i have see several fu manchu film and he be a popular character from the 1920s all the way up to the 1970s have appear in many american and british film and serial . he be a demented and power mad genius sort of like dr. no or blofeld or dr. evil . however and in this rather listless installment and the menace of evil be very and very subdued and the film never deliver on it promise . unlike other fu manchu film and in this one he be not the main character . warner oland play manchu and look a lot like his charlie chan character . he be only in about 10 minute worth of film despite his high billing in the movie . his purpose be to see anna may wong character and reveal to her that she be his daughter and that he expect her to help him carry out his revenge . so and one day and wong be a sweet cabaret dancer and the next she expect to carry out a plan for murder and at first she agree wholeheartedly . have her become his evil accomplice wasn not a bad idea and but what sink this film be by have manchu kill soon after this . this brilliant villain sure wasn not very careful and get himself kill rather easily . additionally and wong character be a real negative because she never really could make up her mind whether or not to be evil spending so much of the film bounce back and forth and in the process lose all the cruel menace that should be part of any fu manchu picture . an additional deficit in the film be how they use veteran actor sessue hayakawa . i wasn not upset to see a japanese man play a chinese man heck and for hollywood and that a lot close to realistic than the usual white westerner play asian role of the era . instead it be a completely mindless plot device throw into the film towards the end . while his and wong character barely interact and there be a love scene that appear out of no where and make no sense since the lady be already in love with another man . it look a if there may have originally be much more to this but it be somehow cut and at least in part and from the film and they forget to completely remove trace of this subplot . so and what look like an exciting adventure film turn out to be a rather dull little film . the only big plus for the film be the great set they really be cool and make this b movie look more like a high budget feature film . so much promise so little delivered .