Average Film - Nothing Overly Special
Those who are calling this film racist - remember that Boris Karloff played the brilliant Chinese detective Mr. Wong (who could give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money any day). Back during this time era, it was common for Caucasians to play Asian races. BUT stop to think about how they got the viewing audiences during that time era to (slowly) accept watching Asians on screen with Caucasians. Mr. Wong brought us the good and Fu Manchu the bad. There are many other films show us good and bad Caucasians during the same time era.
During a time of mostly racist America, films like Fu Manchu and Mr. Wong did familiarize the 1930s American audiences with Asians on screen... yes it took awhile but a break-though was finally made and Asians soon had lead roles in American films. I love that the world is slowly coming together and that ALL races can share equal screen time in the modern cinema and stage today. Films like this are reflections of the past.
Now that I have that out of the way I will say I find this an average film. It's mostly a crime adventure and does have quite a bit of sci-fi but only a few elements of horror. It's not a great film, but it's not awful either - just average.
I have the fully restored movie on DVD - this is not the cut and sugar coated version that was around for a long time - this is the original film in it's entirety. Karloff's "Kill the white man" speech fully intact along with the once deleted scenes of Myrna Loy in joy over a torture whipping. It's all extremely tame and mild by today's standards.
One final note: Frankenstein's Monster (played by Karloff) was chained an whipped by Fritz (played by Dwight Frye) and Fritz fully enjoyed it -- no one cared about that. A whipping on film is a whipping on film, torture is torture. It doesn't matter their race or who or what they are - those being treated cruelly are being treated cruelly.
All races have good people, all races have bad people. Just enjoy the crazy sci-fi crime adventure and realize this is the past, not the present or future.
7/10
During a time of mostly racist America, films like Fu Manchu and Mr. Wong did familiarize the 1930s American audiences with Asians on screen... yes it took awhile but a break-though was finally made and Asians soon had lead roles in American films. I love that the world is slowly coming together and that ALL races can share equal screen time in the modern cinema and stage today. Films like this are reflections of the past.
Now that I have that out of the way I will say I find this an average film. It's mostly a crime adventure and does have quite a bit of sci-fi but only a few elements of horror. It's not a great film, but it's not awful either - just average.
I have the fully restored movie on DVD - this is not the cut and sugar coated version that was around for a long time - this is the original film in it's entirety. Karloff's "Kill the white man" speech fully intact along with the once deleted scenes of Myrna Loy in joy over a torture whipping. It's all extremely tame and mild by today's standards.
One final note: Frankenstein's Monster (played by Karloff) was chained an whipped by Fritz (played by Dwight Frye) and Fritz fully enjoyed it -- no one cared about that. A whipping on film is a whipping on film, torture is torture. It doesn't matter their race or who or what they are - those being treated cruelly are being treated cruelly.
All races have good people, all races have bad people. Just enjoy the crazy sci-fi crime adventure and realize this is the past, not the present or future.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment