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The Blood of Fu Manchu / The Castle of Fu Manchu [Blu-ray]
(Jesús Franco, 1968 - 1969)
NOTE: Indicator's The Fu Manchu Cycle 1965-1969 Blu-ray compares The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) from this Blu-ray HERE.
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas Video: Blue Underground
Disc: Region: 'A' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player) The Blood of Fu Manchu Runtime: 1:33:41.032 The Castle of Fu Manchu Runtime: 1:31:59.347 Disc Size: 46,261,845,720 bytes The Blood of Fu Manchu Feature Size: 20,581,054,464 bytes The Castle of Fu Manchu Feature Size: 18,877,304,832 bytes Video Bitrate: 25.91 Mbps / 23.79 Mbps Chapters: 25 / 23 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: May 30th, 2017
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.66:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 1569 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1569 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio English 1874 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1874 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: English (SDH), None
Extras:
The Blood of Fu Manchu
The Castle of Fu Manchu
Bitrate: The Blood of Fu Manchu
The Castle of Fu Manchu
Description: The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968): From his
secret lair deep within the South American jungle,
international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee of
COUNT DRACULA) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin
of
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) 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 of
TALES FROM THE CRYPT), must desperately hunt an antidote in
a savage land where violence and torture reign and the
ultimate evil lies in THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU. ***
The Castle of Fu Manchu:
Christopher Lee (THE LORD OF THE RINGS) returns as
the diabolical super-villain who, along with his sadistic
daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of
CASINO ROYALE), creates a
fiendish new chemical weapon that will turn the seas into a
giant block of ice. But when his archenemy Nayland Smith
(Richard Greene of
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD) 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 (including a wild performance by Jess Franco)
stop the cold-blooded terror that lives in THE CASTLE OF FU
MANCHU?
The Blood of Fu Manchu: The first of several collaborations between cult director Jesus Franco and British producer Harry Alan Towers, this horror-tinged adventure is full of jungle action, creative murders, and violent sexual sadism. Christopher Lee portrays the mysterious Asian madman Fu Manchu, plotting world domination from his secret headquarters underneath the Amazon rainforest. Fu has discovered a rare poison which affects only men, and uses it as lipstick for ten beautiful women, who are to deliver a kiss of death to each of 10 public officials. Carl Jansen (Gotz George) and Sir Denis Nayland Smith (Richard Greene), a pair of Scotland Yard detectives, track Fu Manchu to his underground hideout and -- with the aid of Dr. Ronald Petrie (Howard Marion Crawford) -- search for the antidote to the deadly poison. Lee's wooden performance is alleviated by an amusing turn by Ricardo Palacios as a revolutionary, and a beautiful female cast. Vicente Roca and Marcelo Arroita Jauregui also appear in this entertaining, if extremely sexist, fourth entry in the Fu Manchu series. Nude torture scenes and snake attacks are featured in some of the numerous prints, running 91, 88, 82, and 61 minutes Excerpt from MRQE located HEREThe Castle of Fu Manchu
Not only is The Castle of Fu Manchu Christopher Lee’s worst
movie, it also happens to be Jess Franco’s worst too, which is REALLY
saying something. Okay, so maybe it’s not as bad as Revenge in the House
of Usher, but it’s still really, really bad. Really. The Castle of Fu
Manchu also has the dubious distinction of being the worst nationally
syndicated episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. You know a movie is
bad if Joel and the ‘bots can’t even make it funny.
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Blue Underground offers up two modest Blu-ray images - labeling the package as a 'double feature'. These are both 1080P and reside on one dual-layered disc. The image quality is quite poor with digitization issues in both features. There is softness but I'd be more concerned about the thin visuals which show edge-enhancement and look very poor in-motion. They are both in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio but I suspect the sources are compromised and the resulting image in HD is fraught with smearing and artifacts. The Blu-ray transfer is probably less to blame than the elements. Unfortunate for fans.
NOTE: Indicator's The Fu Manchu Cycle 1965-1969 Blu-ray compares The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) from this Blu-ray HERE.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
The Blood of Fu Manchu
The Castle of Fu Manchu
Audio :Blue Underground use 24-bit DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel tracks for both films. Plenty of screams and shrieks plus some less intensive effects. The score on The Blood of Fu Manchu is credited to veteran Daniel White ( Zombie Lake, The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus, The Man with the Severed Head) and for The Castle of Fu Manchu, has a less-remarkable score, by Charles Camilleri (House of 1,000 Dolls) and Malcomb Shelby (his only film composition credit.) Both films have optional English (SDH) subtitles, in a large, bright yellow font, and the Blu-ray disc is region 'A'-locked.
Extras : Both films have supplements - on The Blood of Fu Manchu we get a 1/4 hour piece entitled The Rise of Fu Manchu and it has interview snippets with Jess Franco, producer Harry Alan Towers, and stars Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, & Shirley Eaton. On The Castle of Fu Manchu there is a similar piece with the same participants (minus Eaton) entitled The Fall of Fu Manchu. There are theatrical trailers and poster and still galleries for both films.
BOTTOM LINE:
NOTE: Indicator's The Fu Manchu Cycle 1965-1969 Blu-ray compares The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) from this Blu-ray HERE. Gary Tooze May 27th, 2017
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
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