Producer / writer Harry Alan Towers and director Don Sharp follow up their 1965 "The Face of Fu Manchu" a year later with the modest "The Brides of Fu Manchu". Actor Christopher Lee returns as Sax Rhomer's oriental mastermind villain Fu Manchu in another attempt to take over the world, after surviving the explosive finale in "Face
". Nigel Green doesn't return, which leaves Douglas Wilmer filling in as the commissioner Neyland Smith from Scotland Yard in his quest to foil Fu Manchu's quest for world domination. Fu Manchu is kidnapping young women who happened to be daughters of prominent scientists in the order of blackmailing them in helping him create a death weapon, but Neyland Smith is hot on the trail.
Keeping to the same formula as "Face " it has outlandish plotting made up of set-pieces, elaborate set details (the secret hideout), pulp dialogues, rough and tumble action (combat, fists flying, car chases, explosions) that's wrapped up like an enjoyable live comic strip. Sharp's handling might look plain and tight, but it's efficiently exciting and zippy in its pacing. The thick plot is deviously knotty, but surely convenient in the uncanny developments. Good old fashion scheming in trying to keep one step ahead. There are sound performances from the cast. Lee is doing it easy, but gets away with such a magnetic presence. Wilmer is no Green, but is acceptable and Tsai Chin is good fun as Fu Manchu's evil daughter.
Keeping to the same formula as "Face " it has outlandish plotting made up of set-pieces, elaborate set details (the secret hideout), pulp dialogues, rough and tumble action (combat, fists flying, car chases, explosions) that's wrapped up like an enjoyable live comic strip. Sharp's handling might look plain and tight, but it's efficiently exciting and zippy in its pacing. The thick plot is deviously knotty, but surely convenient in the uncanny developments. Good old fashion scheming in trying to keep one step ahead. There are sound performances from the cast. Lee is doing it easy, but gets away with such a magnetic presence. Wilmer is no Green, but is acceptable and Tsai Chin is good fun as Fu Manchu's evil daughter.