The Castle of Fu Manchu (film)

The Castle of Fu Manchu
aka	Sax Rohmer's The Castle of Fu Manchu (UK)(USA); Assignment Istanbul Fu Manchu's Castle The Torture Chamber of Fu Manchu
Year	1969
Directed by	Jesús Franco
Produced by	Harry Alan Towers
Written by	Manfred Barthel
Music by	Charles Camilleri Malcomb Shelby
Studio	International Cinema
Cast	Christopher Lee Richard Greene
Run time	92 minutes
Riffed in	Experiment #323 RiffTrax

For the episode, see MST3K 323 - The Castle of Fu Manchu.

The Castle of Fu Manchu is a 1969 espionage thriller directed by Jesús Franco. It is fifth and final film in which British actor Christopher Lee plays the notorious Chinese villain Fu Manchu.

Plot

The fiendish Fu Manchu demands that the world's governments give "obedience to his orders". Fu has captured Professor Heracles, inventor of a super weapon - crystals made from opium that can render people unconscious and/or turn the entire ocean into ice.

Fu broadcasts his demands to the world. Scotland Yard intercepts the message and puts agent Nayland Smith on the case.

To get opium, Fu prepares to capture the governor's mansion in Istanbul, where there is a huge supply. He joins forces with drug kingpin Omar Pashu after sending daughter Lin to arrange the deal. Their men storm the castle and behead the governor. Fu then double-crosses Pashu by machine-gunning his men and taking his Russian girlfriend Lisa hostage.

Meanwhile, Professor Heracles is afflicted with what appears to be congestive heart failure. He's dying, but hasn't surrendered the formula for the crystals, so he must be kept alive. Fu decides to get Heracles a new heart, so he abducts an unwilling donor and kidnaps doctors Kessler and Ingrid to do the transplant. 

Fu commands Kessler do the transplant or Ingrid will die. Kessler submits, and performs the operation begins. Afterwards, the doctors are confined to a dungeon.

Omar Pashu goes to Fu's castle to rescue Lisa. Fu reveals his grandiose escape plan, which includes a tunnel with a mechanism for releasing Fu's water-freezing weapon. Lin then dispatches Pashu with a knitting needle.

Agent Smith swims to the castle, races up the stairs and down to the dungeon. Breaking into the control room, he signals London to send a warning to the Bosporus (which Fu has threatened to freeze), whereupon Fu releases the crystals and torrents of water into the escape tunnel.

Kessler blows open his cell door with "explosive acid" he found in the operating room. Smith storms the dungeon, liberating Lisa, and the two of them seize Heracles and drag him out the front door.

Kessler and Ingrid race out the escape passage. Lisa runs back inside the tunnel to rescue the now-dead Pashu and is drowned. Fu's weapon system is reversed and destroys the castle. He leaves with a warning that he'll be back.

Cast

• Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu
• Richard Greene as Nayland Smith
• Howard Marion-Crawford as Dr. Petrie
• Günther Stoll as Dr. Curt Kessler
• Maria Perschy as Marie / Ingrid
• Tsai Chin as Lin Tang

Notes

• The last feature of actor Howard Marion-Crawford.
• The dam bursting scene is footage taken from the Dirk Bogarde film Campbell's Kingdom (1957). Bogarde and actor Stanley can be recognized wearing the green checked shirt and the red shirt, respectivley.
• A sixth film was contracted, but due to this movie's poor box office performance and critical reaction it was canceled.
• The footage of a large ocean liner striking an iceberg and sinking at the beginning of the movie is stock footage from the British film A Night to Remember (1958) about the sinking of the Titanic, directed by Roy Ward Baker.
• Although credits state that locations were "filmed in Istanbul and surroundings", most of them correspond to Barcelona (Spain).
• This is Richard Greene's second appearance as Fu Manchu's nemesis Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard.
• Christopher Lee (Dr. Fu Manchu), Tsai Chin (Lin Tang) and Howard Marion-Crawford (Dr. Petrie) are the only actors to appear in all five Fu Manchu films.
• This film became a RiffTrax presentation in 2023.

MST3K Connections

• Writer (under the pseudonym Peter Wellbeck) and producer Harry Alan Towers was also writer and producer for Outlaw and The Million Eyes of Sumuru, as well as executive producer for H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come.
• Robert Rietty (English dub voice of Curt) also provided the English dub voice of Sergeant Danek in Diabolik

Critical Response

• Leonard Maltin wrote: "BOMB ... Lee buries Fu Manchu with this one—the pits—experimenting with more deadly potions in his castle near Istanbul and parrying with his perennial adversary, Nayland Smith (Greene) of Britain’s Home Office."