Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU

September 23, 2015 11:30 PM - Season 3, Episode 23

"He's back!! The World's Most Evil Man with a Fiendish Plan of Conquest." Evil Mandarin megalomaniacal mastermind Fu Manchu schemes to freeze the world's oceans. No one can accuse him of lack of ambition, but Englishman Nayland Smith is on-hand to foil his diabolical plans. It's not your imagination, playing Fu Manchu himself is Christopher Lee. The Satellite News' "Daddy-O" website is a treasure trove of data, but it was written so long ago that for notable movies for Mr. Lee it mentions neither Star Wars prequels nor the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Producer Harry Alan Towers made another movie we'll be encountering later, the equally ridiculous Outlaw. I find this to be a very difficult episode to make it through; evidently the MST guys agreed, because the host segments revolve around how much Joel and the 'bots are suffering. YouTube. Premiered January 18, 1992.

Episode 323: THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's MST3K Review - MST3K Wikia

Movie:
Daddy-O
IMDB (2.6 stars, under "Sax Rohmer's The Castle of Fu Manchu")
"An evil Chinese mastermind plots to freeze the Earth's oceans."
Directed by Jesús Franco. Written by Jaime Jesús Balcázar, Manfred Barthel, Michael Haller, Sax Rohmer and Harry Alan Towers. Starring Christopher Lee, Richard Greene and Howard Marion-Crawford.

posted by JHarris (6 comments total)

This is #10/#11 on the list of "19 Worst Movies Mystery Science Theater 3000 Ever Riffed" that was just posted at io9.com (it's tied with "Invasion of the Neptune Men" because the listmaker says they are equally "completely incomprehensible".)
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:22 AM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

The usual spiel: We are having a showing of this episode for MST3K Club tonight at 9 PM Eastern time, at http://sync-video.com/tv/rodneylives. All are welcome to watch with us.

Club MST3K FAQ.
posted by JHarris at 12:25 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not only is the plot incomprehensible, but the print is frequently so dark, I can't tell what is happening.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:44 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Chrysostum-that's a feature not a bug.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2015

Argh, there's an error in that i09 list! Overdrawn at the Memory Bank is by John Varley, not Jack Vance!
posted by Chrysostom at 12:21 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Speaking of argh, the video linked in the head of the post has, since I made the post last night, been blocked. This is troubling.
posted by JHarris at 5:05 PM on September 24, 2015