THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU (1966)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous* 
MYTHICITY: *poor* 
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*

I'm sure that I could find other films starring the recently deceased Christopher Lee that would better summarize his cinematic accomplishments than the Fu Manchu films written and produced by cut-rate filmmaker Harry Alan Towers. Unfortunately, I've already reviewed a fair number of Lee's best works, such as many entries of the Hammer Dracula works. Further, for some time I've been meaning to examine the rest of the series since I examined 1965's THE FACE OF FU MANCHU.

I gave FACE moderate praise for the way the Towers script and the Don Sharp direction put the Chinese devil-doctor and his British enemies through their paces. However, even though Towers and Sharp are once more scripter and director for BRIDES, the result is a dull, murky film. I suspect that when FACE proved successful at the box office, Towers did what many such filmmakers did: instead of trying to keep a constant level of quality, he rushed the next films out in an attempt to "strike while the branding-iron was hot" so to speak.

Just as Fu Manchu did in FACE, the film's action centers around his attempt to suborn various European scientists into helping him create a world-beating threat. He does so by threatening the scientists' daughters, who may be deemed, very loosely, the "brides" of the title, though fiendish Fu shows no interest in them. For that matter, neither does his daughter Lin Tang, who seemed to swing a little toward Lesbos in her first appearance. Fu's sole passion is to create a menacing death-ray, able to strike at any target on Earth by virtue of being carried on "radio waves."

Douglas Wilmer replaces the earlier Nigel Green as Fu's perennial foe Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and at this point he displays less charisma than Green. But then, both Chris Lee and Tsai Chin (as Lin Tang) also give uninspired performances. There are some half-hearted torture scenes thrown in, but the films standout scene is one that now seems risible to modern eyes. While the death ray is being made ready for its first outing, Fu helpfully explains that there's a control lever attached to the mechanism, to keep the machine from overloading. However, at one point one of Fu's assistants tries to pull the lever back, to keep the machine from exploding-- and Fu, consumed with a passion for conquest, shoots the man, thus insuring that the film ends with a big bang-- though Lee's voice is heard saying his usual mantra: "The world shall hear from me again."