Franco does Fu Manchu.
With the simple application of a droopy moustache and a touch of eyeliner, Christopher Lee is once again brilliantly transformed (can you detect a hint of sarcasm?) into tyrannical Asian despot Fu Manchu, who is still trying to conquer the world; this time, he is killing off his enemies using female assassins whose kisses have been made deadly through snake venom.I love me a bit of Fu Manchu: the character seriously disturbed me as a youngster, his cruelty sending shivers up my spine (I think it might have been the Karloff incarnation that had this effect). Unfortunately, in the hands of the frequently crap Jess Franco, chills are in short supply with this entry in the series, which doesn't even deliver much in the way of unintentional laughs either, making it a pretty dull affair all round.
For a Franco film, the production values are actually pretty good, with reasonable location work and fancy sets, and the director throws in a little sleaze, with chained women subjected to torture and occasionally stripped to the waist for a snake bite to the breast. But with a dreary pace and some truly pointless scenes, the worst being those featuring an overweight bandit called Sancho Lopez (Ricardo Palacios), this is a real snoozefest.
It's a sorry sight watching a great actor such as Lee slumming it in such drivel, but at least he's not the only recognisable name making a fool of himself: TV's Robin Hood Richard Greene is also on hand as Fu's arch enemy Nayland Smith, and Bond babe Shirley Eaton appears as Black Widow.
score 3/10
BA_Harrison 2 June 2018
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4188064/34967
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