The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu / The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu

[Mikezilla3k]

Coming from Kino early 2022.

[JupiterMission]

Awesome! I've been wanting to see these for a while.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by JupiterMission

Awesome! I've been wanting to see these for a while.

Same. Never expected to see a blu-ray release of them.

I only just watched The Mask of Fu Manchu recently, and while I believe these two are not quite as outrageous as that one, I am very much looking forward to getting them.

[Dragon78]

I have heard of them but have never seen them. I am also surprised they getting released.

[Richard--W]

I'm gobsmacked and flabbergasted by this announcement.

Wow.

Really really really looking forward to this release.

[Dr Lenera]

Well this is a most welcome surprise. Been working my way through the Indicator Fu Manchu box set [and have the Karloff one on DVD] and was just looking up other films featuring the character a few hours ago.

[evilive]

Anyone seen these? Any good?

[John Fowler]

The first 15 minutes of The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is the Origin Story. Dr. Fu Manchu is a kindly humanitarian and leading candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Then the Boxer Rebellion breaks out, but Fu isn't worried: “Do not fear, little flower. The white men are kind and generous and they would not hurt our son, nor harm the House of Fu.”
The British Army fire artillery shells at some rebels, but miss them and hit Fu's home, killing his wife and son. Fu has a nervous breakdown and swears vengeance against the white devils.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Fu treated so sympathically.
.

[Shanghai Express]

My thoughts from the KLSC thread:

Originally Posted by Shanghai Express

If camp is failed seriousness, then The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is failed camp. Not only does the seriousness fail, so does almost everything else: the truly dismal acting, the braindead script, the oppressively pedestrian camerawork, the amateurish editing, the appalling sound design and wildly inconsistent recording quality (even by 1929 standards), the story and stage tricks which play like Saturday Night Live parody at best and elementary school Shakespeare at worst. Please don’t think I mean any harm - these add to one’s enjoyment of the film. I had a ****ing blast. The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu has to be seen to be believed. It is laugh-out-loud funny and I’m happy to add Kino’s edition of this terrible, trashy embarrassment of an entertainment to my collection. It’s like they made this movie in 1929 for bad-movie lovers in the 21st century. Because there’s no way they didn’t know how bad this sucked…right?

[Henry R. Kujawa]

THE MYSTERIOUS DR. FU MANCHU (1929) -- I watched Tim Lucas' commentary for this, where he notes the 2022 Kino Lorber Blu-Ray is the FIRST time the film has EVER been released to home video in any form! He also talks about how the film (and its sequel) completely re-envisioned the background of the villain, effectively giving him a "new origin".

I was inspired to write to Lucas, pointing out several other offensive examples of this Hollywood behavior (CONAN THE BARBARIAN, THE SHADOW, THE SAINT), and he was nice enough to write back. Yet, oddly, he made little of it, saying Hollywood was always stealing ideas from different things "in the old days" (ignoring that the Val Kilmer film was only from 1998), while adding to my annoyance by saying "There’s hardly a single Marvel comic of the 1960s that didn’t steal its ideas for origin stories from 1950s sci fi movies. Stan Lee would never admit it, but it’s obvious. Then when comic books became big business, people became more protective about their properties and the fun days were over."

I decided there was no point in writing back to tell him S*** L** had NOTHING to do with creating ANY of Marvel's characters. Also, as a creative writer, I realize that everything borrows from earlier things. It's all in how you do it. What I was objecting to, was taking ONE character's origin story and GRAFTING it onto another character's history... when that character already has an "origin", and the movie TOTALLY CONTRADICTS it.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

My earlier review:

THE MYSTERIOUS DR. FU MANCHU (1929)
The Murderous Dr. Fu Manchu (6 of 10)

Just saw this today for the first time, courtesy of Kino Lorber's brand-new 2K master on Blu-Ray. Not quite what I expected-- LOTS of fun!

Apparently, like a number of much-later films involving classic characters (Conan, The Shadow, The Saint), someone in Hollywood decided to tack on an "origin" story that was never in the books. In this case, they have Fu begin as a humanitarian before his family is killed by army crossfire. At that point, he becomes a diabolical serial killer bent on revenge "to the 3rd generation". (Imagine if Michael Myers had a brain-- and tended to never shut up, explaining his plans at length, like a Bond villain!)

The image on the new Blu-Ray, while still damaged in spots, is mostly pretty sharp & stunning. Apparently, the film has NEVER looked this good in my lifetime. I wish someone had put in more effort with the sound, which is wildly inconsistent. The 2nd half of the story seems more like a filmed stage play than a movie, but a LOT more fun to watch than, say, the 1931 "DRACULA".

One long sequence takes place at an old mansion perched on top of a very dangerous-looking cliff, while the climax is entirely in a pair of rooms in Fu's hideout in Limehouse. At one moment, Fu points out the similarity to a classic "melodrama", which only emphasizes the sheer ridiculousness of the cat-and-mouse game situation. But I had a big smile on my face the whole time, so, I guess, no real complaints!

It cracked me up to see 2 "Batman" actors in this-- "Alfred" from 1943 and "Gordon" from 1966. Made me think the '66 TV show could have really used an Asian super-villain in its roster!

I've noticed of late that quite a few early Paramount films are only available in TERRIBLE prints, which has led me to believe the studio really doesn't give a damn about their oldies. I've recently seen 4 "Philo Vance" films that were made by Paramount, and all of them were in dreadful shape. As 3 of those I rate as extremely-good early talkie murder mysteries, I find myself wishing someone like Kino Lorber would make the effort to restore THOSE films as well. Silents and early sound films are their own special kind of art form, and I find one really can't appreciate them to their fullest unless you're watching a REALLY CLEAN print. This one isn't perfect, but I suppose for now, it'll do!
(9-22-2022)