Boris Karloff stars as the villainous Dr. Fu Manchu in this wild and wooly -- and wildly racist -- adventure yarn, based on Sax Rohmer's fiction about the personification of the "yellow peril." Sir Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone) of the British Secret Service recruits Sir Lionel Barton (Lawrence Grant) to lead an expedition with Prof. Von Berg (Jean Hersholt) and McLeod (David Torrence) to the Gobi Desert, to find the tomb of Genghis Khan and retrieve the scimitar and golden mask held within. To
Barton, these are mere archeological trophies, but Smith has learned that Dr. Fu Manchu also has his designs on them; and if he gets hold of these artifacts, he will use them to cause a rising in the East, and foment a war for the destruction of the white race. The action is fast and furious, resembling a Saturday-morning serial, as Barton is kidnapped and brought to Fu Manchu, who proceeds to torture him to find the location of the tomb. Barton's daughter, Sheila (Karen Morley), replaces her father to guide the expedition, accompanied by her fiancé, Terry Granville (Charles Starrett). They find the tomb and retrieve the sword and mask, and find themselves in the company of Nayland Smith as they try to return to England, and surrounded by enemies on all sides. One man is dead and soon Terry is in the hands of Fu and his sadistic daughter Fah Lo See (Myrna Loy), who proceeds to torture him; Nayland Smith is slowly being lowered into a pit of crocodiles, Von Berg is trapped between moving spiked walls, and Sheila Barton is about to be sacrificed as part of the ritual in which Fu will declare himself the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
This is a creaky but entertaining relic from the early sound era. Basically an adventure story...it edges into the horror category thanks to the fiendish torture devices used by the Oriental criminal mastermind - and his sadistic daughter.
A great film with more than obvious allegorical references to the ?Yellow Peril.? Much like Charlie Chan or Mr Moto, Dr Fu Manchu is played by a White man, this time its Boris Karloff (who must have played the Chinaman role well as he later played the titular character in the Mr Wong series). The evil Chinese doctor
attempts to revive Genghis Khan's spirit into his own body using a combination of Eastern magic and Western science with the stated goal of creating a pan-Asian empire and killing all the White men the world-over. The good doctor regularly uses his advanced torture chamber and his daughter is especially sadistic (in a slightly sexual manner) in her use of the devices. An Indiana Jones-type that has a number of GREAT lines and an intriguing story with high-flung adventure.
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