Fu Manchu is South America... But why?...
Having just seen the previous three Fu Manchu movies, I found myself sitting down to watch the 1968 fourth movie in the franchise, titled "The Blood of Fu Manchu". And I had a fair idea of what I was in for here.And true enough, writers Harry Alan Towers, Manfred R. Köhler and Jesús Franco weren't exactly reinventing themselves with this fourth installment. Everything was pretty much as it had been in the previous three movies, so it was starting to wear a bit thin already. And little did it help that "The Blood of Fu Manchu" was set to take place in the jungle of South America, so it was a far away from its usual environment, and truth be told, then Fu Manchu just felt out of place there.
The storyline in "The Blood of Fu Manchu" was essentially the same as in the previous three movie, so if you have seen one or more of those, then you know what you are getting with this fourth movie. It was a bit tame and weak actually, because the formula has been bled dry at this point.
The dialogue in this 1968 movie was cringeworthy, and it was actually ranking among the worst of the four movies. Some of the dialogue was just so bad that it was hard not to laugh.
Christopher Lee returns to reprise the role of Fu Manchu. And if you have seen the movies, then you should already be accustomed to having a white actor portraying a Chinese character. Yeah, that stuff wouldn't pass today, with everyone itching out there to pull the racist card.
It should be said that the props and costumes in "The Blood of Fu Manchu" was good, and that definitely counted for something. However, many of the characters seemed like spoofs.
All in all, the 1968 "The Blood of Fu Manchu" was not an overly impressive addition to the Fu Manchu legacy. It was watchable, for sure, but hardly a memorable or outstanding movie. My rating of "The Blood of Fu Manchu" lands on a four out of ten stars.
score 4/10
paul_haakonsen 12 January 2021
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6468464/34967
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