This deservedly obscure warm-up for Christopher Lee for the role of Fu Manchu, set in Hong Kong in 1910, marked the first time he received top billing on a Hammer production, and follows in the footsteps of 'The Stranglers of Bombay' in detailing with relish the sadistic activities of a ruthless foreign cult able to act with impunity until a representative of the British Empire steps in to put a stop to it all.'Stranglers' had been made in black & white to lessen the impact of the bloodletting, but 'The Terror of the Tongs' was (in Britain at least) permitted glorious early 60's Eastmancolor, thus heightening the visual impact of The Red Dragon Tong's penchant for cutting off fingers and killing people with axes, while also looking a treat as photographed by Arthur Grant, designed by Bernard Robinson and costumed by Molly Arbuthnot; as do the various exotic young women slinking about the margins of the action in slit-sided qipaos, or less.The film's makers presumably knew what an authentic Chinaman looked like, because early in the film a young Burt Kwouk shares an important scene with hero Geoffrey Toone before being promptly killed off and replaced with British film regulars like dear old Charles Lloyd Pack and Harold Goodwin in the oriental speaking parts. (Where was Michael Ripper when they were shooting this?) The Calcutta-born Marne Maitland brings his usual polish to the role of an urbanely spoken beggar on crutches who proves to be more than he seems. Someone however must have drawn the line at attempting to pass Yvonne Monlaur (who died just a couple of weeks ago) as Chinese, since she's given a line explaining that she's "an 'alf-caste". Elsewhere, Jimmy Sangster's script juggles occasionally intelligent dialogue with frequently clumsy plotting.Director Anthony Bushell, after a long career as an actor (he had recently played Col. Breen in the original TV version of 'Quatermass and the Pit'), was at the time concentrating mainly on directing, but seems a strange choice for such a lurid subject. He certainly doesn't show any flair for staging action, and this proved his last feature film, after which he worked in television for a couple of more years.

Christopher Lee is good as Chung King but his performances in other films, both for Hammer and other films, are far better. In fact, this is one of my least favourite of his performances. It has some nice performances from Roger Delgado and Burt Kwouk (one of the few people in the film actually of Chinese descent and the only one with more than a few lines) but otherwise it's very dull. Marne Maitland, who was Indian, makes for the least convincing of the faux Chinese people but he's up against some pretty stiff competition. "The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films" said it best: "The Terror of the Tongs, perhaps thankfully a rarely-seen film, remains resolutely undistinguished in almost every department." It's only 73 minutes long, making it the shortest Hammer film that I've seen, but feels twice that. It's underwritten and the characters don't behave like real people. This is second only to "The Horror of Frankenstein" as my least favourite Hammer film, I'm afraid. This is the third and final film directed by Anthony Bushell, who had a solid career as an actor. I can't say that I'm surprised that his directing career never took off.

Surprisingly, I quite liked this atypical Hammer offering, which is basically a companion piece to THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY (1960) – with the setting changed to 1910s China, and the vicious “thuggees” replaced with the equally murderous Red Dragon Tongs. As a matter of fact, one might say that the script for STRANGLERS served as a virtual template for this one – to which Hammer then assigned Jimmy Sangster, their in-house scribe, in order to apply the necessary alterations (though, in the long run, the former still emerges as the better picture of the two)! With this in mind, THE TERROR OF THE TONGS likewise thrives on violent acts (with the exploitation factor increased a notch in this case thanks to the compulsively sleazy atmosphere of taverns and opium dens) – and the hero, too, is eventually subdued to excruciating torture but saved at the last minute.Interestingly, Christopher Lee’s role as the Tong leader anticipates his later Fu Manchu characterization – which he played in five low-budget outings (of gradually decreasing merits) throughout the second half of the decade. While the gaunt actor is always worth watching, here he seems to be acting through his voice alone – as his character is usually depicted sitting down and ordering his underlings about (even when finally cornered, he keeps a thoroughly calm demeanor)! Geoffrey Toone is an agreeable hero, being unusually brawny: he goes after the Tongs after they callously murder his teenage daughter; later, he saves slave girl Yvonne Monlaur from their clutches – the French actress (who was also in THE BRIDES OF Dracula and CIRCUS OF HORRORS {both 1960}) is a delightful presence in the film, even if her role seldom rises above that of the ‘servile Oriental’ stereotype! Supporting characters include a crippled beggar (played by Marne Maitland, who was also in STRANGLERS) who’s secretly organizing opposition to the Tongs – and has no qualms about exploiting Toone’s personal tragedy to this end!; returning from the earlier film, too, is Roger Delgado – who virtually replicates his part of the chief villain’s closest henchman! Ultimately, THE TERROR OF THE TONGS looks very good in color and is generally pacy at just 76 minutes; by the way, director Bushell had himself been an actor – numbering genre roles such as the bland hero of THE GHOUL (1933) and the ill-fated snobbish Colonel in the QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (1958) TV serial among his resume'.

To enjoy this movie you must ignore that most of the 'Chinese' are played by obviously English actors. That was how it was done back then. Hammer worked with limited budgets but almost always came up with suspenseful and colourful movies.Christopher Lee plays his role with his usual aplomb, whilst the rest of the cast made up of many familiar faces keeps the movie rolling along.I first saw this movie over thirty years ago and it took me quite a while to track down a copy on VHS but to this day I still enjoy it immensely. Don't regard it as a piece of art. It's an adventure film in the same vein as Big Trouble in Little China, done very well for the small money and time they had to make it.