From his secret lair deep within the South American jungle, international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN) 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 rape and torture reign and the ultimate evil lies in THE BLOOD 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) now stop the cold-blooded terror that lives in THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU?
What We Thought:
Sir Christopher Lee played Asian supervillain Fu Manchu in multiple movies including these two, The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu. Both were directed by Jess Franco and a British man with Asian makeup effects would not be accepted in today’s world, but these are from the late 1960s.
In The Blood of Fu Manchu Lee’s Fu Manchu uses an ancient poison to dose women into being assassins. He wants them to get close to his enemies and kill them. In The Castle of Fu Manchu he uses a weather device to threaten the world, but requires the help of an ailing scientist to get it operational.
We here at The Nerds Templar are big fans of Sir Christopher Lee. Whether it’s his classic horror films to Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, we’ll watch it all. Watching these today, sure they could never get made in 2025, but Lee is great as the villain. Both films have a lot of the same characters in them including Fu Manchu’s daughter Lin Tang and Inspector Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie. If you watch the movies for what they were, they are a fun watch with Lee just chewing the scenery. I also love how The Castle of Fu Manchu opens with footage from A Night to Remember, using the Titanic sinking in that movie as what Fu Manchu’s ocean freezing device is capable. I legit howled at that.
Are these great movies? No, of course not, but these new 4Ks of The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu are must owns for Christopher Lee fans. They are also jam packed with bonus features with BOTH coming with RiffTrax Editions! I love the MST3K/RiffTrax guys so that’s a super cool bonus feature in my eyes.
Bonus Features
The Blood of Fu Manchu
- Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) and HD Blu-ray (1080p) Widescreen 1.66:1 feature presentations
- Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA
- Subtitles: English SDH, Francais, Espanol
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
- The Rise of Fu Manchu – Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Christopher Lee, Tsai Chin, & Shirley Eaton
- NEW! Sanguine-Stained Celluloid – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco”
- Trailers
- NEWLY EXPANDED! Poster & Still Gallery
- NEW! RiffTrax Edition – THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU Riffed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy (77 Mins.)
The Castle of Fu Manchu
- Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) and HD Blu-ray (1080p) Widescreen 1.66:1 feature presentations
- Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA
- Subtitles: English SDH, Francais, Espanol
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
- The Fall of Fu Manchu – Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Christopher Lee & Tsai Chin
- NEW! Castle of Carnage – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco”
- International Trailer
- NEWLY EXPANDED! Poster & Still Gallery
- NEW! RiffTrax Edition – THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU Riffed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy (75 Mins.)
The Nerds Templar 