 323 - THE CASTLE OF FU-MANCHU
Genre: Crime, I guess (1969, Color)
Synopsis: This feature, which Dr. F says “Makes The Unearthly look like
Citizen Kane,” stars Christopher Lee as the evil Asian stereotype, Dr. Fu Manchu, who has created some process that instantly freezes water.
He first uses it to create an iceberg to sink a luxury liner (footage lifted from an old Titanic film
– no Leo on this ship, though) and then wants to extort money from the nations of the world.
Next, we see some British men, all proper and English, as they talk about Fu Manchu and try to figure out where
he’s hiding.
Then Fu Manchu takes over a castle (or, at least, some place with big columns) for his hideout from some guy who looks like Burt Young
(i.e.. Rocky’s
brother-in-law in the Rocky movies). Next, the Fu man kidnaps a doctor and his pretty assistant to perform a heart transplant on the Burt guy to keep him alive (although the same
can’t be said about the heart donor).
After that, some completely confusing stuff happens for the final hour and Fu Manchu is defeated somehow, but he says he will return again (unfortunately).
Don’s Review: Although made with what must have been a decent budget (particularly for an MST movie), this complete mess of a movie is one of the worst films ever seen on MST and actually breaks down J&tBs to sobbing at the end (and whoever made it apparently agrees that this movie is awful because the print is faded out in a number of scene due to neglect).
The riffing is good and I even enjoyed the sobbing host segments (the highlight being the final segment where the Mads decide to show how they can riff as good as J&tBs
– their humor-impaired riffs are so inane, it’s actually hilarious).
Overall, this is an experiment that only diehard MSTies can cherish.
Don’s Rating: 
Josh’s Review: The Castle of Fu-Manchu is regarded by many as one of the weaker episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and after a viewing of my own, I have to say that
I’m a little bit puzzled as to why. The episode certainly never stands out as a classic, as the movie is a tough sit, and the riffing is just above average in execution.
As can be expected among most episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, humorous riffs seem to come in clusters with a few dry spots here and there.
Only the very best episodes lack these dry spots completely.
The movie itself is pretty bad, even by MST3K standards, and is terribly difficult to follow.
Still, in its defense, stuff happens. Indeed, lots and lots of stuff happens, but none of it really seems connected to anything else.
People die, a dam bursts, a ship sinks, and a white man made to look vaguely Asian glares at things with a glare most sinister.
The scene involving the bursting dam is particularly hilarious, as several of the shots of workers scrambling to avoid the imminent danger are shown many times over within seconds of each other.
The lighting problems this film had were pretty interesting and hard to fathom.
A scene would begin with everything bright, sometimes so bright everything had a sick yellowish tint.
Then all of the sudden without warning it would appear that all the lights were turned off.
This happened frequently throughout the film, so much that Joel and the bots
didn’t even comment on the sudden shifts very often, despite how obvious they were.
The riffing in this episode was quite amusing, and certainly made the movie more watchable than it ever should have been.
The riffing gets off to a very fast start, as some of the riffs that take place during the opening credits to the film are hilarious.
The riffing cools down after the first host segment, but picks up again in the latter half of the movie.
There are a couple scenes in particular that seem to inspire the best string of jokes from the SOL crew, one of which is the aforementioned dam bursting scene.
One problem I have with this episode however is the way that the movie is handled by Joel, the bots, and the Mads.
As I said, the movie is pretty bad, but it’s not one of the worst to be featured on the show.
The host segments all played to horribleness of the movie, which in my opinion was pretty standard fare for MST3K.
These segments would have been more amusing if the movie had struck me as particularly awful, but it did not.
They treated this movie like it was Manos: The Hands of Fate, which
isn’t by any means a fair comparison. In the eps defense, most of the movies that would be remembered as the most mind numbingly terrible had not been shown at this point in the
show’s run. Even so, worse movies such as The Robot vs. The Aztec
Mummy, The Hellcats, and Mighty Jack were all in the books.
The Castle of Fu-Manchu lacks a comprehensive plot, decent acting, and competent filming techniques, but this should come as little surprise.
This episode overall was just above average in my opinion, with some great riffing combined with some host segments, that while humorous, seemed a bit more suited for a slightly worse movie.
The ending sequence with Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank attempting to riff the movie themselves was, as Don mentioned, very funny and probably the highlight of the show.
The Castle of Fu-Manchu may not be the best episode to ever air on MST3K, but it is certainly worth the time of any dedicated
mstie.
Josh’s Rating: 
Related Link:
(1) Mighty Jack’s MST3K Review (Episode Review)
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