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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The Face Of Fu Manchu (1965)

Starring Christopher Lee, Nigel Green, Joachim Fuchsberger, Karin Dor, James Robertson Justice
Directed by Don Sharp
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard discovers that his nemesis Dr. Fu Manchu is alive, and is scheming to develop a deadly new chemical weapon.

Lee is cast as Sax Rohmer's fiendish Oriental villain in the first of several appearances as the character, following in the steps of Boris Karloff in yet another role, and he vanishes into the part effectively, although he plays the role with little emotion.  There's colorful photography by Ernest Steward and several effective stunt sequences, and Don Sharp does a fine job of directing the action, although the lab assistant played by Joachim Fuchsberger seems a little too skilled in hand-to-hand combat, often easily dispatching his would-be assassins.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the picture, another testament to Lee's power as a captivating antagonist.

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