A special screening of Jess Franco's THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU...
Let our friends at MST 3000 tell you! I haven't seen this episode but it looks like a scream, even if you are a rabid Jess Franco fan. Probably no film by Uncle Jess has a worse reputation, at least among Fu Manchu connoisseurs.
323 - The Castle of Fu Manchu
Air Date January 18, 1992
I'm also interested in the version entitled ASSIGNMENT ISTANBUL. I think I may have actually seen this via a b&w television broadcast (or I was watching it on an old black and white TV?) around 1972. I didn't make it all the way through, considering it an outrage compared to the Don Sharp directed Fu Manchu titles I had enjoyed theatrically in the mid 1960s. And it didn't encourage me to further investigate the career of Jess Franco, to put it mildly. Has anyone seen this version or have it on tape? If you do have it please contact me. I'm also looking for a copy of the Spanish version, which reportedly has an alternate opening credits sequence.
I was also curious about the IMDB Trivia notes for the film which state that the footage of the dam-bursting is from a 1950's Dirk Bogarde film. Does anyone know if this is correct?* With the IMDB you never know. And there's a lot more stock footage in TCOFM still to be investigated. It's not all scenes from A NIGHT TO REMEMBER in the ship sinking sequence either. Check it out. Any futher information on the sources of the miles of stock footage utilized by Towers/Franco would be much appreciated.
And does anyone actually like THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU? It's all right, this a safe place to confess....
*From the IMDB: The dam bursting scene is footage taken from the Dirk Bogarde film Campbell's Kingdom (1957). Bogarde is in the green checked shirt and Stanley Baker in the red shirt, both are recognizable in this footage.
