Blood of Fu Manchu, The (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
Review Date: Aug 07, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Jesús Franco

Release Date(s)

1968 (July 29, 2025)

Studio(s)

Ada Films/Terra-Filmkunst/Udastex Films (Blue Underground)

Film/Program Grade: C-
Video Grade: A
Audio Grade: B+
Extras Grade: B+

blue-underground.com/

Review

The partnership between director Jesús “Jess” Franco and producer Harry Alan Towers yielded some of the more successful films of Franco’s career. Towers was three films deep into the Fu Manchu series starring Christopher Lee when he hired Franco to take over for directors Don Sharp (Kiss of the Vampire) and Jeremy Summers (The House of 1,000 Dolls) after having worked with him on Eve. The Blood of Fu Manchu, known the world over by a number of titles including Der Todeskuss des Dr. Fu Man Chu, Kiss and Kill, Kiss of Death, and Against All Odds, among others, continued to stray further from the original Sax Rohmer novels, but still proved lucrative, despite the controversy surrounding the portrayal of its lead protagonist.

Hellbent on continuing his quest to take over the world, the monstrous Dr. Fu Manchu (Lee) and his daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) have devised a plot to destroy Fu Manchu’s sworn enemies, including Scotland Yard’s Nayland Smith (Richard Greene). Having discovered venomous snakes in the Amazonian jungle containing toxins that only affect males, Fu Manchu kidnaps several women and forces the snakes to bite them, which gives them a fatal kiss that causes initial blindness and eventually death, subsequently sending them out into the world to seek out his enemies. After one successfully kisses Nayland Smith, he and his partner Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion-Crawford) head into the jungle to find Fu Manchu and an antidote before Smith succumbs to the poison. Aiding them are the rugged adventurer Carl (Götz George) and the beautiful Ursula (Maria Rohm), while also evading a roaming gang of bandits, led by Sancho (Ricardo Palacios), whom Fu Manchu eventually uses to do his bidding.

Besides Christopher Lee appearing in yellow face and portraying a stereotypical diabolical Eastern person (the Yellow Peril as they were known), The Blood of Fu Manchu, as well as its follow-up The Castle of Fu Manchu, are a mixed bag narratively. Blood in particular doesn’t fully kick in until almost an hour into its 90-minute plus running time, meandering back and forth between Fu Manchu declaring his deadly plans and his adversaries attempting to reach him, being thwarted at nearly every turn. In the case of the roguish Carl, he’s literally detained by the police and forced into several days of a chess tournament with the local governor. In some ways, it’s very tongue-in-cheek to do away with whom appears to be your main antagonist, despite the presence of Fu Manchu’s long-time rival Nayland Smith, so early in the picture. That self-awareness and ironic sense of humor mostly feels very much a part of the film at times, but not always.

That said, The Blood of Fu Manchu is certainly not totally bereft of charm. There’s always room for comical movies about an evil scientist trying to take over the world and a group of people attempting to stop him. It’s just that in the case of Blood, it’s less cohesive, wandering from one set of characters to the other without any real forward momentum. On the positive side, the film is beautifully shot, typical of many Jess Franco films, with Manuel Merino, who also lensed Vampyros Lesbos, The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse, and Horror Rises from the Tomb (as well as other Franco/Towers collaborations), taking up cinematography duties. Eagle-eyed viewers can even spot a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her appearance by Shirley Eaton, who may or may not have been inserted into the film using previously-shot footage without her knowledge. Above all else, The Blood of Fu Manchu is a beautifully-mounted self-conscious romp, even with a xenophobic albatross around its neck.

The Blood of Fu Manchu was shot by cinematographer Manuel Merino on 35mm film with Arriflex cameras and spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Blue Underground debuts the film on Ultra HD in the US with a new 4K restoration of the uncut original camera negative, which has been graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and encoded to a dual-layered BD-66 disc. Billed here as the “Unrated European Version,” with a running time of 93:36, The Blood of Fu Manchu appears to be presented in its most complete form. Occasionally the original elements seem to have density issues, giving the picture a slight breathing quality, but these moments are few and far between as the majority of the presentation provides solid levels of grain. Detail is boosted tremendously with a bitrate that often sits between 70 and 90Mbps. The HDR grades offer deep contrast and beautiful color, enriching the detail found not just in the many hues of the jungle settings, but the nuances in the shadows as well, allowing for deep blacks. The picture is mostly clean and stable from end to end, outside of random minor speckling here or there, making this the finest presentation of the film available.

Audio is included in English mono DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH, French, and Spanish. It’s a very clean track, if a bit quiet. Dialogue exchanges are discernible, while sound effects and score have decent push. It’s a somewhat limited track, but suitable enough for the film at hand.

Blue Underground’s 2-Disc 4K Ultra HD release of The Blood of Fu Manchu sits in a black Amaray case alongside a 1080p Blu-ray also containing the new restoration in SDR, with a double-sided insert that features new artwork on the front and the original international theatrical artwork on the reverse. Everything is housed in an embossed slipcover containing the same new artwork. The following extras are included on each disc:

DISC ONE (UHD)

Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
Trailers:
- The Blood of Fu Manchu International Trailer (HD – 2:59)
- Sax Rohmer’s Kiss and Kill US Trailer (HD – 1:41)

DISC TWO (BD)

Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
Featurettes:
- The Rise of Fu Manchu (SD – 15:05)
- Sanguine-Stained Celluloid: Stephen Thrower on The Blood of Fu Manchu (HD – 27:34)
Trailers:
- The Blood of Fu Manchu International Trailer (HD – 3:00)
- Sax Rohmer’s Kiss and Kill US Trailer (HD – 1:41)
Poster & Still Gallery (HD – 173 in all)
RiffTrax Edition (HD – 76:37)
Easter Egg (SD – 1:25)

In the new audio commentary with writers and film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson, they provide their usual good-natured fan perspectives, an analysis of the film and this period in Franco’s career, and various information about the cast. The Rise of Fu Manchu is a 2003 DVD-era featurette containing interviews with Jess Franco, Tsai Chin, Harry Alan Towers, Christopher Lee, and Shirley Eaton. It’s a wonderful retrospective that digs into the film’s politics, as well as its production. In Sanguine-Stained Celluloid, author Stephen Thrower delves into Jess Franco’s partnership with producer Harry Alan Towers and provides an analysis of the film. Next are trailers for the international and US releases of the film, and a newly-expanded Poster & Still Gallery, featuring 173 stills of posters; the UK, US, and German pressbooks; lobby cards; black-and-white and color production photographs; publicity material; and home video artwork. Last is a RiffTrax edition of a shorter version of the film featuring Mystery Science Theater 3000 veterans Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy. The Easter Egg can be found while in the Featurettes sub-menu, wherein pressing up when Sanguine-Stained Celluloid is selected will reveal a small taijitu symbol. Clicking it will play a short interview outtake in which Jess Franco and Christopher Lee discuss Maria Rohm.

While none of the other versions of the film have been included, which are myriad, they boil down to six distinct versions: a 94-minute English language theatrical cut (presented here), an 84-minute Spanish language theatrical cut, an 81-minute German language theatrical cut, a 62-minute UK theatrical cut, a 93-minute US TV version, and a 91-minute US theatrical version. These various cuts are owned by different entities in different territories and contain varying amounts of content, including alternately arranged scenes and music, but it’s unlikely that a definitive home video release of the film containing every single version will ever come into being.

There’s also a few items missing from previous releases. The 2003 Region Free Blue Underground DVD release also contains the text-based essay The Facts of Dr. Fu Manchu, talent bios for Christopher Lee and Jess Franco, and liner notes by Tim Lucas. Those are minor losses, but the biggest omissions are from the 2022 Region B Indicator/Powerhouse Films Blu-ray boxed set of all five Fu Manchu films. That set contains the Kiss of Death version of the film, an audio commentary with critics and authors David Flint and Adrian J. Smith, the Vic Pratt Introduces The Blood of Fu Manchu introduction to the film, The Men Who Killed Fu Manchu with Stephen Thrower; the interview Any Way to Save Money: Clapper Loader Ray Andrew Remembers Harry Alan Towers and Fu Manchu, The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu: The Fiery Hand 1923 serial segment with and without score, a set of three Alternative Title Sequences for the film, a set of Color Tests, a double-sided poster, five production still replicas, and a 120-page book with an assortment of various texts and items about the film.

Often disregarded as one of the lesser films in the Fu Manchu cycle, The Blood of Fu Manchu can certainly be more appreciated in a more complete form with this beautiful UHD presentation. For Jess Franco and Christopher Lee fans, this is a very fine 4K upgrade, barring the loss of the other versions of the film and any absent bonus materials.

- Tim Salmons

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