People are voting emotionally.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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.

Fu kidnaps a plastic surgeon and forces him (by torturing his daughter) to create a double of Nayland Smith from one of his (Asian) henchman. I guess nobody would notice the yellow tint to Smith's skin in London. Meanwhile, the real Smith is kidnapped and brought to Fu's palace in China. Now in London, the deutero-Smith strangles Smith's live-in maid, Jasmine, and is sentenced to hang. In between all this is a subplot involving a plot to kidnap all the leaders of the world's major policing departments and create doubles of them who, of course, will murder someone and be sentenced to die. All this nonsense goes on for several reels until the real Smith and the other captives in Fu's palace break free, escape and blow up the palace to boot. My "B" Movie Meter: 4.5* out of 10

Lin Tang doesn't sit at the feet of Fu Manchu anymore - she got promoted and takes a throne at his side now. Can't say that the movie moves up a level, though, if I compare it to its predecessors. The 3rd one of the series was the first one not directed by Don Sharp, it was most likely not made with the same production time and budget, and the story is, mildly put, simple. Fu Manchu wants revenge on his personal enemy Nayland Smith, and afterwards achieve world domination, of course. Some unnecessary things are stretching the story to 80+ minutes, such as the tavern brawl with the sailors or the introduction of Horst Frank as an additional villain. Fu Manchu asks him to do the torturing for one day as if he thought he must give this character something to do. Peter Carsten gets a better role as a gangster who is joining the good guys after his downfall. Although it is impressive to see the impersonator of Nayland Smith become a murderer under Fu Manchu's command, showing absolutely no emotion and not saying a word during his trial, one can't help wondering why the judge and lawyers didn't think he might be hypnotized or something like that. Did they just think he must be the shy type of guy who doesn't talk much? The green misty hills of Ireland are posing successfully for China again, compliments for the choice of locations. Voted 7/8/5/7/4 for the five movies.

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.