The Shadow of the Hand of the Daughter of the Mask of the Bride of the President of the Insidious of the Return of Fu Manchu (Reentered)

I first became fascinated with Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu in the 1990s when I began listening to old-time radio through my family's satellite dish, which is where I first discovered Yesterday USA. At one time, one of the network's regular shows was airing episodes of the radio serial Shadow of Fu Manchu in sequential order every two weeks and I became fascinated by the program. Despite the racist reputation Fu Manchu holds, I found the serial to be an outstanding thriller with great cliffhangers.

Image from The Page of Fu Manchu

My father would sometimes pause at the desk of his home office and listen to some of the program. I was surprised to learn he had a fair bit of knowledge about Fu Manchu and eventually he gifted me with his collection of Fu Manchu paperback novels: nine of the original thirteen books (plus two other Rohmer novels he owned). It means a lot to receive something personal of my father's, even if they were a bunch of paperbacks most would consider "trashy" literature. I read most of them during my first year of college and eventually obtained the four novels my father hadn't owned.

The Shadow of Fu Manchu exists in the public domain like most radio programs and at one point I bought a CD containing the entire series. Or should that be "entire" series? When I first heard the show on Yesterday USA it was a series of 40 episodes and that 40th program was the first chapter of a new adventure. Yet, that seemed to be all that still existed. Those 40 shows were the same ones I found on my disc. For that reason, I didn't look any further.

Imagine my surprise in recent weeks when I discovered there were actually dozens of other Shadow of Fu Manchu episodes still in existence! Rather than 40 episodes, the series lasted 156 and there seem to be 85 still around. The first 40 had received a lot of circulation because their sequence was intact, but I'm quite happy to have these shows!

The odd thing about The Shadow of Fu Manchu is that while it adapted many of Rohmer's Fu Manchu novels, it didn't follow the order exactly. After adapting the first novel (The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu) it moved to the third (The Hand of Fu Manchu), then the second (The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu), followed by the fourth (The Daughter of Fu Manchu) and fifth (The Mask of Fu Manchu), then skipping into an amalgam of the eighth and ninth novels (President Fu Manchu & The Drums of Fu Manchu) then concluding with the sixth novel (The Bride of Fu Manchu).

Although the adaptations are reasonably faithful, they do attempt to keep the cast of characters a little more solid than Rohmer. In the books, Rohmer phased out Dr. Petrie gradually, beginning with Daughter, then retiring him completely in Trail as the principal hero, Nayland Smith, would be paired with other sidekicks starting with Daughter. Although the radio version includes the new sidekicks, they keep Petrie around and in a larger role than the original stories; his presence is particularly notable in the Drums/President mash-up, two novels he didn't appear in. Inspector Weymouth, one of the earliest allies of Smith, is also continually brought back in, whereas Rohmer let him drift out early on.

Smith's sidekicks were also squeezed together. The Drums/President mash-up includes President's sidekick Mark Hepburn eliminated, with only Drums' sidekick Bart Kerrigan retained. Smith's sidekicks don't seem to be well-known, given that I see several radio logs for Shadow of Fu Manchu refer to Smith's Daughter & Mask sidekick Shan Greville as "Grebble." I have to say, The Mask of Fu Manchu adaptation is mostly intact and done very well - the actor playing Shan was a familiar voice (one I can't seem to find a credit for on any of the shows I've heard him in) and Shan was always my favourite sidekick after Petrie.

Because of the way in which the serials follow on the heels of one another, rather than being separated by years as when Rohmer wrote them (the books span many decades, in fact), this led the series to adopt a very unimpressive ad-hoc solution to who Fu Manchu's "Bride" Fleurette in the final story is. In the novels, she's the daughter of Petrie & Kâramanèh, but because of the condensed timeline, on the radio she's Kâramanèh's long-lost sister, which, given that earlier in the series they told the saga of Kâramanèh's hard-luck brother Aziz, it seems like giving Kâramanèh yet another sibling in Fu Manchu's power is drawing from the same well.

No matter how many times I think I've heard everything worth hearing in old-time radio, I'm still pleasantly surprised to unearth other wonderful old shows. Discovering I'd been missing out on more than 40 episodes of a favourite series of mine is especially heartening! What else is still waiting for me to encounter it?

Fu Manchu at Paramount

One thing I've learned from talking to people about Fu Manchu is that people aren't interested in talking about Fu Manchu. Even within the ranks of Fu Manchu enthusiasts, there's a lot to do with the character and property which isn't brought up because there are so many stories and adaptations existing and they almost all require a bit of work to obtain.

In many ways, I'm sure contemporary culture would like to just leave Fu Manchu where he is - in the past. Forget about the Sax Rohmer novels, forget about the film adaptations, keep looking forward and don't bring up the racial issues surrounding the character. I'd be willing to oblige, except that I keep finding nuggets of real value in Rohmer's fiction. Which brings me to the Fu Manchu films.

Of the Devil Doctor's many entries into cinema, he's probably best known for MGM's 1932 picture the Mask of Fu Manchu starring Boris Karloff, which still has a following because Karloff still has a following; the Harry Alan Towers series of pictures starring Christopher Lee still have a following, as does the still-living Lee; even the Republic serial Drums of Fu Manchu is considered one of the better serials.

But what of Fu Manchu's first foray into the talkies? He figured in three Paramount movies from 1929-1931 (one per year), each starring Warner Oland and with a surprising amount of continuity for the time in which they were made. To the best of my knowledge, Paramount hasn't rereleased these pictures for modern audiences. Perhaps it's their old shame.

And it is a shame - because these movies aren't too bad and not quite in the same tone as the later Fu Manchu pictures. Thanks to the wonders of Youtube I've finally seen all three movies; follow along as I guide you through the saga...

The series begins with the Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. It's interesting to note how the first two films include "Dr.," just as the titles for the first two US editions of the Fu Manchu novels were the Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu and the Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, while later novels omitted his title (ie, Hand of Fu Manchu, Island of Fu Manchu, President Fu Manchu, Wrath of Fu Manchu, etc.). Our director is Rowland V. Lee and the part of Fu Manchu is played by Warner Oland, who would later come to fame as Charlie Chan. Although Oland claimed to be part-Asian, it seems he would wear a mustache to help him appear "oriental." Thus, by adding a mustache in these films, he permanently branded the character with one, even though he was clean-shaven in the novels.

We open in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Dr. Fu Manchu is a practicing physician and friend to the Caucasians, using his skill with hypnosis to help treat patients. However, in the midst of the fighting, the British/Russian/French/German forces wind up shelling Fu Manchu's home while trying to strike down enemy forces. Fu Manchu's wife and son are slain by the blast and he vows revenge upon the white race - but specifically, he vows revenge on the officers who ordered the attack, determining to one day claim their lives and lives of their male heirs, to balance the scales for the loss of his family.

In the novels, Fu Manchu had no particular origin; it wasn't even clear how many years he'd been active as his life-prolonging Elixir Vitae could have kept him alive for hundreds of years. Fu Manchu of the novels was out to conquer the world, not simply obtain revenge. I think it's interesting to note how the filmmakers believed it was important to give Fu Manchu a motivation for being the figure of evil he was. Up to a point, Fu could have been the hero of his story - exacting revenge on the officers who killed his family is a very sympathetic motivation. It's only when he decides to kill the officers' offspring too that he loses the audience's sympathy.

Even as Fu is vowing his vengeance, his servant Fai Lu presents him with Lia, a tiny white child whose family have just died but wanted Fu raise their daughter. Fu Manchu honours the request, using her to supplant his lost family. And so, nearly 30 years pass in which Fu Manchu evidently spent a lot of time pooling together his servants, perfecting his chemical weapons, raising his foster daughter and obtaining the identities of the men who ordered the attack on his house. I say "evidently" because after nearly 30 years, he's only just finished off his second-last target; as we rejoin the story, Fu is after the last officer, General Petrie, plus his son Sir John Petrie and grandson Dr. Jack Petrie. However, Fu hasn't counted on Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith, who comes to the Petrie family's defense, nor could he have expected Lia would fall in love with young Dr. Petrie.

Here are some more departures from the canon: in the novels, Fu Manchu admired Dr. Petrie and would always try to spare him from death, believing Petrie was an honoured colleague who would be fascinated by his experiments; as for Smith, Fu had nothing but contempt for him as an unintelligent lout. In these movies, Fu expresses regard for Smith's intelligence but has an unreasoning hatred for Petrie due to his vow of vengeance.

For fans of the novels, this depiction of Fu Manchu falls a little short; his instruments of death aren't the terrifically visual sort famously described in the novels such as his wailing Dacoit assassins or horrific insects like the "Zayat Kiss." Instead, Oland's Fu Manchu uses potions, hypnosis and a quicklime pit (the latter off-camera); his servants have nothing more interesting than throwing daggers. This interpretation of Fu lacks the exotic flair of the novels, reducing him to just another "mad scientist" or "man-out-for-revenge" the type of which movies like Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum were based upon.

Fu works his way through the Petrie family, killing General Petrie and his son. Finally, by hypnotizing, he captures Dr. Petrie and prepares to throw him into his quicklime pit. Petrie is certain Smith will come to rescue, prompting a rather dry response from the Devil Doctor, dripping with sarcasm:

"I humbly apologize. I'm afraid my somewhat weird and Oriental methods may have misled your Occidental mind into believing that, uh, this is nothing but a gigantic melodrama in which the detective's arrival at the last moment produces the happy ending. Don't deny it! I can see by your face it is so."

Having said this, Fu reveals he's already captured Smith! Fu Manchu comes within a hair's breadth of winning the day, but Fai Lu betrays him for love of her charge and Fu is seemingly poisoned to death.

Also of note: Smith cooperates with the Chinese government in this picture, reporting to a Chinese official in one scene; it may seem like an obvious gesture to you and I, but the early Sax Rohmer novels had a raging paranoia where any Asian characters were concerned; if this were a Rohmer book, the official would have either been killed or revealed as one of Fu's servants. Further, the paranoia about Asians was often expressed by Smith himself - it's hard to imagine the Nayland Smith of the early novels cooperating with the Chinese government (although eventually Rohmer introduced benevolent and heroic Asians and took some pains to make it clear Fu Manchu was as much an enemy of China as he was the "white race").

Let's move along to the second film, the Return of Dr. Fu Manchu, again directed by Rowland V. Lee and with virtually every actor from the previous film reprising their parts.

We open at Fu Manchu's funeral as the survivors from the previous film hope to carry on with their lives and Lia and Dr. Petrie begin planning their wedding. However, Fu Manchu's poison simply placed him into suspended animation. Rising from his coffin, he kills Fai Lu for betraying him, then prepares for revenge on Petrie, the last of his designated targets.

In a cute moment, Fu explains how the formula which only "temporarily" killed him was inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet! At one point Fu pilots an airplane which would seems weirdly out-of-character for the novel's version (who would surely have a servant take the controls), yet fits this economy-size Fu well:

Again Fu menaces Petrie, Smith and, again he's halted at the last moment. This time he falls into a river with a bomb which explodes, seemingly killing him... but who'd believe that? We actually saw his dead body last film and it sure didn't stop him!

Sure enough, 1931 saw the grand finale to Paramount's Fu Manchu saga with Daughter of the Dragon, directed by Lloyd Corrigan, who had helped write the screen treatment for the previous two pictures. Oland reprises Fu Manchu again, but only for the first few scenes of the picture. The real star is Anna May Wong, the best-known Asian actress of the 1930s.

Startlingly, the movie opens twenty years after the previous picture! So this is, what, 1950? Dr. Petrie has grown old and raised a son, Ronald Petrie; said son is in love with Ling Moy, a Chinese woman who's been trying to locate her long-lost father.

As misfortune would have it, Ling Moy's father is the nefarious Fu Manchu, back from the dead and still intent on killing Dr. Petrie. And after twenty years, he finally makes his mark, killing Dr. Petrie. Now only Ronald remains, but Scotland Yard officer Sir Basil Courtney renders a fatal wound to Fu Manchu. Slowly dying, Fu is reunited with Ling Moy and tells her the story of how his wife and child died, causing him to vow revenge; Fu laments how without a son to be his heir, his vendetta will never be completed. Ling Moy offers to be like a son to her father, claiming she'll finish his work; Fu accepts this and as the authorities close in on him, he pretends to attack Ling Moy, knowing the police will kill him to save her - and thus she'll remain above suspicion as his heir.

So it is we take our leave of Dr. Fu Manchu... yet his legacy lives on. It soon becomes clear Ling Moy only promised to be his heir so she could bond with the father she never knew in his last moments; she truly loves Ronald and doesn't want to kill him, but her late father's servants keep demanding she fulfill her promise. It's interesting to note how Ling Moy & Ronald's romance keeps from breaking Hollywood's miscegenation rules as their attempted kisses are interrupted.

However, Ronald is also being pursued by white woman Joan Marshall; to complete our romantic rhombus, inspector Ah Kee loves Ling Moy... and boy, is he made to suffer for it! Ah Kee is the one man convinced Fu Manchu has cheated death yet again, but for not realizing Ling Moy is the real criminal mastermind he winds up walking right into her hands and bound up in an attic. When he tries to get the attention of the police on the ground below, he tumbles out of the window and nearly dies! In the chaotic finale, it's Ah Kee who delivers the fatal gunshot which kills our reluctant villain Ling Moy; Ah Kee then succumbs to the wounds from his fall and dies at her side.

Despite having very little Fu Manchu, Daughter of the Dragon is probably the best of the trio - Warner Oland stepped up his game for Fu's final scenes and Anna May Wong was simply a terrific actress; it's also interesting to see an Asian leading man (Sessue Hayakawa as Ah Kee) in 30s cinema. Corrigan had some fine touches as a director, notably in an above shot when Ronald Petrie is trapped in a tiny room, fumbling to find his way out:

If you're a Fu Manchu enthusiast, I definitely recommend seeking out the three films; if you're an Anna May Wong aficionado then the third film is required viewing!

Kâramanèh: an uncommon creature

From time to time here on the blog and in real life, I bring up author Sax Rohmer; when I do start to speak of him, I often open with an apologetic statement. There was a time when I was very defensive about Rohmer, feeling he was judged a racist by modern critics strictly for his Fu Manchu novels, which I had found weren't as bad as their reputation suggested. However, the more I've read of Rohmer's non-Fu Manchu career, the more...objectionable material I've encountered.

Apologetics aside, I'd like to speak a bit about why exactly I became a staunch Rohmer supporter; I can chalk it up to one of his Fu Manchu creations, the slave girl Kâramanèh.

Kâramanèh was introduced in the first novel (the Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu or the Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, depending on your edition), as narrated by the character of Dr. Petrie:

I thought that I never had seen a face so seductively lovely nor of so unusual a type. With the skin of perfect blonde, she had eyes and lashes as black as a Creole's, which, together with her full red lips, told me that this beautiful stranger, whose touch had so startled me, was not a child of our northern shores.

By the time Kâramanèh has been introduced, we've yet to meet her master, Fu Manchu, nor even heard the famous "brow like Shakespeare..." description Petrie's friend Nayland Smith relates. Petrie is quite taken with Kâramanèh and it's mutual as she winds up saving he and Smith's lives a few times. In one encounter, Petrie begins to realize just how strange her loyalty to Fu Manchu is:

"But if you will carry me off" - she clutched me nervously - "so that I am helpless, lock me up so that I cannot escape, beat me, if you like, I will tell you all I do know. While he is my master I will never betray him. Tear me from him - by force, do you understand, by force, and my lips will be sealed no longer. Ah! but you do not understand, with your 'proper authorities' - your police. Police! Ah, I have said enough."

Kâramanèh's terms are so startling to Petrie that he repeatedly lets her out of his grasp. It's a good thing he did, because being on the inside of Fu Manchu's operation, she's in a perfect position to save him! At one point, Petrie and Smith are chased through darkened streets by four of Fu Manchu's Dacoit assassins, but Kâramanèh comes to their rescue - executing the Dacoits herself with a revolver! For a piece of 1913 fiction, Kâramanèh is a pretty formidable woman and, against the expectations of the times, it's the men who are in distress and need to be rescued!

But who is Kâramanèh? And why does she remain with Fu Manchu? It seems she's from Egypt and a Bedouin...

"You may call me Kâramanèh," she said. "As Kâramanèh I was sold to Dr. Fu-Manchu, and my brother also he purchased. We were cheap at the price he paid." She laughed shortly, wildly.

"But he has spent a lot of money to educate me. My brother is all that is left to me in the world to love, and he is in the power of Dr. Fu-Manchu. You understand? It is upon him the blow will fall."

Kâramanèh's brother Aziz is being kept alive through a serum which only Fu Manchu can supply. Thankfully, Petrie is a doctor and, guided by Kâramanèh, eventually steals both Aziz and the serum and finds a way to set Aziz free. The first book ends with Fu Manchu seemingly dead and Kâramanèh reunited with Aziz, setting home to Egypt, leaving a heartbroken Petrie behind.

Much changes in the second book from 1916 (either the Devil Doctor or the Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, take your pick). Petrie and Smith quickly learn Fu Manchu is still alive and still bent on destruction. To their considerable surprise, Kâramanèh is back - and in Fu Manchu's thrall! And she has no idea who Petrie is! We eventually learn Kâramanèh has been brainwashed back into Fu Manchu's service. This brainwashed version of Kâramanèh shows no consideration for Smith & Petrie, depriving them of a valued resource and generally throwing Petrie off his game. However, the brainwashing isn't permanent and it's a good thing since by the end of the novel, Smith & Petrie are in Fu Manchu's clutches, with Smith in a death trap so terrible the Devil Doctor has given Petrie the opportunity to kill his friend to spare his suffering. As Fu Manchu begins to unleash rats to gnaw Smith to death, Kâramanèh enters the scene!

She looked, not at the tortured man, not at me, but fully at Dr. Fu-Manchu. One hand clutched the trembling draperies; now she suddenly raised the other, so that the jewels on her white arm glittered in the light of the lamp above the door. She held my Browning pistol! Fu-Manchu sprang upright, inhaling sibilantly, as Kâramanèh pointed the pistol point blank at his high skull and fired...

Isn't that amazing? Fu Manchu's first "definitive" death comes at the hands of a woman who puts a bullet in his skull! It's certainly a well-earned triumph for Kâramanèh after being a brainwashed thrall for the rest of the novel. The book ends happily with Petrie, Kâramanèh (and Aziz) together again.

Unfortunately, in some ways this was the last we saw of Kâramanèh. She reappeared in 1917's the Hand of Fu Manchu/Si-Fan Mysteries, but had barely any dialogue, spending almost the entire novel as Fu Manchu's prisoner. The fourth novel didn't arrive until 1931 and by then Rohmer had begun changing the formula (Fu Manchu is barely in the 4th novel!). Petrie was retired from the series and the narrator duties fell to other characters (until Rohmer finally adopted the third person narrator). Petrie and Kâramanèh were married during the publishing gap and their daughter, Fleurette, became the subject of two novels: the Bride of Fu Manchu (1933) and the Trail of Fu Manchu (1934). In those books, Fu Manchu tries to make Fleurette his bride (which was pretty skeevy of him), even threatening to kill Fleurette if he can't have her; it's finally Petrie who bargains for her life by saving Fu's and with that Petrie is forever removed from the narrative as Fu gives his word to never trouble him or his family again.

Personally, I wish the Kâramanèh from the first two novels had played a larger role in those two latter books. Instead of making Fleurette's peril a matter for either her lover (Alan Sterling) or her father. Man alive, I would have really enjoyed reading about a Kâramanèh who plays the part of a tigress, hunting Fu Manchu down and thrashing him until he vows to leave her cub alone.

Because she played such a prominent role in the early novels, Kâramanèh has been well-represented in every media. There were Fu Manchu serials in 1923 & 1924; Kâramanèh was played by Joan Clarkson in the former, Dorina Shirley in the latter.

In 1931 a Fu Manchu comic strip began by adapting the first novel, thus dramatizing a great deal of Kâramanèh's story.

A 1932 Fu Manchu radio program featured Sunda Loe and Charlotte Manson as Kâramanèh; in 1939, the terrific serial show the Shadow of Fu Manchu featured Paula Winslowe as Kâramanèh, again adapting the first two novels. This latter radio program was my introduction to the Fu Manchu universe, sparking off an obsession which has lasted me some 15 years.

The 1956 television program the Adventures of Fu Manchu cast Laurette Luez as Kâramanèh; perhaps one of these days I'll watch the show.

Marvel's Master of Kung Fu series made extensive use of Fu Manchu, Nayland Smith and Fah Lo Suee, with occasional use of Dr. Petrie; issues #83-87 included appearances by Kâramanèh, revealed to have been kept eternally young by Fu's Elixir Vitae, while Petrie had continued to age; Kâramanèh couldn't bear to be reunited with Petrie, despite her love for him. These stories by Doug Moench & Mike Zeck showed Kâramanèh in fine form, once again coming to Nayland's rescue.

If there had been no Kâramanèh in Rohmer's stories, I wonder if I'd bother thinking about them today? There are certainly some fine adventure tales in Rohmer's fiction - particularly his earlier fiction - but nothing especially remarkable. As with so much of the genre fiction I enjoy, it's the emotions of the characters which draw me in and the genuine relationship which develops between Petrie and Kâramanèh was the heart of the program; Nayland Smith, whom most consider the proper protagonist of the series (he's the only character to appear alongside Fu throughout), is rather dull; he often berates Petrie's feelings for Kâramanèh, even after all she had done to save both their skins. I feel Petrie's faith in her - and how she repeatedly came through for them - is to Rohmer's credit. I'm not going to claim he was a champion of civil rights, but for a man of his time and means, Rohmer wrote a terrific heroine.

Happy birthday Sax Rohmer!

That is, today would have been Sax Rohmer's birthday if he hadn't died in 1959.

Rohmer wrote around fifty novels in the detective/adventure genre, but he's best remembered for being the creator of Fu Manchu, the archetypal "yellow peril" villain.

I've often seen Rohmer's work called racist and it does give me pause. Prior to reading his books I assumed they were heavily racist, but the actual content threw me. Considering how in the Fu Manchu stories protagonist Nayland Smith is quick to announce his prejudices against anyone from the east it would be easy to see this as Rohmer's mindset, and yet the actual narrator Dr. Petrie disagrees with Smith and ultimately proves him wrong where Karamaneh is concerned. And Karamaneh was a real surprise - a 1910s heroine who wound up saving Smith & Petrie more than they ever saved her, and she's the one who put a bullet in Fu Manchu's brain in the 2nd novel!

If you've never tried Rohmer's work but you enjoy authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Buchan or Ian Fleming, I think you'd enjoy Rohmer's best; try the Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu or the Dream Detective some time!