***SPOILERS*** In an effort to prevent the evil and sinister Dr. Fu Manchu, Boris Karloff, from getting his hands on and into Genghis Khan's hidden tomb the British Government sends Sir Lionel Barton, Lawrance Grant, on a secret mission to Mongolia. Sir Lionel is to both find Ganghis Khan's tomb and at the same time keep it from Fu Manchu's grasp.
The half English, his father was the British Sir William Clayton, Fu Manchu has his hoods kidnap Sir Lionel and take him to his hideout in the Gobi Desert. It's there where he's tortured in order to reveal where Genghis Khan's tomb, together with his mask and sword, is hidden.
The British Government send out an expedition team headed by world renowned geologist Sir. Danis Nayland Smith, Lewis Stone,that includes Sir' Lionel's daughter Sheila, Karen Morley, to both rescue Sir. Lionel and find Genghis Kahn's tomb. Smith in fact discover the tomb before Sir. Lionel can be tortured into revealing its whereabouts to Fu Manchu. This has the now crazed Oriental have Sir. Lionel murdered and left outside the house where Smith and a shocked and terrified Sheila can find him.
Before Sir. Lionel's body was discovered Sheila's boyfriend and Smith's partner in the expedition Terry Grandville, Charles Starrett, went to make a deal with Fu Manchu in returning Genghis Khan's mask & sword for Sir Lionel's life. Taken prisoner by Fu Manchu's thugs the crazed Doctor really freaks out when he finds out that the sword, were not that sure about the mask, is a fake!
Terry having his life speared not only because Fu Manchu's sex starved daughter Fah Lo See, Myrna Loy, took a shine to the handsome but hated and despised young white man but that Fu Manchu has bigger plans for him. Terry is allowed, after being turned into a mindless Zombie, to go back to camp to retrieve the real things, the sword and mask, for Doctor Fu Manchu.
The movie "The Mask of Fu Manchu" is very out in front and in the open with its theory of what at the time was known as the "Yellow Peril" from the East. Even though Doctor Fu Manchu was half Oriental and educated in Europe and America his roots were still deeply embedded in the Oriental culture and history. Fu Manchu's attempt to get hold of Genghis Khan's power and legacy as the greatest Oriental conquerer off all time , through his mask and sword, was to finish the job that the great Khan started some 700 years ago: The brutal conquest of the both Christian and Islamic West.
The movie's racism can be easily overlooked in that it was made at a time,1932, when it-racism-was not even considered a dirty word and in fact was not found in many, if any at all, of the English dictionaries of that time. Also the racism in the film was an equal opportunity employer in that it insulted not only Orientals but Europeans as well. Not that the film intensionally made the European, or white, explores good guys at the expense of the Chinese and Mongolians but in fact made them look unintentionally ridicules, in retrospect, in their narrow minded and unfounded opinion's about them.
The half English, his father was the British Sir William Clayton, Fu Manchu has his hoods kidnap Sir Lionel and take him to his hideout in the Gobi Desert. It's there where he's tortured in order to reveal where Genghis Khan's tomb, together with his mask and sword, is hidden.
The British Government send out an expedition team headed by world renowned geologist Sir. Danis Nayland Smith, Lewis Stone,that includes Sir' Lionel's daughter Sheila, Karen Morley, to both rescue Sir. Lionel and find Genghis Kahn's tomb. Smith in fact discover the tomb before Sir. Lionel can be tortured into revealing its whereabouts to Fu Manchu. This has the now crazed Oriental have Sir. Lionel murdered and left outside the house where Smith and a shocked and terrified Sheila can find him.
Before Sir. Lionel's body was discovered Sheila's boyfriend and Smith's partner in the expedition Terry Grandville, Charles Starrett, went to make a deal with Fu Manchu in returning Genghis Khan's mask & sword for Sir Lionel's life. Taken prisoner by Fu Manchu's thugs the crazed Doctor really freaks out when he finds out that the sword, were not that sure about the mask, is a fake!
Terry having his life speared not only because Fu Manchu's sex starved daughter Fah Lo See, Myrna Loy, took a shine to the handsome but hated and despised young white man but that Fu Manchu has bigger plans for him. Terry is allowed, after being turned into a mindless Zombie, to go back to camp to retrieve the real things, the sword and mask, for Doctor Fu Manchu.
The movie "The Mask of Fu Manchu" is very out in front and in the open with its theory of what at the time was known as the "Yellow Peril" from the East. Even though Doctor Fu Manchu was half Oriental and educated in Europe and America his roots were still deeply embedded in the Oriental culture and history. Fu Manchu's attempt to get hold of Genghis Khan's power and legacy as the greatest Oriental conquerer off all time , through his mask and sword, was to finish the job that the great Khan started some 700 years ago: The brutal conquest of the both Christian and Islamic West.
The movie's racism can be easily overlooked in that it was made at a time,1932, when it-racism-was not even considered a dirty word and in fact was not found in many, if any at all, of the English dictionaries of that time. Also the racism in the film was an equal opportunity employer in that it insulted not only Orientals but Europeans as well. Not that the film intensionally made the European, or white, explores good guys at the expense of the Chinese and Mongolians but in fact made them look unintentionally ridicules, in retrospect, in their narrow minded and unfounded opinion's about them.