Fu Manchu

1996 Finnish video tape release of The Face of Fu Manchu

Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character, an evil genius of Manchu origin, first featured in a series of novels by Birmingham author Sax Rohmer (real name Arthur Sarsfield Ward) during the early years of the 20th century.

Character

:"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present... Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man."—The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

A master criminal, Fu Manchu works for the overthrow of Western civilization or the "White race." His murderous plots are marked by the extensive use of apparently Asian methods; he disdains guns or explosives, preferring dacoits, phansigars, and members of other secret societies as his agents armed with knives, or using "pythons and hamadryads... fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli... my black spiders" and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons. The most prominent of his agents is the "seductively lovely" Karamaneh. Fu Manchu's daughter, Fah Lo Suee, is a devious mastermind in her own right, plotting to take control of the Si-Fan from her father and making things difficult for him.

Opposing Fu Manchu are Commissioner Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie. They are in the Holmes and Watson tradition, with Dr. Petrie narrating the stories while Nayland Smith carries the fight, combating Fu Manchu more by doggedness and determination rather than any intellectual brilliance (except in extremis). Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu have grudging respect for each other, as each is from the old school where a man keeps his word even to an enemy.

According to Cay Van Ash (a friend and biographer of Sax Rohmer, who wrote his own authorized pastiches Ten years beyond Baker Street and The Fires of Fu Manchu) "Fu Manchu" was a title of honor, which meant "the Warlike Manchu." It was thought that the character had been a member of the Imperial family who backed the losing side in the Boxer Rebellion. In the earliest books, Fu Manchu is an assassin sent on missions by the Si-Fan, but he quickly rises to become head of that dreaded secret society. At first, the Si-Fan's goal is to throw the Europeans out of Asia; later, the group attempts to intervene more generally in world politics, while funding itself by more ordinary crime.

The character of Fu Manchu has become controversial as an example of racism found frequently in Western representations of the Chinese at that time.[1] The character is often associated with the Yellow Peril. Manchu has inspired numerous other characters, and is the model for most villains in later "Yellow Peril" thrillers.[2] Examples include Pao Tcheou, Yellow Claw, Li Chang Yen from The Big Four and Iron Man foe the Mandarin.

Books

The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu (1913). This is a combination of short stories originally published in magazines. The first was The Zayat Kiss which was published in The Storyteller (1912).
The Return of Dr Fu Manchu (1916)
The Hand of Fu Manchu (1917)
Daughter of Fu Manchu (1931)
The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
The Bride of Fu Manchu (1933)
The Trail of Fu Manchu (1934)
President Fu Manchu (1936)
The Drums of Fu Manchu (1939)
The Island of Fu Manchu (1940)
The Shadow of Fu Manchu (1948)
The Wrath of Fu Manchu (1952)
Re-Enter Fu Manchu (1957)
Emperor Fu Manchu (1959)

In other media

Film Serials

Fu Manchu first appeared on the big screen in the 1923 British film serial The Mysteries of Fu Manchu starring Harry Agar Lyons. Lyons returned to the role the next year in the creatively titled The Furthur Mysteries of Fu Manchu

In 1929 Fu made his American film debut in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu starring Warner Oland, best known for his portrayal of Charlie Chan.

Fu Manchu returned to the serial format in 1940 in Republic Pictures' Drums of Fu Manchu, a 15-episode serial considered to be one of the best the studio ever made which was later released as a feature film in 1943. Republic had wanted to do a second serial Fu Manchu Strikes Back, but the State Department persuaded them to refrain from doing so because China was a war-time ally against Japan.

Feature Films

Promotional poster for 1965 film The Face of Fu Manchu

Warner Oland would portray Fu Manchu three more times after appearing in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu: in The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu(1930), the first feature film based on the charecter, in 1931s Daughter of the Dragon which starred Anna May Wong as Fu's daughter, and in a Paramount on Parade studio revue segment.

However, the most famous early incarnation of the charectar is probably The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) starring Boris Karloff. It is often considered the best of those produced in the 1930s.

Other than an obscure 1946 Spanish film El Otro Fu Manchu, Fu was absent from the big sceen for about twenty five years, until Hammer Studios began a series starring Christopher Lee in 1965. Hammer and Lee would make one Fu Manchu film per year through the end of the decade: The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), and finally The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)
His last major film appearance was The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, a 1980 parody starring Peter Sellers as Fu.

Television

Fu Manchu was first brought to television in NBC's 1952 short film The Zayat Kiss starring John Carradine. It was intended to be a series of mystery films starring the charecter, but only this one was made.

In 1955-56 Hollywood Pictures (a subsidiary of Republic Pictures) produced a 13-episode syndicated programe, The Adventures of Fu Manchu starring Glenn Gordon and directed by noted serial directer Frank Andreon.

"The Doctor" Fu Manchu.

Radio

Fu Manchu earliest radio appearences were on the Collier Hour 1927-31 on the Blue Network. This was a radio programme designed to promote Colliers magazine and presented weekly dramatizations of the current issues stories and serials. Fu was voiced by Arthur Hughes. A self titled show on CBS followed in 1932-33. John C. Daly, and later Harold Huber, played Fu.

Additionally, there were "pirate" broadcast from the Continent into Britain, from Radio Luxembourg and Radio Lyons in 1936 through 1937. Frank Cochrane voiced Fu Manchu. The BBC produced a competing series, The Peculiar Case of the Poppy Club starting in 1939. That same year The Shadow of Fu Manchu aired in America.

The last Fu Manch radio series The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu aired in 1944 on NBC.

Comic Strips

Fu was first brought to newspaper comic strips in a black and white daily strip drawn by Leo O'Mealia and ran from 1931 to 1933. The strips were adaptations of the first two Fu Manchu novels and part of the third. They were copyrighted by "Sax Rohmer and The Bell Syndicate, Inc."

Comic Books

Fu Manchu made his first comic book appearence in Detective Comics # 17, and continued, as one feature among many in the anthology series, until #28. These were reprints of the earlier Leo O'Mealia strips. Original Fu stories in comics had to wait for Avons one issue The Mask of Dr. Fu Manchu in 1951.

Ironically, in most of Fu's more substantial comic book appearences he has been either unnamed or given a pseudonym. In the 1970s, Fu Manchu appeared as the father of the character Shang-Chi in the series Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. However Marvel Comics soon lost the rights to the charechter, so in later appearances, Fu Manchu is never named, only referred to as Shang's 'father,' and never shown out of shadow. In a recent Black Panther storyline, he is referred to as "Mr. Han", apparently a play on the name of the main villain in Enter the Dragon.

Fu Manchu appeared, but only as "The Doctor," in Alan Moore's comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore did not have the copyright to use the character by name, but is generally considered to have done very well in spite of this.

Fu Manchu and his daughter are the inspiration for the character Hark and his daughter Anna Hark in the comic book series Planetary.

In Popular Culture

* Kim Newman's novel Anno-Dracula includes a character known as "The Chinaman," who is an unnamed Fu Manchu.
* 'Fred' Fu Manchu was a character in various episodes of The Goon Show, acting in various villainous roles. He also received a self-titled Goon Show episode, Fred Fu Manchu and His Bamboo Saxaphone where he planned, and succeeded to "finish Britain [off] as a saxaphone-playing nation".
* Don't Fool With Fun Manchu is the name of a song from the 60s by The Rockin' Ramrods
* Fu Manchu is the name of a ska song by Jamaican singer Desmond Dekker.
* Fu Manchu is a Southern Californian stoner rock band. Formed in 1987.
* The villainous Chinese character Doctor Julius No in Ian Fleming's 1958 James Bond novel "Doctor No," was based on Fu Manchu, and Fleming often cited Sax Rohmer as an inspiration.
* In Kurt Vonnegut Jr's book Slapstick, Fu Manchu is the name of the miniaturized Chinese head of state.

External links

* The Page of Fu Manchu
* The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
* The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
* Hermes Reviews reviews of all the Fu Manchu books as well as those featuring Sax Rohmer's other criminal mastermind, Sumuru
* A database and cover gallery of Fu Manchu comic book appearences