jadzia92
The Mask of Fu Manchu especially due to Boris Karloff as the title character. The movie is not to be taken too seriously as it should be viewed mainly for fun. Lewis Stone was not bad as Fu's adversary Nayland Smith and Karen Morley is not bad too look at. Saw The Mask of Fu Manchu on DVD and it had a commentary by film historian George Mank. Interesting commentary from Mank which included information about Lewis Stone and Karen Morley, two people I wasn't familiar with between prior to seeing The Mask of Fu Manchu. From this commentary it was tragic to learn how Stone died and interesting that at one time Morley made an unsuccessful run for the American Labor Party for Lieutenant Governor of California.
cmxmaeda
In comparison to the original Sax Rohmer novel that the movie is based off of, the film provides an interesting perspective. When reading the novel, one can only imagine what the characters and settings look like. In the film, I was particularly intrigued about the use of Caucasian actors/actresses to portray the characters from the Orient, including Dr. Fu Manchu himself. Actors who were actually of Asian decent were only given non-speaking roles, such as the laborers who help the British dig for Genghis Kahn's grave. The movie utilizes many stereotypes about the East and this bias seemed to come across very clearly through the attempts of the white actors to portray the Eastern characters. While this made the plot a bit laughable, it also gave true insight to how the East was viewed from the British perspective.
lim-onade
This movie was awesome. I thought the heinously racist depictions of every non-white character in it were absolutely awesome. The absurdly ominous gong sounds every single time a Chinese character appeared? Awesome. China being portrayed as a land of whore houses and opium dens? Awesome. The impossible to understand "Eastern Races" being portrayed as half-naked, barbaric idiots who worship skeletons? Awesome. The fact that the only educated Chinese character was the source of seemingly every evil in the world? Awesome. The romantic face off between the dragon lady dominatrix China woman and the virginal white woman (who wins by the pure force of her unadulterated love)? Awesome. The way all the China men were struck down by the just and powerful white men wielding the electric powers of Zeus? Awesome. And how the Chinese servant (also made out to be a thoughtless, servile idiot) in the last scene is congratulated for being uneducated? Awesome! The list just goes on and on and on...
crazysheu
Full disclosure: I laughed a lot during this movie and found it genuinely hilarious. With that said, I see a lot of comments that dismiss the the very blatant racist tropes to the times and sing the praises of this film as a cinematic classic. The makers of this film tried very hard to make Dr. Fu Manchu a villain and displays all the tropes that would come to be classic in the greatest villains of cinema. World domination? Check. Torture devices? Check. Mad science? Double check. A large part of his evil villain aura also happens to come from his exoticism. By exoticism I mean his Chinese-ness, what the book calls "the embodiment of the Yellow Peril". Early in the film he is even willing to sell his "ugly and insignificant" daughter to pursue his dreams of world domination. The mark of a true villain. Everything about his appearance and his speech is steeped in old-timey racist stereotypes, part humor part xenophobia. As I said before, I enjoyed the movie, and laughed quite a bit. But I know the difference between a good movie and a movie I enjoyed.
AD
