The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.5/10   

Director:

Charles Brabin
(más)

Writers:

Sax Rohmer (story)
Irene Kuhn (writer) ...
(más)

Release Date:

5 noviembre 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Englishmen race to find the tomb of Ghengis Khan. They have to get there fast, as the evil genius Dr...

Plot Keywords:

Genghis Khan | Super Villain | Whipping | Good Versus Evil | Shirtless Male Bondage

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Scientific Rape

Cast

Boris Karloff	...	Dr. Fu Manchu
Lewis Stone	...	Sir Denis Nayland Smith
Karen Morley	...	Sheila Barton
Charles Starrett	...	Terrence Granville
Myrna Loy	...	Fah Lo See
Jean Hersholt	...	Professor Von Berg
Lawrence Grant	...	Sir Lionel Barton
David Torrence	...	'Mac' McLeod
listado alfabético del resto del reparto:
Herbert Bunston	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)
Gertrude Michael	...	Undetermined Role (scenes deleted)
Everett Brown	...	Slave (uncredited)
Steve Clemente	...	Knife thrower (uncredited)
Willie Fung	...	Ship's steward (uncredited)
Ferdinand Gottschalk	...	British Museum Official (uncredited)
Allen Jung	...	Coolie (uncredited)
Tetsu Komai	...	Swordsman (uncredited)
James B. Leong	...	Guest (uncredited)
Oswald Marshall	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Chris-Pin Martin	...	Potentate (uncredited)
Lal Chand Mehra	...	Indian Prince (uncredited)
Edward Peil Sr.	...	Coolie spy (uncredited)
Clinton Rosemond	...	Slave (uncredited)
C. Montague Shaw	...	Curator Fergyle - British Museum Official (uncredited)
E. Alyn Warren	...	Goy Lo Sung - Fu Manchu Messenger (uncredited)

Dirigida por
Charles Brabin
Charles Vidor		(uncredited)

Créditos del guión
Sax Rohmer		(story)
Irene Kuhn		(writer) and
Edgar Allan Woolf		(writer) and
John Willard		(writer)

Música original por
William Axt		(uncredited)

Fotografía por
Tony Gaudio		(photographed by)

Montaje por
Ben Lewis

Dirección artística
Cedric Gibbons

Diseño de vestuario por
Adrian		(gowns)

Departamento de maquillaje
Cecil Holland	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Ayudante de dirección
John Waters	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Departamento de sonido
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director
Anstruther MacDonald	....	sound (uncredited)

Efectos especiales
Warren Newcombe	....	special effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Clarence Sinclair Bull	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Ken Strickfaden	....	electrician: effects unit (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Cosmopolitan Productions (for)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1932) (USA) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1972) (USA) (theatrical) (on '3 Superstars of Shock') (re-release)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1996) (USA) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1996) (USA) (video)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD) (on "Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection")

También conocida como:

Máscara de Fu-Manchú, La (Spain) [es]

Duración:

68 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Clasificación:

Finland:(Banned) (1933) | USA:Approved

Company:

Cosmopolitan Productions

Trivialidades:

As originally scripted, during the torture sequence, it was planned to have Von Berg (Jean Hersholt) suspended over the crocodile pit and Neyland Smith (Lewis Stone) about to be impaled by the walls of spikes. This was reversed when, for reasons unknown, it was thought that a fat captive would make more sense being impaled than a thin one.

Goofs:

Continuity: As Fu Manchu gets up and walks away after talking to Barton for the first time, he crosses his hands before him. In the very next shot, his hands are by his body. The position of Fah Lo See also changes between these two shots.

Quotes:

Sheila: [after Fu Manchu has reveald his murderous plans for her and Dr. Von berg] You yellow beast!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hollywood Remembers: Myrna Loy - So Nice to Come Home to (1991) (TV)

Scientific Rape

Many, many times a movie can be worthwhile when it does no more than create and display a strange world. Almost always that's the case where the world is new and/or synthesized from previous abstract sources.

"Metropolis" of five years earlier is often celebrated as a film. Its only value is in the art design, but that's miraculous in a way. Unfortunately the story is as thuggishly stupid as the notions it criticizes. And that mars a movie for me.

This one is even more clever in the visual world it creates. And yes the story is dumb, and also racist. But it is not hypocritical: all the people involved are dishonorable, worthy of a Tod Browning script.

The visual notions are astonishingly varied. Nominally this is a mystical Chinese (Northern Chinese, more deeply mystical) environment added to a 30's German-influenced visual depiction of science. There are lots of "electrical" visuals, zaps and blinkers. Abstractions of reality dominate: staircases that stand alone: monumental pedestals and other features in internal spaces; statues and icons that become characters from props.

The styles aren't Chinese at all but borrowed from any place or era with an association with the mystical.

Deep, deep shadows. Many ceremonial movements in everyday tasks (as well as ceremonies). Vast ambitions, though this was commonplace by then. Direct precode references to sex and the implication that somehow rape on a national scale had something to do with mystical/ scientific power.

(Remember, this is BEFORE Hitler's ascendancy.)

The story and most characters are irrelevant and that underscores the effect of the tone.

Watch Indiana Jones if you must, if you need movement. Watch this if you want to be saturated with cinematic color.

Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.