Fu Manchu (played by Henry Brandon), of course, wishes to take over the world, (well, at least Asia), like all mad dictators. To pull this off, he must acquire the fabled scepter of Genghis Kahn, which is in a secret tomb. He is aided in his evil quest by his sinister daughter, Fah Lo Suee, played by Gloria Franklin. Manchu also has a pack of fanged minions on board called "Dacoits," lobotomized zombies of a sort who mindlessly obey Fu Manchu's every command.

The nefarious Fu Manchu is opposed by Sir Nayland Smith (William Royle) and Allen Parker (Robert Kellard). The never-ending action runs the face of the planet from the United States to Asia. The actual filming location was the Ray Corrigan Ranch at Simi Valley, California. All the sets and locations in this serial work are nostalgically terrific.

Republic studios put together a fine black-and-white serial here in 15 chapters. It was filmed in 1940 and runs a total of 269 minutes, presented on 2 nicely-packaged discs. The quality of the print is very good.

You can garner quite a lot from the title of each segment -- here they are:

1. Fu Manchu Strikes

2. The Monster

3. Ransom in the Sky

4. The Pendulum of Doom

5. The House of Terror

6. Death Dials a Number

7. Vengeance of the Si Fan

8. Danger Trail

9. The Crystal of Death

10. Drums of Doom

11. The Tomb of Genghis Kahn

12. Fire of Vengeance

13. The Devil's Tatoo

14. Satan's Surgeon

15. Revolt

There is also a menu pull-up photo gallery with cast biographies as well as a commentary by Richard Valley.

This series never lacks for action, mostly due to its serial format. These episodes were shown along with feature films in theaters back in the 40s to get patrons to return to see what would happen next, ergo, the term "Cliffhanger". "The Drums of Fu Manchu" was directed by William Witney and John English. The film is based upon stories by Sax Rohmer.

Highly recommended for fans of older black-and-white action-adventures!

Fu Manchu is perhaps the best of the Yellow Peril villains in all literature. Sax Rohmer's series of novels about Fu are quite literate and exciting, if somewhat dismaying in their portrayal of Orientals as evil. But that was the style of the time, from about the start of the 20th century to 1950.

And this serial, while it does not follow any particular Rohmer novel, is true to the books in almost every detail. Nearly all the Rohmer novels were set in London, but this serial is set in California and then in some vague Asian country. Fu is there in all his glory. As I recall, Rohmer described him as tall, thin, with that famous mustache and long fingernails. The movie left out only the fingernails--but no matter.

Fu Manchu had an endless supply of dacoits. By definition, dacoits are Burmese soldiers, but in the serial they are bald Orientals (rather, Caucasians made up to be vaguely Oriental) and apparently are lobotomized. They all have scars on their heads that would seem to indicate the surgeon's work. In any event, dacoits do Fu Manchu's bidding without question, often attacking Sir Nayland and his friends without much success. The lobotomies must have taken a lot out of their fighting and stabbing abilities.

Fu Manchu has plenty of devious tricks to kill his foes, but none of the tricks work very well. His office in California has a trap door in front of Fu Manchu's desk, and below it is a basement full of water, with a giant octopus swimming around down there. He has another room equipped with a razor sharp pendulum, right out of Poe's wicked tale. This is but a sampling of the tricks. The octopus gets shot and killed, by the way, and we never know who had to dispose of the carcase or how.

The main plot is rather simple. If Fu Manchu can locate the tomb of Ghengis Khan, he can get a sceptre that will allow him to rule all of Asia. Exactly how this would come to be is never fully explained--or I missed it. Nayland Smith et al. must stop him. The acting is about what you should expect from a serial with that plot. There are some great chases in old cars and lots of narrow escapes. But it is the nostalgia that makes this work, and it does work, especially if the viewer is a fan of the Sax Rhomer novels. Read those first and the serial will mean more. But look out for the tumbling dacoits. A good many get killed, but they keep coming and coming.

The serial is a better than average product of the great Republic Studios. Unfortunately, the transfer is pretty bad, with just barely acceptable image and sound quality. Perhaps, as another reviewer stated, there is no longer an original negative or interpositive for this serial, and what we're seeing is the best that could be obtained. Nevertheless, it's pretty hard to watch on a technical basis and for that reason, I recommend a rental rather than a purchase, unless the price comes down to $10 or less.

One of the best of all time, if not the very best. It's certainly an all-time favorite of serial fans. Great cliffhangers, intelligent resolutions. Right up there with "Spy Smasher," my own personal favorite.

Fu Manchu, a creation of the great British mystery writer Sax Rohmer, became one of the all-time great villains in print and in the movies. He is played here by the young Henry Brandon ("Secret Agent X-9," 1937). Born in Germany, Brandon had become well known for his part as the bad guy Silas Barnaby (billed as Harry Kleinbach) in Laurel & Hardy's "Babes in Toyland." He made 105 movies, including four serials.

My only complaint is the weak ending, but they had an excuse. Republic obviously intended to produce a sequel, but World War Two intervened. The American government was anxious not to offend China by portraying the Chinese in a bad light, so they "convinced" Republic not to do another "yellow menace" portrayal, and there was never a sequel.

Sax Rohmer (1883-1859) was among the most popular novelists of the early 20th Century. He was particularly well known for his creation of the character Fu Manchu--a truly diabolical Chinese scientist who, along with his equally evil daughter Fa Lo See, sought world domination through the most vicious means possible. In the process, Rohmer virtually created the idea of "the yellow peril" in the American and European mind, and his distinctly racist characterizations would color Western concepts of the far East for half a century.

Rohmer's Fu Manchu has reached the screen on several occasions, perhaps most notably in an unexpectedly sadistic 1932 THE MASK OF FU MANCHU, starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy. The 1940 serial was directed by Republic Studio's reliable team of John English and William Witney, and at the time it was felt to propel the genre to a new height; in hindsight, however, it seems fairly obvious that English and Witney's SPY SMASHER and THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL are really the high water mark of Republic serials. Whatever the case, the directing team does indeed give this tale considerable style and drive.

The story is very linear: Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon) is aided by lethal daughter Fah-Lo-Suee (Gloria Franklin) and a host of mind-controlled henchmen in an effort to secure the scepter of Ghengis Kahn--and thereby fulfill an ancient prophecy that will cause all of Asia to rise up under his leadership and get rid of those wretched Anglo-Saxon types for once and all. Needless to say, the Anglo-Saxons, both English and American, take an extremely dim view of the whole thing and set out to thwart his evil designs.

The serial starts out extremely well, with a host of imaginative visuals bolstered by a host of equally imaginative tortures. Unfortunately, Henry Brandon's Fu Manchu proves considerably more interesting than any of the good guys who oppose him, and in consequence the whole thing looses steam long about the fifth chapter and doesn't really regain it until the final third. But Brandon's memorable performance, the often remarkable visual designs, and the impressive fight choreography does make it entertaining throughout--even if you do wind up rooting for Fu Manchu instead of Sir Dennis Naylund Smith (William Royle) and his incredibly tiresome friend Allan Parker (Robert Kellard), who are supposed to be the heroes of the piece.

The whole thing, of course, is just as racist as it can be, and the final chapter is appallingly so. But even though it may cause you to roll your eyes it remains a fun sort of thing for hardcore serial fans, who will likely enjoy it quite a bit. As for the DVD--the film has been remastered, but the picture is rather fuzzy and the sound occasionally muddy as well. The package contains a brief but entertaining and enlightening documentary (described as a commentary) by Richard Valley and a handful of cast biographies for good measure.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer