| Mask Of Fu Manchu |
| Ahh where does one start with this movie?Especially since it is one of my all time favorites.This is far from a politically correct movie.We've got the "Yellow Peril",a sadistic nymphomaniac and Boris Karloff as the most evil genius on the planet, Fu Manchu. I remember back in the late 60's when I first saw this on tv. WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit was airing this at 1:30 am on an October friday night.I was staying over at a friend's house and we were gearing up to watch this movie.Well he fell asleep and I didn't.In the darkness I was only a few feet away from the television screen, bathed in the pale light.Utterly transfixed by what I was watching... Nayland Smith and Sir Lionel are discussing plans to go to the Gobi desert to seek the treasure of Genghis Khan.Smith informs Barton that the evil genius Fu Manchu is also seeking the Mask and Scimitar.With those in his hands all of Asia will rise up and conquer the world. Sir Lionel is abducted as he is leaving the museum and is delivered into the bony fingers of Fu Manchu.(Karloff played this role with great relish and in this writer's opinion, didn't ham it up).After Lionel refuses to divulge the location of the tomb Fu has him tied under a ringing bell and left for days."You can't move,you can't sleep...you will be unspeakably foul." Lionel's daughter Shiela, her stud puppet Terry, Professor Von Berg and Smith enter the tomb.There they find the bones of Khan, wearing his mask(a tarantula crawls out of the eye as a nice touch) and holding his sword.The expedition gathers up the goodies and heads to their temple. One of Fu's men tosses over one of Lionel's hands to show he means business.Smith refuses to budge.But Terry steals the artifacts and heads off with one of Fu's men to exchange.Fu tests the artifacts but they are fake.He turns Terry over to his kinky daughter, Fah Lo See (lustfully played by Myrna Loy).As Terry is being whipped she is getting off on it.She makes plans for the big stud. Sir Lionel's corpse is dumped back at the Temple.Smith seeks out Fu and confronts him under an opium den.Smith is taken prisoner and forced to watch as Terry is injected with the venom from a snake, a spider and a mix of Fu's own blood.This will keep him as an obedient love slave to Fu's slobbering kid. The rest of the party is tricked and wind up delivering themselves and the artifacts into the hands of Fu Manchu.Big boy Von Berg is strapped into a chair between two walls of spikes that are closing in.Smith is tied onto a teeter totter contraption and dangled over a pit of alligators.Shiela is prepared for a ritual sacrifice (and possible rape by Fu) in a big ceremony attended by thousands of Chinese. Throw in an electric death ray, a horde of kill crazy mountain bandits to a wild and wooly finish and you've got 70 minutes of jam packed entertainment. |
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