The Fiendish Plot
of Dr. Fu Manchu
Director: Piers
Haggard
Year: 1980
Rating: 3.0
There are not many comedies that can live up
to their legendary reputation of being astonishingly deprived of laughs,
but this film hits the bull's eye of awful. Not incompetent or cheap looking,
just not funny. 96-minutes and the only time I came near to a laugh was when
an obese man on stilts smelled Chinese food and had to clump over to it.
This is really rather remarkable considering that it stars Peter Sellers
in two roles, various disguises and a ridiculous plot. He usually eats that
up like jam and crumpets. It begs as to why it generated so few laughs. The
mystery of comedy. Why did the silliness of his Pink Panther films hit the
funny bone while the silliness of this lands with a dull thud?
Some of it may have had to do with the troubled
production and some of it due to Seller's poor health and his growing tendency
to be mentally erratic. Two directors were fired before the film even began
and the credited director, Piers Haggard, was fired before the film was finished
with Sellers taking over. According to Haggard, Sellers was a maniac on the
set. He wasn't the first director to complain about Sellers - even Blake
Edwards of the Pink Panther films said it was becoming nearly impossible
to work with Sellers. His health was also failing and it caused a number
of delays in filming and sadly he was to die from a heart-attack soon after
the film was finished. This was his last film and his film before was perhaps
his most recognized as an actor - Being There. He was in a number of classic
comedies - besides the Pink Panther films there was Dr. Strangelove, After
the Fox, The Party and all those early British comedies - but he had a number
of stinkers on his hands as well - and sadly this is one of them.
He plays both Nayland Smith and his nemesis
Fu Manchu. So, in 1980 they were still doing Yellow Face apparently - though
playing different ethnicities was part of his comedy box - perhaps nowhere
more amusing than as an Indian in The Party. In reviews written at the time,
I didn't see any critics even bringing this up. Now of course, we all feel
obliged to. Fu Manchu is 168-years old and looks every evil deed of it. An
elixir has kept him alive and he has a servant bring out the last of it.
The servant catches fire and drops it. Revenge in a sense for Burt Kwouk
who Sellers beat up so often in the Pink Panther films. Just a cameo for
Burt. To make more of the elixir, Manchu has to steal rare jewels and Mummy's
from all over the world.
To solve these robberies, Scotland Yard
(David Tomlinson) and the FBI (Sid Caesar) bring Nayland Smith out of retirement.
He has grown very attached to his lawn mower and takes it with him everywhere.
So, ya - Sid Caesar, one of the funniest men in the world of comedy and not
a laugh. They don't even give him an opportunity. Criminal. Not so criminal
is they have Helen Mirren pose as the Queen - get kidnapped by Manchu and
fall for him. She is wonderful. She sings the On Good Ship Lollipop and Daddy
Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow. Not worth watching the film for but maybe. If
only Sellers had found the magic elixir to make a few more films.
