Don Sharp Top Ten

 1) Kiss of the Vampire (1963) - terrific Vampire horror

2) The Devil Ship Pirates (1964) - great Hammer swashbuckler

3) Rasputin the Mad Monk (1966) - cut about but still fun with Chris Lee having a high old time

4) Psychomania (1973) - silly biker fun

5) The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) - spanks along

6) Our Man in Marrakesh (1966) - surprisingly fun spy thriller

7) Witchcraft (1964) - cheapie Bob Lippert film which is a lot of fun

8) Hennessy (1975) - skilled, fast-paced IRA thriller

9) The Four Feathers (1978) - odd to see Beau Bridges but this is a pretty good version of the story

10) What Waits Below (1985) - no one talks about this but I've always liked it despite some silly effects

Book review - "The Mystery of Dr Fu Manchu" by Sax Rohmer (1913)

The first Fu Manchu novel feels like a collection of serial episodes rather than a cohesive whole... It's about a pair of Holmes/Watson rip offs, Neyland Smith and Dr Petrie, chasing after the white hating Dr Fu Manchu. The story is of course very racist - it's all about yellow domination of the world. It is very fast paced and exciting a lot of the time too - lots of escapes and traps and last-minute reveals and really spanks along. There's a Chinese girl who falls for Petrie and the wire jacket and opium dens. The constant escapes and near misses did get wearying after a while.

Movie review - "The Million Eyes of Sumuru" (1968) **

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 his 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.

Radio review – “The Shadow of Dr Fu Manchu” (1939) **

A 15 minute radio serial that went for a number of episodes. I listened to a bunch but not the whole lot - or I may well have because many of the stories were repetitive. Most of the action concerns Dr Petrie and Neyland Smith, who are a sort of buddy act, always being captured and locked up or having Fu Manchu’s assassins try to kill them. Plenty of hidden trapdoors and implements of death, plus clipped accents, brisk pace and the racism of the time (eg comments about "oriental devil"). Fu Manchu hardly appears, but there's a big role for Karamaneh, the slave girl of Fu Manchu who was actually a goodie. Apparently Gale Gordon (from all those Lucille Ball sitcoms) played Dr Petrie!

Movie review - “The Return of Fu Manchu” (1930) **

A real sequel – it has the same lead players in the same roles and picks up where the first film left off. Jean Arthur is going to marry Neil Hamilton with Neyland Smith fondly watching but it turns out Fu Manchu wasn’t dead after all. He kidnaps Arthur and plots some unexciting revenge – it feels stagey, a lot of the action with Fu Manchu holed up in a hosue. There are a few neat trap doors but it isn’t as good as the original and that wasn’t that good.

Movie review – “The Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu” (1929) **

The first of three films Warner Oland made as Fu Manchu. It starts during the Boxer Rebellion – Fu Manchu is a goodie, until his family are killed by Allied troops, which makes him more sympathetic. It’s a good story – Fu Manchu sets about killing off people responsible for his family’s death – with plenty of intrigue and hidden panels, trapdoors, darts, hyptonism, self-referential comments about melodrama. It’s very creaky in that early sound film kind of way, with some statis set ups, amateurish acting, etc. Sometimes the film seems like it is being put on by an amateur theatre society.

Warner Oland is a bit too chubby and cheerful as Fu Machu for my taste. Jean Arthur isn’t very good as the white girl raised by Fu Manchu, unaware of his evil plans. Neil Hamilton is the romantic lead; some random middle aged actor plays Neyland Smith.

Movie review – “The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) ***

After three films at Paramount, MGM took a crack at the Fu Manchu franchise, throwing in some of their contract players (including Lionel Stone and Myrna Loy) and hiring Boris Karloff. The result is an entertaining piece of schlock, which is better directed and photographed than the Paramount films - not to mention having superior production values. The plot concerns a race to find Genghis Khan’s tomb, with Fu Manchu wanting to get hold of Khan’s mask and lead Asia in a rebellion. This gives the story pace and makes the heroes active as opposed to just sitting around waiting to be avenged upon. (It’s very clearly inspired by The Mummy and vampire films – Nayland Smith is Van Helsing figure, there’s a male lured by the sexual attractiveness of Fu Manchu’s daughter, his girlfriend tries to bring him around the the "right side").

There's lots of torture – people stuck under bells as they ring, prisoners whipped in a dungeon (Myra Loy excitedly encourages the minions to do this), ends of bunks have daggers, crocodile pits, sacrifice in public. There's also a heavy homoerotic element, with the hunky romantic lead being whipped and operated on while only wearing underpants surrounded by muscular black men (this was pre-Code), a camp scene where the good white girl lures the bloke back from his lust for Chinese Myrna Loy. Plus a spectacular finale with Fu Manchu trying to whip up his minions and Stone electrocuting all of them (surely an inspiration for the Raiders of the Lost Ark finale)

It's totally racist – Fu Manchu’s goal is to wipe out the white race. Asians are either evil, sex mad or comically stupid (the waiter at the end). Stone is effective, as is Karloff and Loy is hilarious fun. Fast paced, under 70 minutes and lots of fun. I’m surprised MGM didn’t make more of these, even if only for their B unit.

Movie review – “Daughter of the Dragon” (1931) **

The third and last of Warner Oland’s turn as Fu Manchu sees him cede top billing to Anna May Wong, who plays his daughter. It refers to the previous two films – he’s still after the descendants of the family he blames for the death of his family (I think Holmes Herbert is playing the role that Neil Hamilton played in the first two films; Bramwell Fletcher is the juvenile lead, Herbert’s son). There’s an unfortunate return of the silly Ass comic relief.

The film is striking in that it has two leads played by genuine Asian actors –Wong and Sessue Hayakawa, who plays a secret agent. We see Fletcher crack on to Wong – Wong says hang on I’m not Caucasian and Fletcher says he prefers girls like her. It was probably a mistake to have Wong not realise her heritage until a fair way in. And this is the third film where the Fu Manchus are motivated by revenge – what happened to world domination? Slack!

Movie review – “The Brides of Fu Manchu” (1966) ** ½

Sequel to The Face of Fu Machu is similarly pacey courtesy of some energetic Don Sharp direction and also starts with a wham – Fu Manchu and his sidekick daughter arrange for a hypnotized girl to girl drop a kidnap victim in a pool of snakes. 

Fu Manchu is back and looking for world domination, this time courtesy of a death ray. He’s kidnapping daughters of scientists to help him. 

I found it a bit confusing to be honest, with lots of different people chasing henchmen, and hechmen trying to kidnap people – heroes and villains tended to look alike (Fu Manchu spends most of his time in his cave, a different actor plays Neyland Smith). I lost track of who was who - the actors needed to wear different costumes or have different coloured hair or something. Flies along, spiffing climax.

Movie review - "Face of Fu Manchu" (1965) ***

Crackerjack thriller about the famous doctor who had been in film hibernation for a number of years until revived by Harry Alan Towers (perhaps inspired by the popularity of the Fu Manchu-like Dr No). Towers himself wrote the script and hired Don Sharp to direct - its one of Sharp's best films, fast paced and unpretentious.

Christopher Lee is perfect in the title role, all silky menace. Nigel Smith is a strong Nayland Smith, dogged and intense, and Tsai Chin is terrific as Fu Manchu's daughter. Some strong scenes: the opening execution of Fu Manchu, visiting the town that's been wiped out. Joachim Fuchsberger and Karin Dor are a bit bland in support, the film's story seems to lose momentum at the end when they visit Tibet. Also at times it feels more like a collection of set pieces than a smooth narrative. But it is enormous fun. Followed by four sequels.

Book review - "Christopher Lee: the Authorised Screen History" by Jonathan Rigby

Blurbs are always going that such and such a book is a "must have for every serious fan" but this is definitely a "must have" for Christopher Lee fans. This is an excellently researched, brightly written account of Lee's career, focusing on his film and television work. Of course it pays a lot of attention to the Hammer films but also covers his other work as well.

No one can deny Rigby has done an excellent job, but the book has an unsurmountable problem: Lee made an incredible amount of crap. I like Christopher Lee, everyone likes Christopher Lee, and its wonderful how he's enjoying an Indian summer to his career, but gosh he was in a lot of schlock. Every now and then you hear people go "oh Lee's been typecast" and "he's never had his dues as an actor" but like another horror star, Boris Karloff, he's had plenty of chances in other sorts of films. He has a presence and can clearly rise to the occasion at the time, but he's not Marlon Brando. He should still be cherished, let's just not get silly about it.

The book is interesting. I didn't realise how easily Lee got his start - coming out of the army he decided to be an actor, and almost straight away got into the Rank charm school - but he put in a decade of hard yards before finding fame with Hammer. He's been a star ever since, though interestingly even after his break through he often appeared well down the cast list.

Lee tried to break away from horror in the 1970s, but has occasionally drifted back. He definitely seems to have been under-utilised by Hollywood, wasted in awful films and television - though to be fair Lee seems to have lousy taste in scripts (or at least a poor choice in young directors): he turned down Halloween, Swamp Thing and The Fog, which I couldn't believe.

I was also surprised how small the percentage of quality films he made: the decent Hammers, of course (Rigby is a fan of the 60s pirate films), The Wicker Man, the first Fu Manchu, an excellent Bond villain in the worst Bond film (The Man with the Golden Gun), The Private Lives of Sherlock Holmes, his recent blockbusters. There's a lot of other chaff.

Still, an icon is an icon and the book is a loving tribute.