The Mask of Fu Manchu
The Mask of Fu Manchu is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Charles Brabin. Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf and John Willard, it was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Sax Rohmer. The film, featuring Boris Karloff as Fu Manchu and Myrna Loy as his daughter, revolves around Fu Manchu's quest for the golden sword and mask of Genghis Khan. Lewis Stone played his nemesis.
Plot
Sir Denis Nayland Smith of the British Secret Service warns Egyptologist Sir Lionel Barton that he must beat Fu Manchu in the race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan. Fu Manchu intends to use Khan's sword and mask to proclaim himself the reincarnation of the legendary conqueror and inflame the peoples of Asia and the Middle East into a war to wipe out the "white race". Barton is kidnapped soon afterward and taken to Fu Manchu, who tries bribing his captive for the tomb's location, even offering his own daughter, Fah Lo See. When that fails, Barton suffers the "torture of the bell" (lying underneath a gigantic, constantly ringing bell) in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to reveal the location of the tomb.
More details
| author | Sax Rohmer |
|---|---|
| director | Charles Brabin Charles Vidor |
| editor | Ben Lewis |
| keywords | british secret service capture death ray fu manchu genghis khan human sacrifice kidnap kill middle east misgive secret service sir denis nayland smith tomb of genghis khan |
| musicBy | William Axt |
| productionCompany | Cosmopolitan Productions Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| publisher | AFI Catalog of Feature Films American Film Institute |