Mask of Fu Manchu [VHS]

Mask of Fu Manchu [VHS]
by Charles Brabin, Charles Vidor

Mask of Fu Manchu [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Boris Karloff, Charles Starrett, Karen Morley, Lewis Stone, Myrna Loy
Director: Charles Brabin, Charles Vidor
Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio
Editor: Ben Lewis
Writer: Edgar Allan Woolf
Writer: Irene Kuhn
Writer: John Willard
Writer: Sax Rohmer
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Running Time: 68 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

VHS Movie Reviews of Mask of Fu Manchu [VHS]

Movie Review: Sounds Corny, But Is Very Effective
Summary: 4 Stars

This was a bit different with Boris Karloff playing an Asian "bad guy." He plays "Fu Manchu," and man who sets out to get Genghis Khan's mask and sword which supposedly will give him the power to rule over millions of people.

Despite the classic film casting of white people to play Asians, I found Karloff to be "cool" looking as was his evil daughter, a young Myrna Loy. I like Karen Morely, usually, but not in here where she plays an almost-hysterical daughter of one of the good guys.

"Fu Manchu" shows some of his unique methods of torture, nothing graphic, thankfully - not like today's blood and guts.

Some of this is amateurishly-done but overall it still a legitimate amount of real horror and terror and the cast certainly is entertaining. ("Andy Hardy" star Lewis Stone also is in here along with Jean Hersholt and Charles Starret.)

Summary: a decent and almost-mystical adventure story that doesn't overstay its welcome, either, at a tidy 68 minutes. Pretty good stuff.

Movie Review: A "B" Movie At Best
Summary: 3 Stars

I bought this VHS after reading some of the customer reviews on Amazon and I will have to be more discerning in the future. Some of the reviews that were 5 stars raved about the production and the performances and I gotta wonder what they were watching or if they were sober during their movie experience. This was a "B" movie at best and even for the early 1930's this was a poor effort. I have always been a fan of Boris Karloff, Myrna Loy and even Lewis Stone, but I'm afraid they were wasted in this effort. Even comparing it with Bela Lugosi's Dracula from the early 1930's and Frankenstein of the same time period, it can't hold a candle. Lousy script, poorly staged and everything that went with that type of production. Too bad.

Movie Review: Great Pre-Code.
Summary: 5 Stars

This film is short (68 minutes) and superbly entertaining. It tells the story of a Chinese evil scientist/warlord (Boris Karloff) who wants to seize the golden mask and sword which belonged to Genghis Khan, to dominate the world and impose the supremacy of Eastern Cultures over the "Western World".

Karloff is rightly cast as the menacing Fu Manchu, more frightful than ever; this role along with the ones he played in "Frankenstein", "The Mummy" and "The Old Dark House", are my favorites of him.

Mention apart deserves a pre-"The Thin Man" Myrna Loy, as his "ugly and insignificant daughter", an oversexed, nymphomaniac and sadistic oriental girl, who's got as aides in her schemes, many tall, muscular black men, dressed in loin-cloths.

Check the scene where Loy has the hero (Charles Starrett) whipped by her aides and others in which she has him at her complete mercy, like for example when Starrett is being injected a "serum" that will have him under the spell of Loy & Karloff, and do whatever they will: he's strapped on a sort of "Operations Table" and around him are these "muscular" slaves wearing loin-cloths, standing above pedestals and thus resembling "living statues" (The Art Deco Sets and the Art Direction in general is excellent).

There's another scene in which Karen Morley (dressed as a white virgin) is taken to a sacrificial "tableau" in front of an Oriental God.

Lewis Stone plays the head of the British Secret Service, who wants to prevent Fu Manchu from finding Genghis Khan's tomb and thus, his sword and mask.

Karen Morley plays the daughter of the British scientist who knows the Tomb's exact localization in China and who's kidnapped by Fu Manchu; hunky Charles Starrett plays her fianc?, who is also very much sought after by Myrna Loy.

Also in it Jean Hersholt as scientist.

A must-see for Pre-Code, Adventure and Horror fans.

Movie Review: KARLOFF AND LOY AT THEIR FIENDISH BEST
Summary: 4 Stars

After having completed Frankenstein and The Mummy, Boris Karloff turned his considerable acting talents to playing Sax Rohmer's firendish Yellow Menace, Fu Manchu. Karloff in this picture is a sadistic monster. Even by the standards of the period, The Mask of Fu Manchu is VERY racist, but it is an exciting movie which has all the benefits of an MGM production, with cinematography by Tony Gaudio, and sets by Cedric Gibbons. Especially notable is the beautifully photographed and staged sequence of the opening of Genghis Khan's Tomb.

The Mask of Fu Manchu is also very much an example of pre-Code film making with some of the wildest scenes that ever made their way onto the screen in the early 1930's--particularly those in which Fu's daughter, played by Myrna Loy in her Chinese period, drools over the recumbent, nearly naked body of an immobilized Charles Starrett. It's a bit unnerving to see the woman who would epitomize 30's style and chic in just a few years in the Thin Man movies, playing such a wicked, and sex-crazed harlot.

Lewis Stone as a Scotland Yard inspector & Jean Hersholt as an archeologist both give the expected fine performance. Charles Starrett, as the much-abused young hero, & Karen Morley, as the requisite young woman on a dangerous expedition, both give a good account of themselves.

The dialog is typically weak and outdated early 30's fare and theres not much of a musical score, but other than those two drawbacks, this is a mighthy fun film to watch.

Movie Review: Fiendish fun
Summary: 5 Stars

The Mask of Fu Manchu easily could have served as inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Archaeologists dash to retrieve a relic to save Western Civilization from the diabolic Dr. Fu Manchu. There's feats of derring-do. Scenes of despicable torture and heroic bravery.

What makes this movie so much fun is that in "Raiders" you know Dr. Jones will win. Nazis are mere obstacles in his path to run over.

But in this movie, Boris Karloff's performance as the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu makes the Nazis seem like mere shadows of a threat compared to his evil genius. His Fu Manchu is a villain you not only fear, but respect.

Myrna Loy as his daughter is wickedly good. While the sparks put off by Fu Manchu's diabolical invention are impressive special effects, they are nothing in comparison to the sparks emitted by a young, scantily clad Myrna Loy.

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