GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #10

DR. FU MANCHU

Created by Sax Rohmer, Dr. Fu Manchu was the ultimate villain, a Chinese master criminal of untold wealth, intellect and occult powers whose goal was world conquest.  The Boxer Rebellion at the turn of the 20th Century had aroused fears of a "Yellow Peril" and Rohmer recognized that popular literature was ready for an Oriental archcriminal.  Rohmer's research for an article on Limehouse, the Chinese district of London, had divulged the existence of a "Mr. King", a figure of immense power.  His enormous wealth was derived from gambling, drug smuggling, and the organization of many other criminal activities.  He was the apparent head of powerful tongs and their many unsavory members.  "Mr. King" was never charged with a crime and his very existence was in question.  One foggy night Rohmer saw him - or someone he believed to be Mr. King - from a distance.  His face was the embodiment of Satan and thus Fu Manchu, the Devil Doctor, was born.

"Imagine a person," wrote Rohmer, "tall, lean, and feline, high-shouldered with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan...invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present...Imagine that awful being and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu Manchu, the Yellow Peril incarnate in one man."  Fu Manchu is a diabolical fiend who ruthlessly seeks to become emperor of the world.  In addition to possessing degrees from European universities - he attended Heidelberg University, the Sorbonne, and University of Edinburgh, with a law degree from Christ's College and doctor of medicine from Harvard - he has vast knowledge of the occult and secrets of chemistry, medicine, and physics unknown to Western man.  He also commands the tongs of Asia and is master of the secret sects of the East - the Dacoits, Hashishin, Phansigars, and Thugs.  Because of his disdain for guns and explosives, Fu Manchu uses arcane methods extensively, like knives, pythons, cobras, black spiders, and natural chemical weapons.  He uses torture and other gruesome tactics to dispose of his enemies.  He gains control of the Si-Fan which he changes from a mere tong to an international crime organization.

Fu Manchu is believed to be a Chinese noble descended from members of the Manchu dynasty.  The most sinister villain in history, the doctor is nevertheless bound by the code of a gentleman: his word is inviolate.  His constant adversary is Sir Denis Nayland Smith who, with his companion Dr. Petrie, seems hopelessly overmatched against the ubiquitous doctor.  Vaguely connected with Scotland Yard, Smith was knighted for his efforts to thwart Fu Manchu, although he would admit that the honor was not earned by superior intellect.  Smith's life is frequently saved by luck and even more often by the beautiful Karamaneh, once a slave in Fu Manchu's power, and later Dr. Petrie's wife.  Late in his career Fu Manchu temporarily abandons his attempt to conquer the world and joins forces with the West to defeat the growing threat of communism.  Tall and slender, Fu Manchu generally wore a yellow robe or black one with a silver peacock embroidered on the front.  He wore a black skull cap atop his smooth head.  Often portrayed in modern culture with what is now known as a "Fu Manchu mustache" he was in fact clean-shaven so as not to interfere with his disguises (because, of course, he's a master of disguise!).  His eyes are his most notable physical feature - long, magnetic, and true cat-green - his gaze was so compelling and piercing that it was often sensed before his presence was made known.

The sinister Oriental, whether as an individual menace or the mastermind of a large criminal organization, was a staple of thriller fiction for many years.  Throughout most of the 19th Century the Orient impinged on Western consciousness mainly as the source of a lucrative trade in porcelain, silk, and jade.  But then the China trade declined, the Open Door policy was imposed on a reluctant nation, and news of increasing military and political ferment filtered out to the West.  Perhaps most significant of all, sizable colonies of Chinese immigrants settled in New York, London, and San Francisco, bringing their traditions and culture into direct contact with Western society.  The more superficial and sensational aspects of this contact became grist for the mill of popular fiction.  Early treatment of Orientals in fiction focused on China's growing military power or on the supernatural-mystical aspects of Chinese philosophy and legends.  The military aspect is exemplified by "The Yellow Danger" (1898) by M. P. Shiel, a tale about an Oriental invasion of Europe under the leadership of a Chinese warlord.  It was published at the outset of the Boxer Rebellion.  The supernatural is apparent in "The Yellow Hand" (1904) by Allen Upward, in which a Chinese sorcerer terrorizes the inhabitants of an East Anglian manor house.  More colorful Chinese wizardry plays a role in the fantastic novel "The Maker of Moons" (1896) by Robert W. Chambers.

Charges that Sax Rohmer was a racist are difficult to refute, unless one takes into account the time period in which he wrote.  Until WWII the average Englishman had never seen an Oriental.  Victorian attitudes of white supremacy prevailed until then, and tales of the "mysterious East" and "sinister Orientals" were accepted as accurate.  In London, Limehouse was populated with the most undesirable Oriental characters who were thought to represent their race.  With the Boxer Rebellion and a later increase in drug traffic between the Far East and Britain, it was not unnatural for a writer to reflect the viewpoints of most of his countrymen, no matter how backward or wrong those views were.  Film adaptations of Rohmer's novels helped spark the controversy of racism.  In a 1932 film Fu Manchu tells his followers they must "kill the white man and take his women".  This rhetoric caused the Chinese Embassy to issue a formal complaint.  Following the release of a Fu Manchu serial in 1940 the U.S. State Department "requested" that the studio make no further films as China was an ally against Japan in WWII.  Proposed airings of the movies on TV have been met with protests and resistance  resulting in cancellations and disclaimers.

Sax Rohmer (1883-1959) was the pseudonym of Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward.  Although he wrote more than 50 books Rohmer is remembered mostly for his 13 novels featuring Dr. Fu Manchu.  He was born in Birmingham, England, and in 1910, at his wife's urging, he began using the Sax Rohmer name for his fiction as well as exclusively in his personal life.  Although he read widely in such areas as Egyptology and occultism he had little interest in school and attended only sporadically.  A free spirit, Sax also failed dismally at any job that required set hours, so he determined to become a writer.  As a young man he literally papered his walls with rejection slips.  "In order to complete the color scheme," he said, "I sent the same manuscript to the same magazine three times.  But the third time they lost it".  Deeply interested in the "unknown" and a witness to several occult happenings, Sax joined such societies as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn whose other members included William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley.  

His early stories concentrated on the occult and the mysterious East, which embraced Egypt in those days.  A newspaper assignment sent Rohmer to Limehouse, London's Chinatown, the great crowded repository for thousands of Chinese immigrants - many of whom had fled their native land under dubious circumstances.  It was an area that few Caucasians dared enter, even in daylight, but Rohmer explored it nightly for months in search of "Mr. King", said to rule the criminal elements of the district.  King became the model for Fu Manchu.  According to his own account Rohmer decided to start the Fu Manchu series after his ouija board spelled out "Chinaman" when he asked what would make his fortune.  In his lifetime Rohmer would sell 20 million copies of his books.  But success did not bring wealth to Rohmer.

Most of his life was far from luxurious, largely because of his erratic personality.  When a royalty check arrived he and his wife Elizabeth often spent it on a frivolity while remaining half-starved and in debt.  Rohmer could never handle money and this carelessness cost him dearly.  His first agent was a scoundrel who cheated Rohmer of much of his royalties for 15 years.  As late as 1955, another financial arrangement nearly ruined him, as a lucrative American film studio contract brought him $8000 - after a hard-fought court battle - instead of the $4 million reported in newspapers.  At the time he and Elizabeth lived in a small, unheated New York City apartment, too poor to afford a taxi to the courthouse for their battle with another unscrupulous lawyer.  Rohmer had met Rose Elizabeth Knox, a beautiful entertainer, in 1905 and married her four years later.  Despite several crises they remained together for the next 50 years.  The handsome author had several love affairs, easily discovered by his wife because he was too absentminded to hide indiscreet letters.  Elizabeth was an invaluable asset, often provoking fights so that Rohmer (usually good-humored) would be in the malevolent mood that, for him, was the right frame of mind for writing his sinister stories.  She then locked him in his room until he produced a satisfactory amount of work.  Sax Rohmer, whose racism was careless and casual, and a product of the times, died in 1959, ironically, of the "Asian flu".

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1913 "The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu" (U.S. title "The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu"); 1916 "The Devil Doctor" (U.S. title "The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu"); 1917 "The Si-Fan Mysteries" (U.S. title "The Hand of Fu-Manchu"); 1919 "The Golden Scorpion"; 1931 "The Daughter of Fu Manchu" (the hyphen in the name was dropped); 1932 "The Mask of Fu Manchu"; 1933 "Fu Manchu's Bride"; 1934 "The Trail of Fu Manchu"; 1936 "President Fu Manchu"; 1939 "The Drums of Fu Manchu"; 1941 "The Island of Fu Manchu"; 1948 "Shadow of Fu Manchu"; 1957 "Re-Enter Fu Manchu"; 1959 "Emperor Fu Manchu"; 1973 "The Wrath of Fu Manchu" (a collection of short stories including "The Eyes of Fu Manchu", "The Word of Fu Manchu", and "The Mind of Fu Manchu").

Many of Rohmer's novels were serialized in American magazines.  Here are a list of titles and dates.  "Daughter of Fu Manchu" Collier's March 8-May 24, 1930.  "Mask of Fu Manchu" Collier's May 7-July 23, 1932.  "Bride of Fu Manchu" Collier's May 6-July 8, 1933.  "Trail of Fu Manchu" Collier's April 28-July 14, 1934.  "President Fu Manchu" Collier's February 29-May 16, 1936.  "Drums of Fu Manchu" Collier's April 11-June 3, 1939.  "Island of Fu Manchu" Liberty November 16, 1940-February 1, 1941.  "Shadow of Fu Manchu" Collier's May 8-June 12, 1948.

FILMS

Rohmer's insidious doctor made an early screen debut in 1923 in a series of 15 short British films for the Stoll company.  Harry Agar Lyons was a rather rigid Fu Manchu, with Fred Paul as Denis Nayland Smith and Humbertson Wright as Dr. Petrie.  Smith and Petrie encountered fungi cellars and coughing horrors as the 15 short films were released under the collective title "The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu".  The cast returned in 1924 for 8 more installments called "The Further Mysteries of Dr. Fu-Manchu".

"The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu" Paramount, 1929.  Warner Oland (Fu Manchu), Jean Arthur, Neil Hamilton, O. P. Heggie.  Director: Rowland V. Lee.  Based on "The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu".  This creaky melodrama was shot in both silent and sound versions.  During the Boxer Rebellion "foreign devils" kill Fu Manchu's wife and the doctor vows revenge.  Soon he is in England eliminating all the white officers who took part in suppressing the uprising.  Ultimately he is exposed by Scotland Yard and drinks poisoned tea.  Oland's performance was called "bloodcurdling". 

"The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu" Paramount, 1930.  Oland, Arthur, Hamilton, Heggie.  Director: Lee.  The poisoned tea was merely a potion and the "dead" Fu Manchu escapes through a panel in his coffin to continue his revenge.  Finally, the Yard reports that he has been blown to bits by one of his own bombs in a secret Thames-side den...but one can never be sure.

"Daughter of the Dragon" Paramount, 1931.  Oland, Anna May Wong, Sessue Hayakawa, Bramwell Fletcher, Frances Dade.  Director: Lloyd Corrigan.  Based on "The Daughter of Fu Manchu".  Oland's villainy is out-shadowed by Anna May Wong as the slinky and ambiguous daughter Fah Lo Suee.  The Petrie family, Fu Manchu's hated enemies, are warned that he has been seen again.  The Chinese doctor is shot, but before he dies he makes his daughter - a dancer - vow to carry out his revenge on the last of the Petries.  The two young people, however, begin a tragic love affair.

"The Mask of Fu Manchu" MGM, 1932.  Boris Karloff (Fu Manchu), Karen Morley, Lewis Stone (Nayland Smith), Jean Hersholt, Charles Starrett, Myrna Loy (Fah Lo Suee).  Director: Charles Brabin.  Based on the novel of the same name.  The most elaborate film featuring the character.  Karloff is outrageously evil, leering as he tries to acquire the mask and scimitar of Genghis Khan, which will cause the hordes of the East to rally round him as he exterminates the civilized West.  Stone plays a properly xenophobic Smith who treats all "heathens" as beneath contempt.  The movie gets the most out of a bizarre series of torture devices: a giant bell that never stops ringing, driving mad the tethered victim beneath it; a see-saw positioned over an alligator pit; and a pair of spiked walls that compress upon a trapped subject.  

"Drums of Fu Manchu" Republic serial, 15-chapters, 1940.  Henry Brandon (Fu Manchu), William Royle (Nayland Smith), Olaf Hytten (Dr. Petrie), Robert Kellard, Gloria Franklin (Fah Lo Suee).  Directors: William Witney, John English.  Based on several Rohmer novels.  Fu and his daughter again seek the Khan's tomb and scepter, this time directing their activities mainly from California's Chinatowns.  Fu Manchu uses the Si-Fan, a room full of hungry rats, and an army of fanged, lobotomized Dacoit slaves.

There was a 1945 Mexican film "El otro Fu Manchu"

"The Face of Fu Manchu" Seven Arts (UK), 1965.  Christopher Lee (Fu Manchu), Nigel Green (Nayland Smith), Howard Marion Crawford (Dr. Petrie), Karin Dor, Tsai Chin (Lin Tang).  Director: Don Sharp.  Fu and his daughter, whose name is changed to Lin Tang, effectively wipe out a seaside English village with gas distilled from Poppy seeds.  Nayland Smith calls Fu Manchu "cruel, callous, brilliant, the most evil and dangerous man in the world".  A kidnapped scientist is forced to work for Fu Manchu, secret papers are stolen from a London museum, before Fu is tracked to a Tibetan monastery where he is supposedly killed in an explosion.  But over the smoke we hear his voice snarl "The world has not heard the last of Fu Manchu!" The movie is a picturesque period piece with Dublin standing in for 1920s London.  Lee in the title role is a little colorless, lacking the gloating monstrosity that Karloff brought to the role.

"The Brides of Fu Manchu" Seven Arts (UK), 1966.  Lee, Douglas Wilmer (replacing Green as Nayland Smith), Crawford, Chin, Heinz Drache.  Director: Sharp.  At his secret headquarters Fu Manchu keeps captive a dozen girls from powerful political and industrial families whom he forces to collaborate with him in his conquest of the world.

"The Vengeance of Fu Manchu" Seven Arts (UK), 1967.  Lee, Wilmer, Crawford, Chin.  Director: Jeremy Summers.  Fu Manchu arranges to have Nayland Smith accused of the murder of his pretty Chinese servant and, at an Interpol convention, plots to have all the police chiefs of the world replaced by doubles under his control.

"The Blood of Fu Manchu" (aka "Kiss and Kill") Commonwealth (UK) 1968.  Lee, Richard Greene (replacing Wilmer as Smith), Crawford, Chin, Shirley Eaton (The Black Widow).  Director: Jess Franco.  The evil doctor sends out infected women to plant kisses of death upon the world's leaders.  Among the first victims is Nayland Smith, who is unaccountably blinded instead of killed, and remains sightless for most of the movie.

"The Castle of Fu Manchu" Commonwealth (UK) 1970.  Lee, Greene, Crawford, Chin.  Director: Franco.  Fu Manchu plots to control the world's waterways - especially such routes as the Suez and Panama canals - with a device that can create icebergs in the Caribbean.  He is finally traced to Istanbul where he has taken over the Anatolian Castle, a Turkish national monument, as his headquarters.

"The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu" Orion, 1980.  Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, Sid Caesar.  Director: Piers Haggard.  An atrocity.  Sellers last film in which he portrays both Fu Manchu and Denis Nayland Smith.  Set in the 1930s Fu is trying to steal the crown jewels and a vital ingredient for a youth restorative tonic.  A sad ending to Peter Sellers career, we last see him as Fu Manchu in white fringed buckskin doing an Elvis impersonation to a song "Rock Fu".

RADIO

"The Collier Hour" 1927-1931 aired on NBC's Blue Network.  It promoted Collier's magazine by presenting weekly dramatizations of the current issue's stories and serials.  The serialized Fu Manchu novels appeared on this radio show.  A self-titled show later appeared on CBS radio 1932-1933 with Harold Huber as Fu Manchu.  In 1939 the radio show "The Shadow of Fu Manchu" aired three times a week as a radio serial that dramatized the first 9 novels by Rohmer.

TELEVISION

NBC made a pilot for a proposed TV series in 1952 with John Carradine as Fu Manchu, Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Smith, and Reed Hadley as Dr. Petrie.  The pilot was directed by William Cameron Menzies but was unrealized as a series.  in 1955 "The Adventures of Fu Manchu" was released by Republic Studios as a 13-episode half-hour TV series.  Glenn Gordon played a corpulent, less vigorous Fu Manchu with Lester Matthews as Smith, Clark Howat as Petrie, and Laurette Luez as Karamaneh.  The series was a low-budget, lackluster outing that relied heavily on stock footage from Republic's archives.

COMICS

A newspaper comic strip drawn by Leo O'Mealia was distributed by the Bell Syndicate 1931-1933.  The first two novels and part of the third were adapted before the strip ended.  French cartoonist Robert Bressy drew a comic strip 1962-1973 for the newspaper Le Parisien Libere.

The first comic book appearance was in Detective Comics #17-28 in the late 1930s.  These were reprints of the earlier O'Mealia newspaper strips.  The first original comic book series was "The Mask of Fu Manchu" in 1951 for Avon by the great Wally Wood.  In the 1970s Marvel Comics had Fu Manchu appear as the father of superhero Shang-Chi in their title "Master of Kung Fu".  Marvel cancelled the title in 1983 over licensing of the Fu Manchu character (or lack thereof).  Finally, the evil doctor appeared in Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".