The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writers:

Jaime Jesús Balcázar (dialogue: Spanish version)
Manfred Barthel (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

1972 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Horror

Tagline:

He's Back!!! The World's Most Evil Man with a Fiendish Plan of Conquest

Plot:

An evil Chinese mastermind plots to freeze the Earth's oceans.

Plot Keywords:

Super Villain | Disaster | Chinese | Freezing | Dam

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Fu Manchu
Richard Greene	...	Nayland Smith
Howard Marion-Crawford	...	Doctor Petrie
Günther Stoll	...	Curt
Rosalba Neri	...	Lisa
Maria Perschy	...	Marie
José Manuel Martín	...	Omar Pashu
Werner Abrolat	...	Melnik (as Werner Aprelat)
Tsai Chin	...	Lin Tang
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jesus Franco	...	Inspector Ahmet (uncredited)
Herbert Fux	...	Governer (uncredited)
Osvaldo Genazzani	...	Sir Robert (uncredited)
Burt Kwouk	...	Feno (uncredited)
Gustavo Re	...	Professor Heracles (uncredited)
Gene Reyes	...	Ahmet's Aide (uncredited)

Directed by
Jesus Franco		(as Jess Franco)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jaime Jesús Balcázar		dialogue: Spanish version
Manfred Barthel		screenplay
Manfred Barthel		story
Michael Haller		uncredited in English version
Sax Rohmer		characters
Harry Alan Towers		screenplay (uncredited in Spanish version) (as Peter Welbeck)

Produced by
Harry Alan Towers	....	producer
Jaime Jesús Balcázar	....	producer (uncredited in English version)

Original Music by
Carlos Camilleri		(as Charles Camilleri)
Malcomb Shelby

Cinematography by
Manuel Merino

Film Editing by
John Colville

Production Design by
Santiago Ontañón		(as Santiago Ontanon)

Costume Design by
Berenice Sparano

Makeup Department
Ascensión Hernández	....	assistant makeup artist
Adrián Jaramillo	....	key makeup artist
Peter Jonas	....	assistant makeup artist
Vicenta Salvadó	....	hair stylist (as Vicenta Salvador)

Production Management
Juan Estelrich	....	production manager (as Juan Estelriech)
Remo Odevaine	....	production leader

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Federico Canudas	....	assistant director
Ricardo Franco	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Adrian McDonald	....	dubbing editor
Tommy Myers	....	dubbing mixer
Hermann Storr	....	sound editor

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Helga Lange	....	assistant wardrobe
María Luisa Soriano	....	wardrobe (as Maruja Soriano)

Editorial Department
María Luisa Soriano	....	supervising editor

Music Department
Carlos Camilleri	....	conductor (as Charles Camilleri)

Other crew
Herminia Arnau	....	script supervisor
Bruno Leder	....	production assistant
Lamberto Palmieri	....	production assistant
Ginés Rodríguez	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas
• International Cinema
• Italian International Film (co-production)
• Terra-Filmkunst (co-production)
• Tilma Films
• Towers of London (associate production)

Distributors

• International Cinema Corp. (1972) (USA) (theatrical)
• Anglo-EMI Film Distributors (1972) (UK) (theatrical)
• MGM-EMI (1972) (UK) (theatrical)
• Maron Films (1973) (USA) (theatrical)
• International Film Distributors (1975) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Electric Video Inc. (EVI) (1981) (USA) (VHS)
• Blue Underground (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Stomp Visual (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• American Videotape (video)
• Mahier (Spain)
• Moore Video (video)

Also Known As:

Sax Rohmer's The Castle of Fu Manchu (UK) (USA)
Assignment Istanbul
Castello di Fu Manchu, Il (Italy)
Castillo de Fu-Manchu, El (Spain)
Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu, Die (Germany)
Fu Manchu's Castle
The Torture Chamber of Fu Manchu

Runtime:

USA:98 min (DVD version) | Germany:85 min | Spain:92 min | USA:92 min

Country:

West Germany | Italy | Spain | UK | Liechtenstein

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Estudios Cinematográficos Balcázar, Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas

Trivia:

The last feature of Howard Marion-Crawford

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Fu Man Chu's soldiers attack the castle for the first time, the defenders bayonets are clearly made of rubber.

Quotes:

Omar Pascha: I am Omar Pascha.
Denis Nayland-Smith: And I am Nayland-Smith of Scotland Yard.
Omar Pascha: I thought I could smell a policeman.

Movie Connections:

Features A Night to Remember (1958)

A real challenge

It is 1969. Your on your way back to your car at the drive-inn, where your fiancé is happily sleeping off her double shift at the diner and you are about half-way through a film - Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu, Die (or the Castle of Fu Manchu) - which has already put you through two bags of popcorn and 3 cokes because the popcorn is just so much more interesting, and the worst happens - you can't find your car. Nightmares flash through your mind - maybe your fiancé was so annoyed by the cruelty of your decision to force her into a late night drive-inn triple feature full of Sax Rohmer films so she drove off, or maybe the film got her so upset that she drove off the nearest bridge. Trying to get a hold of yourself, you look up to the screen to verify that you're at the right part of the drive in. No help, all you can see is a smear of dark blue and dark red shadow across the lower part of the screen. After a minute or so, the lighting crew finds the on-switch and some out of focus people show up on the screen. They appear to be three Shriners sneaking up on an Imam who has just begun his afternoon prayer. Still no help. You resign yourself to the fate natural selection has accorded you. You , after all, decided to see this film with your intended reproductive partner, and that choice has probably ruined your opportunity to allow your genetic material to be carried on in the next generation of humans. So you decide to move to California to buy that house on the side of hill overlooking the San Andreas fault where you always wanted to live, and to pursue your dream to rekindle the Fu Manchu series this film killed. More power to you.

To be fair, I did not see the touted Blue underground DVD version of the film. Supposedly, this pressing is so much better than what I saw that it is incomparable.

Even my television objected to this film. It kept trying to turn itself off, switch channels, etc. It even unplugged the cable converter for a few minutes. Whoever it was that decided that Sax Rohmer's various B-grade stories ought to be made into movies, should be forced to watch all of them in a row - at least once. As they say, garbage in, garbage out. These films are a decidedly acquired taste. And this one is even more difficult to acquire a taste for than Sumuru... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061976/usercomments-8

Peruse the IMDb reviews - you will notice that most of the people who write positive reviews for this film do not describe the plot. There are two interrelated reasons for this - (1) there isn't one to be described and (2) they've never seen the film, and simply get a perverse pleasure believing that their opinions might be taken seriously enough to convince people to see the film (a poor assumption, at best).

Christopher Lee plays Fu Manchu - an inexplicably powerful meanie who wants something from all of the world's governments (we are never privileged with the knowledge of what in particular he wants, but I couldn't care less anyway), and is threatening to freeze the world's oceans to get it. The technology he is using has been developed by a dying scientist who he has kidnapped, and soon he finds himself having to kidnap a surgeon in order to arrange a heart transplant as well. There are various fight scenes which don't appear to be related to the film and may indeed have been found on a cutting room floor somewhere in the Middle East, or even reused from a previous Rohmer feature (I really expected Sumuru, some of her army of Amazon ninjas, or even Frankie Avalon to show up at one point). There are also a few scenes with Lee standing around looking ominous and using that great voice of his. I am not sure he knew what was going on in the rest of the film, and indeed with that voice it doesn't matter, but these scenes are, nonetheless, the ONLY remotely entertaining aspect of the film. And OH YES lest I forget, there are a few inept 007s who were likely rejected from the extras audition for Casino Royal making some roughly British sounding noises and taking all of this way too seriously.

I didn't think it was possible, but this film was even more difficult to get through than Manos: Hands of Fate, and quite possibly should replace it as the worst film of all time. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060666/usercomments-419

To state what, in particular is wrong with TCODFM is an easy task - EVERYTHING. The acting is mediocre, the plot is idiotic, the cinematography and editing are so bad that I don't believe TRYING to make a hideous mess of a film would net you anything worse. You'll either laugh hysterically or stare at your screen until you start drooling, unless you take my advice and avoid this.

Why did I watch it? I enjoy challenges.