Customer Reviews

The Vengeance of Fu Manchu [VHS]

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This is by far the WORST of the 5 Fu Manchu films starring Christopher Lee - it has a tissue paper thin plot, bad dialogue and absolutely NOTHING happens to even mildly entertain or amuse fans of the franchise. What`s worse, if not criminal, is that Chris Lee has less screen time and dialogue than any of the remaining films in the series. This is Hammer Films at its worst - this travesty makes the last 2 Jess Franco films of the franchise appear to be eligible for Oscar nominations - at least his two films have the animated comic book, late 60`s kitschy spy spoof/ exploitation elements those of us who enjoy in flix like 'Our Man Flint/In Like Flint', 'Fathom', and 'Danger Diabolik' can revel in. And there`s always a busload of barely-clad Eurovixens to keep us distracted when little else is going on. This Hammer entry lacks it all, and at the prices asked for it on Amazon or Ebay, I couldn`t possibly do anything else but implore you to spend your money on something else. But what do I know?

Much like his ongoing appearances as Count Dracula, Christopher Lee, the star of many horror outings, became well remembered for his masterful playing of another great villian of literature in the nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu. Always bent on taking over world leadership in many wild and often highly improbable schemes, he was usually matched every step of the way by the intrepid Nayland Smith from Scotland Yard with whom he crossed swords on many occasions. "The Vengeance of Fu Manchu", was the third installment in the series of films starring Lee as Fu Manchu in the mid 1960's and was also the last one produced before the series was taken over by low budget production companies in Europe. These companies ground out a few more installments on much lower budgets that got progressively worse in both story and production values which really shouldn't be compared to the first three films in the series. Christopher Lee makes Fu Manchu a most memorable villian and while this film is perhaps a little weaker than the earlier films in the series, "Vengeance", does share with them rich atmosphere and some fine performances by both the Asian and British members of the supporting cast.