Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

After the roundly derided 'Blood of Fu Manchu', director Jess Franco once again tackles Sax Rohmer's indomitable moustache twirling super villain. Richard Greene 'guest stars' as sleuth Nayland Smith, and Howard Marion Crawford, in his last performance, plays second hand man, silly old Professor Petrie.As Fu, Christopher Lee is exactly as you would expect – clipped, precise and cool. Under impressive oriental make-up, he conveys moments of anger, complacency and effective degrees of evil. His relationship with far more interesting daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) is slightly more focused than previously, but the most interesting character here is Lisa (Rosalba Meri), 1971's 'Lady Frankenstein'. Lisa is a duplicitous and beautiful creation, often dressed in a suit ("She fights like a man") – and yet, like everyone else here, she is fearfully underwritten and little more than a cypher.Added to that, much of the stock footage that provides the more spectacular moments is generously scooped from other productions, notably a dam-busting scene from 'Campbell's Kingdom' from twelve years earlier.Despite a strong start, this soon dissolves into the kind of muddled plotting that blighted 'Blood…' previously. Although I actually found this slightly more entertaining than that previous film, it is still difficult to maintain interest in events when both storyline and characters are so sketchy.A further entry into the Fu Manchu series was contracted, but due to the drubbing 'Castle…' received both critically and commercially, Fu's promise that 'the world will hear from me again' remains unfulfilled. With a fairly generous budget (most likely due to the further involvement of Harry Alan Towers) and a good cast, it seems to me that Franco just wasn't interested in telling a story about Fu Manchu – and subsequently, the audience felt the same way about paying to watch it.

In every television show there are high points....... And there are low points......... And everyone has their own opinions and what someone may consider bad, others may decide is good.So with that out of the way, this is one bad mamma jamma movie and I mean bad in the "it is terrible" way not bad in a 1970's way that it's cool. Why this movie is so bad...... (how bad is it?) This movie is so bad that Mystery Science Theater 3000 can't even salvage it! They are making fun of this movie and one of the robots is crying that he can't take this movie anymore!I was hoping at the beginning part that it would be a laugh fest and they would be riffing all over the movie like Get Smart riffed "The Craw", that's "The Claw" and his "Razor Brazer", that's "Laser Blazer" Now that was hilarious. So with that reference in mind, I was hoping this would be a good episode of MST3K.But because the writers for that show are all big time liberals and politically correct, there is a sad lack of Chinese gutter humor, instead it's referenced mainly to the British (that's liberal writers for you). Either that or really there is so little dialog from the Chinese characters including Dr Manchu that they just could make any jokes out of that material.Either way, along with Ring Of Terror, this is on the LOW side of MST3K for funniness. Movies that were so boring that the comedians couldn't even riff them enough to be entertaining.Now if I had to watch this movie without MST3K? Ah, no way, it would have turned off after 30 minutes TOPS.If you want to see a good Fu Manchu movie see "The Mask Of Fu Manchu" with Karloff, it's awesome, this deserves to be in the bottom 150 movie list of all time. If you want to see a bad Fu Manchu type movie thats still fun, see "Battle Beneath The Earth" MST3K would have done a lot better to riff that movie, although MGM probably wouldn't let them so they picked this public domain turkey instead.You have been warned, now go in peace, and move along. Zero stars out of 10 if I could vote that way. 4 stars with the MST3K, this is even one of their worst episodes.

This little nothing was really bad. As a struggling law student, I often watch horrible films because I don't need to pay attention or even care for the damn thing. This film, however, was a total waste of time. Christopher Lee, shame on you for playing Fu Manchu in this. Even though I have a lot of respect for Christopher Lee, this was definitely not one of his finer performances. The whole thing was really awful.The plot is that Fu Manchu is trying to take over the world using a machine fueled with opium that freezes water and creates ice bergs. That's really about it. I don't think that I can elaborate on it much (at least in any way that would make sense).The cast is mediocre (again, Chris Lee was their shining star), the script was a crime (the dialogue was pretty bad), and despite there being some talent the whole thing was totally sub-par. What really got me was how they casted Spainish or Latin American guys as Chinese soldiers. AAAARRRUUUUGGGGHHH. Did they think that we wouldn't notice? This was bad, but not quite so bad as something like "Manos the Hands of Fate." Don't bother with it.

It is 1969. Your on your way back to your car at the drive-inn, where your fiancé is happily sleeping off her double shift at the diner and you are about half-way through a film - Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu, Die (or the Castle of Fu Manchu) - which has already put you through two bags of popcorn and 3 cokes because the popcorn is just so much more interesting, and the worst happens - you can't find your car. Nightmares flash through your mind - maybe your fiancé was so annoyed by the cruelty of your decision to force her into a late night drive-inn triple feature full of Sax Rohmer films so she drove off, or maybe the film got her so upset that she drove off the nearest bridge. Trying to get a hold of yourself, you look up to the screen to verify that you're at the right part of the drive in. No help, all you can see is a smear of dark blue and dark red shadow across the lower part of the screen. After a minute or so, the lighting crew finds the on-switch and some out of focus people show up on the screen. They appear to be three Shriners sneaking up on an Imam who has just begun his afternoon prayer. Still no help. You resign yourself to the fate natural selection has accorded you. You , after all, decided to see this film with your intended reproductive partner, and that choice has probably ruined your opportunity to allow your genetic material to be carried on in the next generation of humans. So you decide to move to California to buy that house on the side of hill overlooking the San Andreas fault where you always wanted to live, and to pursue your dream to rekindle the Fu Manchu series this film killed. More power to you. To be fair, I did not see the touted Blue underground DVD version of the film. Supposedly, this pressing is so much better than what I saw that it is incomparable.Even my television objected to this film. It kept trying to turn itself off, switch channels, etc. It even unplugged the cable converter for a few minutes. Whoever it was that decided that Sax Rohmer's various B-grade stories ought to be made into movies, should be forced to watch all of them in a row - at least once. As they say, garbage in, garbage out. These films are a decidedly acquired taste. And this one is even more difficult to acquire a taste for than Sumuru... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061976/usercomments-8Peruse the IMDb reviews - you will notice that most of the people who write positive reviews for this film do not describe the plot. There are two interrelated reasons for this - (1) there isn't one to be described and (2) they've never seen the film, and simply get a perverse pleasure believing that their opinions might be taken seriously enough to convince people to see the film (a poor assumption, at best). Christopher Lee plays Fu Manchu - an inexplicably powerful meanie who wants something from all of the world's governments (we are never privileged with the knowledge of what in particular he wants, but I couldn't care less anyway), and is threatening to freeze the world's oceans to get it. The technology he is using has been developed by a dying scientist who he has kidnapped, and soon he finds himself having to kidnap a surgeon in order to arrange a heart transplant as well. There are various fight scenes which don't appear to be related to the film and may indeed have been found on a cutting room floor somewhere in the Middle East, or even reused from a previous Rohmer feature (I really expected Sumuru, some of her army of Amazon ninjas, or even Frankie Avalon to show up at one point). There are also a few scenes with Lee standing around looking ominous and using that great voice of his. I am not sure he knew what was going on in the rest of the film, and indeed with that voice it doesn't matter, but these scenes are, nonetheless, the ONLY remotely entertaining aspect of the film. And OH YES lest I forget, there are a few inept 007s who were likely rejected from the extras audition for Casino Royal making some roughly British sounding noises and taking all of this way too seriously.I didn't think it was possible, but this film was even more difficult to get through than Manos: Hands of Fate, and quite possibly should replace it as the worst film of all time. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060666/usercomments-419To state what, in particular is wrong with TCODFM is an easy task - EVERYTHING. The acting is mediocre, the plot is idiotic, the cinematography and editing are so bad that I don't believe TRYING to make a hideous mess of a film would net you anything worse. You'll either laugh hysterically or stare at your screen until you start drooling, unless you take my advice and avoid this. Why did I watch it? I enjoy challenges.