This is a decent and entertaining film, but not one that is particularly inspired or memorable. In many ways, it's like a 1930s B-film with very modest pretensions as well as some excitement and clichés. Of course, what else would you expect from a Fu Manchu film?!

In this third installment from the Christopher Lee series, we see the very resilient Fu Manchu attempt to organize all the criminals of the planet under his leadership. His trump card is a genius missionary doctor who just happens to be nearby. This doctor can do plastic surgery to make people look exactly like famous people and the plan is to have him make fakes of the leaders of all the world's police forces. How this guy, with early 20th century technology, can make PERFECT replicas is anyone's guess--this is just something you'll need to suspend disbelief for and you'll have to force yourself not to ask too many questions. Questions like "why would they leave a HUGE pile of gunpowder sitting there for the good guys to ignite?" and "when the guy throws a torch on these barrels of gunpowder, why does Fu Manchu just stand there while everyone else makes their escape?" and "if Manchu is replacing one police inspector, why doesn't he kill the original instead of taking him halfway around the world and giving him a chance for payback?". All these are very obviously plot holes, but once again, what do you expect--Shakespeare?!

This is an agreeable, though silly, time-passer. Worth a look if you're into Lee films--otherwise, it's pretty easy to skip.

Christopher Lee is good enough reason to see anything. Not everything he has been in has been good, then again that is true for most actors, but he was/is never less than watchable and at his very best he was magnetic. He was my main reason for seeing 'The Vengeance of Fu Manchu', or any of the five films he starred in for that matter, and if it weren't for him there would have been no knowledge of the films or any incentive in watching them.

The best of the five films by far is the first one, 'The Face of Fu Manchu'. Not my definition of a great film but the only mind to me that was above average and in enough aspects pretty good. Afterwards, the series declined with each sequel, from above average, to watchable, to lacklustre at best to rock bottom. Of the four sequels, 'The Vengeance of Fu Manchu' is the second best after 'The Brides of Fu Manchu'. Not to say that is much of an endorsement though, because neither were particularly good, but worse followed. Found this to be lacklustre and at times barely mediocre, at the same it was not unwatchable.

Lee oddly enough is not the main thing that stops 'The Vengeance of Fu Manchu' from being a disaster. Actually found the best thing of the film to be Tsai Chin, who again is deliciously nasty with the evil dripping off her. Although underused and there was the sense that his enthusiasm was lessening Lee is still very powerful and charismatic, the character appropriately fiendish as ought.

Also found 'The Vengeance of Fu Manchu' to have moments of eerie style and atmosphere and the sets don't look too cheap although clearly not authentic. The film started okay.

Despite saying that there were moments visually, that is not saying that 'The Vengeance of Fu Manchu' was a good looking film. Like 'The Brides of Fu Manchu', the editing looked incomplete and the photography fairly erratic. Again the music occasionally had haunting moments, but was even more ill-fitting and intrusive here and furthermore had a couple of cheap-sounding and poorly sung nightclub numbers that added absolutely nothing and were really out of place. The sound quality was similarly pretty poor at times and betrayed the locations' lack of authenticity. Douglas Wilmer was serviceable in 'The Brides of Fu Manchu', but to me was bland and stiff here and the rest of the cast have far too little to do.

Maria Rohm stands out the most in this respect but that is in no way meant as a good thing, quite the contrary. This is also the first film in the series to not be directed by Don Sharp and the difference in quality is incredibly glaring, Jeremy Summers' directing here came over as heavy-handed and half-hearted, especially in any scene containing any kind of torture. Half-hearted is another good way to sum up the film. The script is even more of a tonal muddle than previously to the point of confusion, due to trying to do too much, and is also very limp. The story is this time round very tedious in pace and often uneventful in what was going on, and the complete lack of suspense, creepiness and surprises replaced by useless padding (the nightclub numbers especially),gratuitous over-emphasis on torture and senseless further hurt it.

In summary, lacklustre but not an insult. 4/10

The third outing for Christopher Lee's oriental tyrant (following on from THE FACE OF FU MANCHU and THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU) is starting to wear a bit thin even in my tolerant expectations as the plot is simply rehashed again from the first two films (and there are still another two to go in the series!). I mean how many times can we go through the same old 'kidnapped scientist' scenario? Still there are a few minor thrills and chuckles to be had for those of us who are fans of this kind of '60s wackiness, and of course the nostalgia to be had from any of the items from this jam-packed decade of cinematic obscurities.

This time around the comic book style is even more apparent than normal, with a bare minimum of plot merely serving as a basis for a series of fights, scraps, and one or two huge brawls. Once again these fight scenes are a lot of fun, but there are lots of other familiar ingredients in the film to enjoy too. These include strangulation, hypnotism, a fairly explicit decapitation, some torture (the rack and branding irons are brought into play) and much, much more. Obviously the changing, more liberal attitudes of the decade are evident here in the increased violence content, and now evil Chinese minions are stabbed on screen instead of off.

The acting is all up to standard, and if the characters are clichéd, at least they're fun. Douglas Wilmer reprises his role as the heroic Nayland Smith, this time with grey hair after his tiring skirmishes with the yellow peril, and his wooden acting is spot on when he has to play a mindless double of his real self. Tsai Chin is wicked as Fu Manchu's daughter, while Christopher Lee has better makeup this time around (his slanted eyes are far more prominent) and is fun as always. Any film which has a character replaced by an evil double deserves to be watched, in my book at least.