In a remote corner of China the diabolical criminal mastermind Fu Manchu has dynamited the pass leading to the province and sent word to the authorities suggesting there was an earthquake. Free from outside interference he plots his revenge against his nemesis; Assistant Commissioner Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard. This scheme is inevitably devious; he has kidnapped a doctor and his daughter and forced him to perform plastic surgery on a man to change his appearance so that he looks like Nayland Smith. He then arranges for the real Nayland Smith to be kidnapped and replaced while on holiday in Ireland. While the real policeman is put in a crate bound for China the imposter commits murder and is put on trial… killing Nayland Smith won't be enough for Fu Manchu; first he must be thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the world. Meanwhile it emerges that a senior member of the American criminal underworld is heading to China to talk to a potential leader of world crime.I first watched the Fu Manchu films as a child in the seventies and this is the first one of the series that I've watched since then. Watching again it is clear that this is far from a classic film but it is rather fun. In this day and age it would be unacceptable to have a European playing a Chinese character but Christopher Lee does do a fine job as the diabolical Fu Manchu; thankfully he doesn't attempt a dodgy 'Chinese' accent. Douglas Wilmer does a solid job as Nayland Smith, and his doppelganger, although the real policeman spends much of the time in captivity and the copy is unspeaking and emotionless. Tsai Chin impresses as Fu Manchu's daughter, a character who is clearly a chip off the old block. The story is pretty silly… but then it wouldn't have been interesting if Fu Manchu had done the obvious thing and just had Nayland Smith disposed of. The action scenes are decent in a fairly bloodless way; certainly not too violent for younger viewers. Overall it is a bit dated but I rather enjoyed it; perhaps for nostalgic reasons but also because it was rather fun.

Fu kidnaps a plastic surgeon and forces him (by torturing his daughter) to create a double of Nayland Smith from one of his (Asian) henchman. I guess nobody would notice the yellow tint to Smith's skin in London. Meanwhile, the real Smith is kidnapped and brought to Fu's palace in China. Now in London, the deutero-Smith strangles Smith's live-in maid, Jasmine, and is sentenced to hang. In between all this is a subplot involving a plot to kidnap all the leaders of the world's major policing departments and create doubles of them who, of course, will murder someone and be sentenced to die. All this nonsense goes on for several reels until the real Smith and the other captives in Fu's palace break free, escape and blow up the palace to boot. My "B" Movie Meter: 4.5* out of 10

In the 60's series of five Fu Manchu movies made by Cristhoper Lee as the Chinese fiend, this is the one in the middle, without the direction of Don Sharp (replaced by Jeremy Summers) who made the better two entries. It's still an interesting movie, Fu Manchu tries to ruin his enemy reputation by replacing him with a killer lookalike (done with a complicated facial surgery) and, as usual, planning world domination as the boss of a new international organization. Douglas Wilmer shines as Nayland Smith or the zombie-like killer, Lee is perfect as usual and the always reliable Howard Marion Crawford as Dr. Petrie (a character clearly inspired by Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson) got some good moments too. Sadly, after "Vengeance" trashy Spanish director Jesus Franco took the series for the last two film, the less interesting entries by far.

This is the third film in the revived Fu Manchu series from hit-and-run international film financier Harry Alan Towers. It represents yet another step down in this steadily deteriorating series. Towers' first mistake was in replacing director Don Sharp with Jeremy Summers, a TV-director whose only other theatrical credit was Gerry & the Pacemakers' feature "Ferry Cross the Mersey". His next mistake was filming in less-than ideal international locations, a characteristic of most of Towers' subsequent productions.Filmed in Hong Kong, the film manages to pass up every opportunity for location flavor; the cramped film could have been made on any soundstage in the world. For reasons unknown, Summers chose to shoot with live sound on Hong Kong's non-soundproofed stages and, in the sceneof a delicate medical operation conducted, supposedly, in the bowels of a Tibetan temple, construction noises and traffic sounds are clearly audible.The part of nominal star Christopher Lee is essentially an extended cameo. Instead, the film highlights Maria Rohm, Towers' German-born wife, who has never made a film for anyone but her husband. Here, she has one of her showiest roles as a nightclub singer, wearing a variety of glamorous costumes and lip syncing two awful songs performed on the soundtrack by Samantha Jones.Ironically, this would be the only film in the series given USA release through a major distributor: Warner Brothers. But they held it low regard: a number of release prints were struck in black and white and it played on the bottom half of a double bill with "The Shuttered Room".