This film is so obviously the testimony of what the early talkies films were in the thirties. But it remains entertaining, full of mystery and scary atmosphere, but only in the 30's standards, not today ones. So, please, don't be too hard with this Rowland W Lee's movie. Warner Oland is getting pleasure playing Fu Manchu, for our greatest pleasure. You can prefer MGM Charles Brabin's MASK OF FU MANCHU, starring Boris Karloff, though Karloff was a bit less convincing than Oland. For the rest, Brabin's feature was more terrifying, for instance in the torture sequences.

Early talkie features pre-Charlie Chan Warner Oland as maniac Fu Manchu, seeking revenge on murderers of wife and child. Primitive in technique, sound quality poor and camera nailed to the floor for long stretches, and definitely not Sax Rohmer's idea of the Devil Doctor, but still has atmosphere, good snappy ending and a few genuine chills along the way. Try not to gag at the comic relief.

The first film ("The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu") was barely watchable, and this follow-up is not much better. It's about 90% talk and 10% action. Warner Oland has screen charisma but his arch-nemesis, O.P. Heggie (playing Inspector Smith) has almost none, so their supposedly grand "battle of wits" is mostly just a tedious exchange of words. But the last 2 minutes ARE reasonably exciting - if you make it that far. *1/2 out of 4.