Greetings!


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.

Thanks for visiting!


Friday, November 4, 2016

The Brides Of Fu Manchu (1966)

Starring Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Heinz Drache, Marie Versini, Howard Marion-Crawford
Directed by Don Sharp
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Nayland Smith discovers Fu Manchu's latest scheme, a plot to deliver destruction from a distance with the help of scientists he forces to work for him by kidnapping their daughters.

A swiftly made follow-up to Lee's debut as the master villain in The Face Of Fu Manchu, the picture brings back much of the first film's cast and crew, but recasts Wilmer as Manchu's adversary Nayland Smith.  Sharp again delivers a solid and colorful action-adventure, and Lee seems a bit more comfortable in his role, although the plot which involves Manchu's deadly manipulation of radio waves poses a challenge for the filmmakers to visualize, and the screenplay leaves a number of major questions unanswered.  Still, those who enjoyed the previous film should find this to be an entertaining sequel.  Among the "brides" is actress Carole Gray, who was quite busy in British sci-fi/horror films that year, also appearing in Curse Of The Fly, Island Of Terror, and Devils Of Darkness.

No comments:

Post a Comment