Christopher Lee: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

And 5 That Sucked...

5. Dr. Fu Manchu - The Face Of Fu Manchu (1965)

There's always controversy when an actor of one race or colour attempts to play a character of another race or colour, whether it's Mickey Rooney's supporting role in Breakfast at Tiffany's or Laurence Olivier blacking up to play Othello. Lee's appearances as Fu Manchu haven't come in from as much attention, with neither the films nor the character being widely known in today's society. But they are just as problematic as the other examples I've cited, and hence worthy of a place on this list. The Face of Fu Manchu is the first of five films made in the 1960s based on Sax Rohmer's novels. The title character is a Chinese criminal mastermind, believed dead at the start of the film but eventually found to be operating in a base beneath the River Thames in London. There he is holding Professor Muller hostage, whose research holds the key to the secrets of a deadly Tibetan flower. It is up to Fu Manchu's arch-nemesis, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, to track him down and save London from catastrophe. Notwithstanding the racist connotations of Fu Manchu as a character, Lee's performance in the title role is very uninspiring. He does nothing to justify the character's reputation as a famed super-villain, phoning in his dialogue and looking distinctly bored in many of his scenes. Even Peter Sellers, who parodied the role in his equally bad final film, has more presence in the famous moustache than he achieves here. Considering that Sellers was severely ill with heart disease at the time, that's a pretty big indictment of Lee's performance.