The Castle of Fu Manchu

Alternate titles : "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Fu Manchu", "Assignment Istanbul".

Tagline : "The world's most evil man, with a fiendish plan of conquest."

The Fifth and final outing for Christopher Lee's Fu Manchu, which is once again Directed by the infamous Jess Franco, takes place this time in Turkey, where the infamous supervillain has developed a device that can turn the oceans into ice. Which we see being demonstrated during the intro, using some edited flashback footage from a previous film, intercut with some stock footage of a ship sinking after hitting an iceberg.

Having captured the Governer's castle in Istanbul, because it contains a massive Opium store, which he needs in order to help fuel his machine. He and his evil Daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) set about kidnapping scientists in order to help him build and maintain a new machine.

However, his nemesis Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard (Richard Greene reprising his role from the previous film) and his assistant Dr Petrie (Howard Marion-Crawford ) are on the case and with the assistance of a local crime lord, which Fu Manchu double crossed, attempt to shoot their way into the castle and stop him again.

Easily the least entertaining in the series, relying on stock footage from other films and previous entries in the series to help pad the plot, Christopher Lee puts in his usual menacing performance as the film's titular villain and there are the usual elaborate deaths and gun fights. But sadly, the film's lack of budget is glaringly obvious, combined with Franco's poor direction, makes this a somewhat disappointing finale to the series.

Worth a watch., but as with the previous film, is one that can only really be recommended to fans of the series.

Overall Marks : 5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• As well as re-using footage from "The Brides of Fu Manchu", the footage of the ocean liner hitting an iceberg and sinking was taken from the 1958 British film "A Night to Remember", about the sinking of the Titanic. Also, the dambursting scene was lifted from the 1957 film "Campbell's Kingdon". Indeed, if you look carefully, Dirk Bogarde and Stanley Baker can be seen running accross the screen in one shot.
• Christopher Lee (Dr. Fu Manchu), Tsai Chin (Lin Tang) and Howard Marion-Crawford (Dr. Petrie) are the only actors to appear in all five "Fu Manchu" films.
• After seeing the final cut of the film, Producer Harry Alan Towers reportedly said to Director Jess Franco "Congratulations, you've managed to acheive what so many others have failed to do. Finally killed off Fu Manchu". They did however go on to produce a further 4 films togethor.
• A sixth film was proposed, but as this one performed so badly at the box office, the idea was scrapped.
• Final film of Howard Marion Crawford, who played Dr Petrie. He died shortly after filming had been completed.
• Filmed in 1969, the film was not released in the UK until 1972.
• Set in the 1920's, several Turkish characters are shown wearing Fez's. However, these were actually banned during this period by Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
• The castle exteriors were of Rumelihisari Castle, located in Istanbul, Turkey. However, for the scenes inside the castle grounds they used the buildings in the famous Park Güell in Barcelona, which is a world heritage site and nowadays a major tourist attraction.

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