Christopher Lee is the third person I've seen play the Fu Manchu character, and he probably gives the most commanding performance out of all of them. Fu is an arch-villain in the same arena as a Dr. No; he's a man bent on total world domination, and a plan that involves scantily clad women chained up in a dungeon. If Christopher Lee couldn't play this character with some sort of fierce iron strength, then dear god, no one else could even come close. The problem is that given the total preposterous scenario of the movie's plot, very little fun seems to be had from Lee himself playing this character. I don't think this is something that he particularly wanted to do, and an interview on the film's disc furthers that. He may give the most threatening and sophisticated performance of the Fu's, but Karloff and Peter Sellers are a little more fun to watch, mainly for their willingness to completely swallow the role whole, camp and all.

Director Jess Franco was brought in to helm the remaining two Lee Fu Manchu flicks, and honestly, not even he seems to really be into the project he's taken on. All of the usual Franco elements are evident in this movie, as you could probably gather by my earlier description of scantily clad women in a dungeon. There's a lot of zoom shots here, even some out of focus moments, which are the standard Franco touches. I would say that Franco is phoning it in, but when you literally have a scene that is taken directly out of another movie ("Girl From Rio") and placed in this one, then that needs to be put into a whole new category all together. I've directed a couple things I hated, and why the hell didn't I think of that!!

But at the same time, a lot can be said about the make-up effects here. If I had never heard of this film, not known anything about the back story, not known that Christopher Lee was in it, or that he had previously been in 3 other Fu movies...I can honestly say that I would not have guessed that it was Christopher Lee in the main role. Remember the time when John Wayne played Genghis Khan? Christopher Lee's eye make-up here is the opposite of that. It looks real. Very real. Yes, they have successfully made Christopher Lee look Asian. I'm not sure if that compliment can solely lie with this here film, because Lee looks the same in every one of these movies, but when you're fishing for compliments, you might as well hook onto something.

Fu's devient plan in this movie involves the kidnapping of ten women and imprisoning them in the dark damp lair of Fu, his daughter, and their henchmen. The women are disrobed at several points, and are then injected with a poisonous snake venom. They are then set out to assassinate the various enemies of Fu by simply kissing them on the lips. The poison will cause the men to go blind and eventually die. All throughout this movie I wondered why the poison has this drastic effect on the victims who are kissed, but the women not only survive the snakebite, but still survive the poison being on their lips from then on after. Well, towards the end, someone makes a remark about how the female blood causes them to be immune to the poison. Solves that, I guess. It's like the screenwriter thought the same thing, and injected that tid-bit in there at the exact moment it occured to him. Fu's arch nemesis Nayland Smith is kissed with the poison, and spends the rest of the movie blinded and looking for a cure.

Not surprising that US release titles for the movie include "Kiss and Kill" and also "Kiss of Death." Imagine going to rent the classic "Kiss of Death" and accidentally getting this thing. I especially like how on the American trailer, Fu is refered to as Mr. Evil. Funny yes, but not quite on par with when Franco's "The Bloody Judge" was retitled "Night of the Blood Monster" for US release.

The movie isn't bad in that it insults you in anyway, and I really didn't dislike the thing to any sort of high degree at all. I kind of just felt nothing about it. When it was over, it was over, and that was it. It will be rare that I ever think about the movie again, and I can guarantee I won't watch it again. It just had absolutely no affect on me.

Maybe that has a lot to do with the characters of the film. I found myself lacking in interest in nearly all of the characters. If the script allowed Fu to overact with such arch-villain greatness, that would be one thing, but the movie seems fine with just letting us know that he is the villain and that's that. There may be some talk that there are some racial stereotypes in the film, which is true. Pick and choose which ones you want. There's a Spanish bandit leader in the movie named Sancho Lopez who leads his men on various raping and pillaging fiestas, but the man looks like John Belushi starring in a skit about a drunken fast food restaurant employee. You should see the hat this guy wears. It's like a plastic pirate hat given to kids at a seafood restaurant. Everytime this character is onscreen, this movie practically comes to a dead hault, as if we've somehow wandered into a Tomas Milan western. I guarantee that movie would be more entertaining.

Then there's also the character of Dr. Petrie. The sort of Watson to the Nayland Smith character. This Dr. Petrie is so English that when stuck in the woods, he complains that not only do they have no horses, but the tea is cold. Later on, this guy is chained in Fu's lair, and what bugs him the most is that his tea is on his back, and he just can't get to it. It probably doesn't help that the guy's voice sounds like a dead ringer for a very high pitched waiter character on "The Simpsons." He gets just as much screentime as Nayland Smith, and if this is your first Fu outing, you'd never think that Nayland is just as essential to the Fu story as Fu himself. Imagine James Bond lying in a hospital bed through 2/3 of the movie while Blofeld causes havoc.

Blue Underground though has a lot of fun with this movie. When the opening Blue Underground logo pops on screen, it immediately goes to static, as if there's something wrong with the connections on my television. We are then shown Fu Manchu under all the static, as he tell us we've been chosen for a great mission. I got a big kick out of that. There's a 15 minute documentary on the DVD called "The Rise of Fu Manchu," which contains interviews with Jess Franco, Christopher Lee, Tsia Chin, etc. and details the origins of the Fu Manchu character, and also the previous films in the series, why Franco came on board, and why Lee stayed with the series. There's a text section called "The Facts of Fu Manchu," and also a poster/still gallery. The picture looks fine, aside from moments of grain and static which pop up on shots that are rather dark to begin with. Other than that, when you have much brighter scenery, the color really comes out. And now I want to stop talking about this movie and go watch something else.

Recommended: No