Just before he starred as Charlie Chan, screen legend Warner Oland played the role of Sax Rohmer’s arch-villain Dr. Fu Manchu in the 1929 feature The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu followed by a sequel, The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu. Both films starred Warner Oland, Neil Hamilton, Jean Arthur and O.P. Heggie and were directed by Rowland V. Lee
The Mysterious Fu Manchu begins in the early 20th century during the Boxer Rebellion in China where a benevolent Dr. Fu Manchu wants to help the world with his scientific achievements. Yes, apparently, he was a good humanitarian at first! Unfortunately, during the rebellion Dr. Fu Manchu’s wife and child are killed by foreigners and a young white girl, Lia Eltham is left in his care. Angered and now showing his maniacal ways, he vows to take his revenge on the British army officers and future descendants that killed his wife and child. Some thirty years later, Lia (legendary actress Jean Arthur, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, Shane) all grown up, is under hypnotic control by Dr. Fu Manchu who is after Dr. Petrie (Neil Hamilton, Tarzan, The Ape Man). Police Inspector Nayland Smith (O.P. Heggie, The Bride of Frankenstein) stands in the way of Dr. Fu Manchu and quest for revenge.
The sequel, The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, has the evil mastermind continuing his obsession to get revenge on the ancestors of the British officers who killed his family. Lia Eltham and Dr. Jack Petrie are set to marry in this picture and of course Dr. Fu Manchu won’t stand for that! He uses hypnosis again along with keeping Lia captured in one of his secret rooms! Petrie and Inspector Nayland Smith frantically look for Lia!
Between the two pre-code films, I found the sequel to be a bit more thrilling but honestly both make for a great late night creepy double-feature! Watching Dr. Fu Manchu and his minions using hypnosis, blow darts and poisonous beverages to off his enemies makes for fun entertainment and is great escapism. The sequel moves at a quicker pace due to the shorter running time. The direction for both is solid and the actors all hand in excellent performances.
Kino Lorber has brought both films out of cinematic home video obscurity, debuting them both with new 2K masters, and a snazzy slipcover in a fantastic double-feature release on a single disc. The image quality for both has its share of marks, speckles, vertical lines, and a few blips here and there most likely due to the elements used. On the positive side, both pictures look smooth and polished and is more than just watchable! The details and clarity of the characters and scenery overall are strong. Black levels tend to be decent throughout and the greyscale does look balanced. I would say The Return of Fu Manchu looks the better of the two, but only marginally. I think despite the limitations with available elements for both films, this is still a tremendous effort!
The English DTS-HD master audio for The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu is decent, but at some instances, the audio is a bit muffled, again most likely due to the film elements. This was the first “talkie” Fu Manchu picture (only the sound version exists today) and it shows. The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu fares much better. Neither of the films’ audio was all that aggressive and overall dialogue and action sounds come in clear even with the occasional muffling. No hissing, crackling or drop-offs were detected in either film. English subtitles are available for this release.
A commentary track by Tim Lucas highlights the extras as he discuses Fu Manchu in detail, citing the differences between the Sax Rohmer books, and talking about the careers of the performers and director Rowland V Lee.
The other extra is the usual theatrical trailers for other Kino Lorber releases.
I had never seen either of these pre-code gems before as they hadn’t been readily available. I found out that The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu had a DVDr release from Sinister Cinema a long time ago but was long out of print, so I never picked it up. In hindsight, I am glad that I waited for this marvelous Blu-ray that has the first two Warner Oland Fu Manchu films. This Fu Manchu double featurewith 2K scans and a couple of great supplements to me is one highly recommended package!
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu / The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu
Director- Roland V. Lee
Cast- Warner Oland, Jean Arthur, Neil Hamilton
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –6/11/22