Despite the allure of the locations and what at first blush seems an interesting plot, the final film in the series of Fu Manchu movies starring Christopher Lee as the fiendish doctor is an exercise in tedium, perhaps even more so than the last one I watched, The Blood of Fu Manchu. Here, the criminal …
Read the full post →“<em>The Castle of Fu Manchu</em> (1969)”
A mine owner in fear for his life sends for great English detective Sexton Blake (David Farrar), and the sleuth soon finds himself investigating murder and more. Hectic and choppy, with far too much going on to follow the story as it jumps around, but interesting withal, though the version I saw was also so …
Read the full post →“<em>The Echo Murders</em> (Anglo-American, 1945)”
After an opening scene of violent death in the Gobi Desert, the scene shifts to China, where rival parties are after scroll painting maps that contain the secret of the location of the tomb of Genghis Khan. Six of the scroll paintings had long been in the keeping of an old but impoverished noble family, …
Read the full post →“<em>Thank You, Mr. Moto</em> (Twentieth Century Fox, 1937)”
Bob Hope’s final starring feature film is a comedy thriller very loosely based on Louis L’Amour’s contemporary western crime novel, The Broken Gun. Scarcely anything remains of the original story, however, save for aspects of the setting; the differences are so great that one wonders why Hope licensed the novel at all. Hope has a …
Read the full post →“<em>Cancel My Reservation</em> (WB, 1972)”
Anna May Wong delivers a good performance as a dancer who learns she is the daughter of the evil Fu Manchu and vows vengeance for his death and thereafter struggles mightily within herself when that revenge conflicts with love. Warner Oland appears once again as the fiendish doctor (his fourth time in the role, including …
Read the full post →“<em>Daughter of the Dragon</em> (Paramount, 1931)”
