Harry Alan Towers had success with some Fu Manchi movies made in the late 60s - looking for a follow up his eyes lit on another super villain created by Sax Rohmer, Sumuru. While Fu Manchu was the yellow peril Sumuru was the female peril - created by Rohmer when publishers started finding her work just too racist.
The film is sexist - Sumuru is determined to rule the world but is undermined by females who can't help resisting men - but the impact of that is limited by the film's sloppiness and stupidity.
The camp factor is extremely, extremely high here. George Nader, a famous Hollywood gay, is the he-man hero who women find irresistible. George was getting on a bit - he takes his shirt off a lot and is in good shape but the years were starting to tell. And I don't mean to be the sort of person who reads in gay things into films because of an actor's sexual orientation but it honestly does seem like Nader is sending it up and mocking heterosexuality in his performance.
Shirley Eaton from Goldfinger is fun as Sumuru, having a great old time. I have affection for Frankie Avalon with his helmet hair and goofy nature - the sexist nature of some of his character's comments are unfortunate. Wilfred Hyde White dodders through and Klaus Kinski has a high old time as a prince.
There's some very attractive women in the film as well as location shooting in Hong Kong (Terry Bourke, Australian director, was production manager). The film is a mess - you can't say it's a good movie, it's confusing - but it has fun things.
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