Verdict
Summary
Does it work on the whole? Well, yes if you’re already a fan of the franchise, and yes if you’re a Christopher Lee completist, but no if you’re watching it purely hoping to get a film that is cohesive and entertaining as such. It’s kind of a mess, but from an exploitation perspective and as a Jess Franco film, it’s of special interest.Blue Underground gives the film the royal treatment in 4K.
Plot:
A nefarious supervillain tries to take over the world with his squad of ten gorgeous venomous vixens!
Review:
From his lair in the Amazon, the dreaded Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee reprising his role from The Face of Fu Manchu, The Brides of Fu Manchu, and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu) comes up with a plan he deems unbeatable: He’ll have a venomous snake bite and infect 10 of his most beautiful captives … and send them out into the world to give the kiss of death to world leaders and anyone else he considers a threat! And don’t worry: If his girls fail, he’s got a whole stable of pretty slaves in his dungeon as backup! His daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin from the 007 movie You Only Live Twice) lords over his micro empire of evil and is basically his executor and carries out his orders, and when the first kiss of death is delivered to a Scotland Yard detective (played by Richard Green), the venom kiss only delivers blindness, and not death, which is unfortunate for Fu Manchu. Meanwhile, a British agent disguised as an archeologist (Gotz George) is traipsing around the Amazon, getting himself into trouble as he inches towards Fu Manchu’s lair, prompting a defensive response from the supervillain, who dispatches another of his venomous vixens to try to intercept him. Also in the mix is a gang of banditos who are raiding and pillaging the towns near Fu Manchu’s headquarters, and they are threatening to raid further into Fu Manchu’s territory, which the supervillain is not too pleased to have to deal with.
An exploitation concoction that cross-pollinates a 007-type spy movie with a spaghetti western and a straight-up adventure movie, The Blood of Fu Manchu is a pretty wild and unfocused effort (shot simultaneously with the next film in the series The Castle of Fu Manchu) from exploitation guru Jess Franco, which explains all the tortured, nude women in the movie. First and foremost, I’d consider this a western, and then an exploitation movie that happens to have the Fu Manchu character, and the fact that Christopher Lee is reprising the role from three previous, more reputable films is merely a bonus. Does it work on the whole? Well, yes if you’re already a fan of the franchise, and yes if you’re a Christopher Lee completist, but no if you’re watching it purely hoping to get a film that is cohesive and entertaining as such. It’s kind of a mess, but from an exploitation perspective and as a Jess Franco film, it’s of special interest.
Blue Underground has just reissued both The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu in separate, individual 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray combo packs, each in handsome packaging, with newly produced bonus features. The transfers are quite strong in 4K, with very sharp image quality and sound, and if you’re looking to upgrade your previous purchases for your collection, this is obviously the way to go.
Bonus Materials
- Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) and HD Blu-ray (1080p) Widescreen 1.66:1 feature presentations
- Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA
- Subtitles: English SDH, Francais, Espanol
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
- The Rise of Fu Manchu – Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, & Shirley Eaton
- NEW! Sanguine-Stained Celluloid – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco”
- Trailers
- NEWLY EXPANDED! Poster & Still Gallery
- NEW! RiffTrax Edition – THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU Riffed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy (77 Mins.)
