Fu Manchu 4K UHD Double-Feature Review

Blue Underground

4K UHD Release: July 29, 2025

Video: 1.66:1/2160p (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color (both films)

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Mono (both films)

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish (both films)

Run Time: 96:36 (Blood of Fu Manchu), 91:54 (Castle of Fu Manchu)

Director: Jess Franco

Note: The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu are currently available on separate 4K UHDs from Blue Underground. Parts of this review’s intro are taken from my review of Night of the Blood Monster (1970).

The period between 1969 and 1973 was arguably the peak of Jesús ‘Jess’ Franco’s 200+ film career, at least in terms of his erotic output, which took a particularly surrealistic turn, just as censorship rules were loosening throughout Europe. Personally, I prefer the period just before this, when he was making black & white pop horror, noir, and sci-fi movies, but I can’t exactly disagree with the fans and critics that specifically mark his work with British producer Harry Alan Towers as his most important, at least in terms of recognizability. Franco and Towers partnered for nine movies, shot over only two years between 1968 and 1969, including 99 Women (1969), Marquis de Sade’s Justine (aka: Deadly Sanctuary, 1969), Venus in Furs (1969), and Eugenie...The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (aka: Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy of the Boudoir, 1970).

Franco’s Towers era began and ended with collaborations with actor Christopher Lee – The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969), Count Dracula (German: Nachts, wenn Dracula erwacht, 1970), and Night of the Blood Monster (Italian: Il trono di fuoco, 1970), better known as The Bloody Judge. Franco made six movies with Lee and Lee made another six with Towers. By most accounts, the relationship between the three men was difficult, but, between Lee’s professionalism, Franco’s as yet undiluted skill, and a lot of recycled sets, props, and costumes, they managed to close the gap between classy costume drama, the burgeoning adult market, exploitation horror, and, in the case of the Fu Manchu films, the post-Bond Eurospy movement. 

Prior to Franco’s involvement, Lee appeared in three other Fu Manchu films – Don Sharp’s The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) and The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), and Jeremy Summers’ The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) – though the Yellow Peril era character, invented by writer Sax Rohmer (aka: Arthur Henry Ward), had been a film and serial sensation since the silent era, encompassing 11 movies, including Charles Brabin’s The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), starring Boris Karloff. Towers also made two films starring another Sax Rohmer creation, Sumuru, Lindsay Shonteff’s The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) and Franco’s The Girl from Rio (1969).

For the record, Fu Manchu had been considered a racist stereotype since at least the Karloff film. Lee, Towers, and Franco’s films weren’t really “products of their eras” as much as they were purposefully transgressive exploitation movies, made at a time when censorship standards were loosening and graphic sex & violence were just barely sneaking into mainstream grindhouses.

The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968)

From his secret lair deep within the South American jungle, international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) reveal their latest diabolical plot for world domination: ten beautiful women are infected with an ancient poison so deadly that one kiss from their lips will bring instant death and lead to a global plague. Now, the Asian madman's nemesis, Nayland Smith (Richard Greene), must desperately hunt an antidote in a savage land where rape and torture reign. (From Blue Underground’s official synopsis)

The Blood of Fu Manchu (German: Der Todeskuss des Dr. Fu Man Chu) is the trashier and most Franco-esque of the two movies. The sleaze factor is juicy, but very of its era it. The implied sex, brief torture, short glimpses of nipples, and barely bloodied wounds are only slightly more risqué than you’d see from a name-brand Bond movie. It’s pretty tame, even by the standards of the next decade, but it’s still fun to see Franco probing the edges of acceptability. The most objectionable scene is one where a very unwilling little snake is forced to bite a victim’s bare breasts.

The Blood of Fu Manchu’s real selling points are its utter disregard for structural consistency and genre cohesion. Like the other Sax Rohmer adaptations, it exploits the audience’s Eurospy appetite, but its lush Brazilian locales align it with the jungle adventures that Italians would soon co-opt for their cannibal cycle, its short, London set sequence has a foggy horror vibe, and it even swerves into spaghetti western territory with a lengthy subplot about the Mexican-coded bandit gangs, featuring horse-riding, shoot-outs, and actor Ricardo Palacios sporting the same sombrero and bandolero-clad costume he donned for a dozen Italian/Spanish-made cowboy adventures. Franco fans will likely note that The Blood of Fu Manchu is essentially a women-in-prison movie with extra steps and possibly Franco’s first crack at the genre, given that it was released one year before 99 Women (1969).

Despite the yellow-face make-up, the character’s yellow peril roots, and Franco’s naughty predilections, Lee’s performance is as dignified as ever. His counterpart, aging matinée idol Richard Greene, played hero Nayland Smith in both Blood of Fu Manchu and Castle for Fu Manchu, following portrayals by Nigel Green and Douglas Wilmer. His maturity is, as always, preferable to the Bond-alikes and Frankie Avalon types seen in most Eurospy comedies. Oddly, Greene spends most of the film in a poisoned stupor, making him a secondary hero to the Quatermain-like Carl Jansen, played by German actor Götz George.

Concrete ties to Bond are personified by actresses Shirley Eaton and Tsai Chin (as well as Lee, who eventually played The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974). Eaton is best remembered as the ill-fated, gold-plated Jill Masterson from Guy Hamilton's Goldfinger (1964) and ended up cast as lead in Towers’ two Sumuru movies (footage from one of those was reportedly spliced into Blood of Fu Manchu without her permission), while Chin, who plays Manchu’s evil daughter Lin Tang in all five Towers films, appeared in Lewis Gilbert’s You Only Live Twice (1967). The main cast is rounded out by Towers’ beautiful wife, Maria Rohm, playing the third of four different characters in one of her husband’s Sax Rohmer movies.

The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)

Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin), create a fiendish new chemical weapon that will turn the seas into a giant block of ice. But, when his archenemy Nayland Smith (Richard Greene) tracks the madman's trail of kidnapping, murder, and massive global destruction, he himself becomes trapped in Fu Manchu's impenetrable lair of cruelty. Can any of the world's top-secret agents stop the cold-blooded terror that lives in the Castle of Fu Manchu? (From Blue Underground’s official synopsis)

The Castle of Fu Manchu (German: Die Folterkammer des Dr. Fu Man Chu, 1969) is a more ambitious production than its predecessor – one that endeavors to hit upon the franchise’s espionage and pulp hero vs. supervillain roots over Franco’s penchant for sleaze. It is, unfortunately, generally considered the worst of the series, as well as one of Lee and Franco’s worst films, which is sort of absurd, considering the two men made about six hundred films between them. I won’t go as far as to reevaluate it as secretly good, but it’s not measurably worse than the previous franchise entries and there are glimpses at Franco’s future throughout, such as the experimentally shot heart transplant scene. The biggest hurdle is the glacial pacing and extensive filler, which make it feel much longer than it actually is.

To its advantage, the set design is a step up from Blood of Fu Manchu and the Turkish locations offer production values above the average Franco/Towers movie, giving us a glimpse at the prestige B-level of quality the duo was capable of (best illustrated by Night of the Blood Monster and Marquis de Sade’s Justine). The two biggest special effects sequences – the opening sinking of a cruise ship and the dam bursting that kicks off the third act – look better than expected, probably because they were stolen from Roy Ward Baker’s 1958 Titanic docudrama A Night to Remember and Dirk Bogarde’s 1957 dam-building adventure Campbell's Kingdom. The Night to Remember footage is quite suspect, as it has been tinted blue to disguise that it was a black & white feature, but the Campbell’s Kingdom shots fit surprisingly well.

Lee, Richard Greene, and Greene’s Watson-like sidekick Howard Marion-Crawford all have more to do this time around and are joined once again by Tsai Chin as Lin Tang. Other roles are filled by giallo starlet Rosalba Neri (also seen in 99 Women and Marquis de Sade’s Justine), Paul Naschy collaborator and krimi sexpot Maria Perschy (The Mad Executioners (German: Der Henker von London [1963]), spaghetti western regular José Manuel Martín, and Franco himself, in one of his least distracting self-inserts.

Bibliography:

• Obsession: The Films of Jess Franco, edited by Lucas Balbo and Peter Blumenstock (Gruf Haufen & Frank Trebbin, 1993)

• Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco by Stephen Thrower (Strange Attractor, 2015)

Video

The Blood of Fu Manchu and Castle of Fu Manchu must have had some stateside copyright issues, because they were both premiered on budget label VHS. They hit North American DVD with Blue Underground’s 2003 disc and were later rereleased as part of the studio’s Christopher Lee Collection. The company combined the two films for a Blu-ray debut, though the results were somewhat disappointing, making these new 4K restorations a particularly important upgrade for fans. Blue Underground doesn’t tell us much about the processes behind the restoration, outside of the fact that they worked from the original camera negatives and that these are the longest cuts of each film available, which is more important in the case of The Blood of Fu Manchu, because it was censored in several countries.

The images on this page are taken from the Blu-ray copies that are included alongside the new 4K UHDs. They give a decent indication of the improvements in vibrancy, dynamic range, and detail, even without the benefit of the full 2160p video and HDR/Dolby Vision upgrades. The old Blu-ray double-feature was flatter with muddier tones and notable compression artifacts. Now, Blood of Fu Manchu’s lush tropical forests and Castle of Fu Manchu’s abstract green, blue, and purple gels pop off the screen and textures, including natural grain, are relatively complex, minus the old disc’s haloes and noisy blocking. To my eye, Castle of Fu Manchu is slightly dirtier than its counterpart, but neither transfer exhibits major chemical damage or wear.

Audio

Both movies are presented in their original English mono dubs and uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio sound. As was common for Eurocult movies, the multinational casts required quite a bit of dubbing, but I do believe that some dialogue was captured live on set, because there are different aural qualities, depending on who is speaking and where they are speaking from. There is a general condensed quality to the dominant dialogue and musical tracks that matches Blue Underground’s other Towers/Franco 4K reissues. I assume this is more reflective of the original recordings than it is of the condition of the materials or quality of the remasters.

One problem you get from a lot of Franco’s movies, even the ones with decent budgets, is a lack of ambient and incidental sound. In that tradition, Blood of Fu Manchu has some starkly quiet jungles and Castle of Fu Manchu’s large-scale disasters sound decidedly small. The Blood of Fu Manchu’s score, which mixes pulpy stings and mellow Latin grooves, is credited to frequent Franco collaborator Daniel White or Gert Wilden, depending on which cut you watch. Having only seen this version, I don’t know if there’s actually a difference between the scores. Castle of Fu Manchu’s score is more consistent in terms of tone, presence, and volume. It is credited on English prints to Charles Camilleri and to Malcomb Shelby on Spanish prints. 

Extras

The Blood of Fu Manchu: Disc 1 (4K UHD)

• Commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson – Howarth, the author of Real Depravities: The Films of Klaus Kinski (CreateSpace, 2016), and Mondo Digital head Thompson explore Sax Rohmer’s work, Fu Manchu’s renewed popularity in the ‘60s, the careers of the cast & crew, the other movies in the Towers/Lee series, other versions of Fu Manchu, and other examples of yellowface in pulp cinema.

• International trailer and alternately titled Sax Rohmer's Kiss and Kill trailer 

The Blood of Fu Manchu Disc 2 (Blu-ray)

• Commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson

• The Rise of Fu Manchu (15:05, SD) – An archival DVD featurette that includes interviews with Franco, Towers, and actors Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, and Shirley Eaton.

• Sanguine-Stained Celluloid (27:34, HD) – A new interview with Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco author Stephen Thrower, who discusses Franco and Towers’ working relationship (which afforded Franco larger budgets and access to higher caliber actors), Towers’ convoluted production processes, controversies surrounding Fu Manchu and the yellow peril, and the wider careers of the cast & crew.

• The Blood of Fu Manchu RiffTrax Edition (76:37, HD) – The shorter version of the film complete with an alternate comedy audio track recorded in 2022 by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy.

• Poster & still gallery

• International trailer and Sax Rohmer's Kiss and Kill trailer 

The Castle of Fu Manchu: Disc 1 (4K UHD)

• Commentary with Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth – The duo returns for a companion piece commentary that, naturally, covers much of the same ground as the Blood of Fu Manchu track. Fortunately, Thompson and Howarth are aware that most of the people that take the time to listen to one track are probably going to listen to the other and do their best to keep the discussion fresh and focused, specifically on Castle of Fu Manchu.

• International trailer

Disc 2 (Blu-ray)

• Commentary with Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth 

• The Fall of Fu Manchu (14:01, HD) – Another archival DVD featurette with Franco, Towers, Lee, and Chin.

• Castle of Carnage (21:25, HD) – Stephen Thrower returns to defend the black sheep of the franchise and explain how it was made. 

• The Castle of Fu Manchu RiffTrax Edition (75:05, HD) – The Castle of Fu Manchu was initially featured on an episode of the RiffTrax’ predecessor Mystery Science Theater 3000. Blue Underground couldn’t get their hands on that, so they’ve gone with a different 2022 comedy riff, also featuring Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy.

• Poster & still gallery

• International trailer

The images on this page are taken from Blue Underground’s 4K restoration Blu-rays – NOT the 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by right/cmd-clicking each side of the sliders. Note that there will be some JPG compression.