseph Furst). He is brought to Fu Manchu’s North African headquarters in the Sahara. But with the help of French Inspector Grimaldi (Roger Hanin) and Marie’s fiancé, Franz Baumer (Heinz Drache), the Scotland Yard detectives discover Fu Manchu’s temple hideout and blow it up by ingeniously turning the death ray’s radio waves back into the temple after releasing the lady hostages. Tsai Chin again plays Fu’s evil daughter and Fu’s army again consists of Burmese assassins decked out in red Tibetan prayer scarves.
REVIEWED ON 10/12/2016 GRADE: B- https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/