Cheap Video Reviews: The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu

The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu.

Suggeted Retail Price - $9.95. 
My Cost at the 99 Cent Only Store - 99 cents

The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu was a television series in the 1950s. Compared to the other 99 cent DVD selections, this was the only item that looked even slightly interesting.

The DVD includes 4 complete episodes:

1. The Death Ship of Dr. Fu Manchu
2. The Prisoner of Dr. Fu Manchu
3. The Master Plan of Dr. Fu Manchu      
4. The Golden God of Dr. Fu Manchu

Based on these four episodes, the premise of the series is that Dr. Fu Manchu heads a secret criminal society (who's "goal is chaos") which uses their illegally gained wealth to destroy civilization at an international level. One episode shows Dr. Fu Manchu pumping poison gas into an international peace meeting and another shows him trying to provoke a nuclear war between the East & the West.

When one character asks Dr. Fu Manchu, "What can you possibly gain by destroying all civilization as we know it?" Dr. Fu Manchu simply replies, "POWER!!"

Dr. Fu Manchu's inner-circle consists of Dr. Fu Manchu himself; Karamanch, his lovely assistant; and an exotic midget assistant and spy.

Dr. Fu Manchu.

Karamanch.

Evil assistant.

Each episode also involves protagonists Dr. John Petrie & his assistant and secretary, Betty Leonard. They work for a U.S. govt. organization and are supervised by, "Sir Dennis." They somehow always find themselves in the middle of a new Dr. Fu Manchu scheme.

Dr. Petrie & Betty Leonard.

In the history of television, I think it's rare to find a series with a villain as the lead character, and Dr. Fu Manchu is a true villain's villain. As crafty as he is wealthy, Dr. Fu Manchu injects his victims with "oriental tarantula venom" so they appear to have been killed by a spider. In one episode he implies that he is a "Doctor" of torture methods. His accent is great. At times it is completely unintelligible, but he still seems a devious genius. One episode refers to him as "the devil himself."

Each episode's opening credits depict Dr. Fu Manchu playing chess as a narrator discusses black and white in terms of good and evil. The narrator finally announces, "They say the devil plays with men's souls, so does Dr. Fu Manchu - Satan himself, evil incarnate" (which is pretty accurate, judging from the 4 episodes collected here).

Opening credits.

Episode 1: The Death Ship of Dr. Fu Manchu

Aside from Dr. Fu Manchu's inner-circle, this adventure involves another associate who I refer to as Saddam Hussein because he looks a lot like him.

This is a pretty straightforward episode. Dr. Fu Manchu is trying to smuggle germ warfare bacteria cultures around the world by injecting them into melons to sneak them through customs.

The nature of this particular bacteria is one that can only have been engineered in the United States and Dr. Fu Manchu hopes to undermine U.S. credibility by framing them as developers of illegal biological weapons.

Consulting with "Sadaam."

Injecting a melon with bacteria for smuggling purposes.

Space doesn't permit in-depth discussion, but skipping to the end of the episode, U.S. agents in white suits bust in on Saddam Hussein who is in the process of torturing a man next to the melon cargo. Backed into a corner, Sadaam holds up a melon and exclaims, "Do you know what's in this melon? Before you pull the trigger, I'll splatter it all over the room!"

In the struggle that ensues, many melons are broken. Saddam Hussein escapes to to Dr. Fu Manchu's layer and collapses on the floor, dying from exposure to the lethal bacteria cultures. Karamanch and the evil assistant are packing up files and evidence in the background as Dr. Fu Manchu torches the place before retreating. Later, gator.

Episode 2:  The Prisoner of Dr. Fu Manchu

The Prison of Dr. Fu Manchu.

This episode opens with a great hypnotism scene: Dr. Petrie's personal assistant, Betty Leonard, is somehow in Dr. Fu Manchu's layer with the evil assistant shining a flashing light in her face while Dr. Fu Manchu plants post hypnotic suggestions in her subconscious.

Apparently there is a huge international peace summit going on and Dr. Fu Manchu plans to plant a vial of poison in Betty's purse. When a prestigious international peace leader (pictured above) arrives, Betty is instructed to inject him with the poison, though she will consciously think it is medicine.

Dr. Fu Manchu's plot in this episode is simply to "disrupt the Conference of Nations."

After sending Betty on her way, Dr. Fu Manchu reflects on the unreliability of women and tells Karamanch, "If there is any weakness in my plan, it is because I have made use of a woman."
.

As events unfold, Betty does inject the peace leader with Dr. Fu Manchu's poison, but is stopped by authorities before injecting the entire vial, so half of the peace leader's body is paralyzed, but he is still alive.

Betty is taken in for psychological evaluation and we are treated to a great scene in which a government psychiatrist is putting her through some word association exercises. He says one word, then she says the first thing that pops into her head, so the conversation goes roughly something like:

Psychiatrist: "dog"

Betty: "cat"

Psychiatrist: "ample"

Betty: "Dr. Fu Manchu"

Psychiatrist: "Why did you say 'Dr. Fu Manchu'??"

Betty: "I don't know!!"

!!!

As the International Peace Conference resumes, we see that Dr. Fu Manchu has bugged the conference room and is secretly observing the proceedings on his home television set from the comfort of his criminal lair. Foiled this time, but already plotting for next time.

This episode is also notable for the head-massage scene between Karamanch and Dr. Fu Manchu.

Head massage.

Episode 3: The Master Plan of Dr. Fu Manchu

This episode was the most outrageous of the four. It begins with Dr. Fu Manchu's inner-circle watching movies in their criminal lair. As the camera moves to the movie screen, it is apparent they are watching movies about Adolf Hitler's 3rd Reich.

Watching Hitler movies.

Toward the end of their films (showing battalions of marching Nazis), Dr. Fu Manchu comments, "A great period in the history of the world. Perhaps the greatest. A man with a master plan to rule the world. Catastrophic that time ran out on him."

Karamanch: "What a pity the plan died with the man and was lost to the world."

Dr. Fu Manchu: "But it did not die with him, my Karamanch."

!!!

At first, I thought this scene was just to show that Dr. Fu Manchu was evil to the core, but as events unfold, we find out that Hitler's death was actually faked and Hitler been living in a secret lab for ten years studying atomic energy (with a huge portrait of himself hanging over his equipment).

Hitler portrait in secret lab.

Dr. Fu Manchu arranges the kidnapping of world famous plastic surgeon, Dr. Harlan Henderson (and it's hilarious to hear Dr. Fu Manchu try to pronounce the name). When Dr. Harlan Henderson discovers he is to give a plastic surgery makeover to Hitler, he totally loses it and exclaims, "You won't get away with this! My secretary knows where I am!" So Dr. Fu Manchu forces Dr. Henderson to call his secretary and tell her he's on a secret mission for the government and won't be back for a few days.

The secretary isn't suspicious at all and announces to Dr. Henderson's supervisor, "Dr. Henderson is on a secret mission for the government and will be gone for a few days."

The plastic surgery is a success, and the made-over Hitler is finally revealed:

The new Hitler.

The new Hitler is a pleasure to watch. He has a German accent and keeps working himself into a frenzy and yelling like he always did in his WWII era speeches.

Meanwhile, Dr. Petrie and Betty make their way to Dr. Fu Manchu's layer while attempting to locate Dr. Henderson (who's body has since been dumped in a river). They find Dr. Henderson's surgery room where they notice, "all the latest surgical equipment" and a copy of Mein Kampf.

The scene shifts to Hitler yelling, "Schnell! Schnell!" as a handful of Nazi soldiers enter the lab.
The end gets confusing, but basically, Hitler dies once and for all in an explosion while Dr. Fu Manchu escapes. One soldier comments that while Hitler, "stayed to fight...Dr. Fu Manchu started to show the [yellow?] streak that ran down his back".

Episode 4:  The Golden God of Dr. Fu Manchu

Dr. Fu Manchu uncovers a spy within his organization (named "Viciente"), who he is in the process of torturing while sharing how his organization is funded by selling arms and drugs. He also talks abou thow he, most recently, collided two trains together and heisted their cargo of solid gold.

Dr. Fu Manchu states, "You've been anxious to cast your eyes on my Gold, so you shall" and then sticks a pair of tongs into an oven and removes a newly minted red hot gold bar which he then presses against Viciente's forehead.

Torturing Viciente.

Branding Viciente.

I dozed off towards the end of this episode, but two other things did catch my attention:

1. A U.S. agent throws a cigarette butt on the ground and then a Chinese dock worker picks it up and finishes smoking it.

2. Dr. Fu Manchu talking to one of his cronies (Mr. Morgan):

   Dr. Fu Manchu: Your friends may die laughing at your humor, but I think I prefer just the reverse reaction."

   Mr. Morgan: "I didn't know you were so touchy."

   Dr. Fu Manchu: "I am very touchy, Mr. Morgan."

I thought it was pretty honest of him to admit that.

At the end of each episode, when Dr. Fu Manchu is thwarted, they play stock footage of him picking up a black piece from his chessboard, breaking it in half (with a strained but determined look on his face), and tossing the two pieces down on the board.

Overall, The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu - 4 Full-Length Episodes is well worth 99 cents.

[ Reviewed November, 2005. ]