The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930) User Reviews

Early talkie creaks a bit, still has some chills.

[Steve-171 · 5/10 · 7 April 1999]

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 price I pay for being a sought after celebrity"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 5/10 · 14 July 2022]

The sequel to 'The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu' of 1929 and it's more of the same thing but not an improvement except perhaps for Warner Oland as Fu Manchu who is more of a dastardly villain than in the first film and dominates all the scenes he is in. Most of the main cast from the previous film return but pale beside Mr. Oland. Unfortunately William Austin as Sylvester returns and is just as irritating as before and O. P. Heggie makes a bland Nayland Smith, not the vigorous character of the original books. Jean Arthur looks lovely in her white dress but doesn't have much to do but wilt now and then. The sets are adequate though the camera being mostly static doesn't make full use of them. Watchable only for Warner Oland.

Not genre, Not really good

[gengar843 · 5/10 · 7 November 2021]

THE STORY & GENRE -- Fu Manchu wants to take over the world. There is very little or no genre here. Rowland Lee directs, Warner Oland stars.

THE VERDICT -- Similar to MYSTERIOUS DR. FU MANCHU (1929), it's predecessor, but a bit better. This isn't saying much, and you might just end up fast-forwarding though the talkier parts.

FREE ONLINE -- Yes, under the title "Resurrected 1930" if you look.

Insufferable sequel, though the last 2 minutes are reasonably exciting!

[gridoon2024 · 4/10 · 30 May 2018]

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.

Interesting Early Talkie Sequel

[robluvthebeach · 27 November 2011]

Watched both the Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu and the Return of Dr Fu Manchu back to back online. The Return of Dr Fu Manchu picked up not far after where the first movie ended with the "funeral" of Dr Fu Manchu and subsequent 'rise' from the grave. It also had Jean Arthur and Neil Hamilton appropriately recovering from the incident and then making plans to get married. What happened during the ceremony set up the plot and action to move everything forward. The characters who survived the first film carried over into the second with the addition of new characters who neatly fit into the plot line. The suspense and tension was prevalent in this film more than the second and had a more ominous feel. Warner Oland, Neil Hamilton and Jean Arthur did wonderfully in their roles and were much more comfortable the second time around. The lowbrow humor provided by the William Austin character of Sylvester was more distracting than funny and took away from the suspenseful atmosphere. Interesting ending for the film, which did not preclude any further sequels with the cast. Worth a watch.

You can't keep a good ghoul down!

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 12 August 2014]

It's more of the same as the vengeful Fu Manchu makes a sudden return from the dead just as former ward Jean Arthur is about to marry Neil Hamilton. Nelly Sylvester the butler is back too with his stereotypical prattle. If you can get thru the funeral opening (where an Asian chorus wails like our of tune bees) without getting a headache, then you're set for managing to make it through the remainder of this sequel.

More bad acting from the three stars and Evelyn Hall as an uppity society matron who confronts Fu Manchu out of shear stupidly. Oland's motives, fairly plausible in the first film, just become maddening here, and his acting far more mannered and labored. Arthur seems like a B actress in a serial and needed much more training to get to the top where she was better served in comedy. Hamilton is fairly spared embarrassment. Of character actors cast in obviously gay roles, William Austin is one of the most obnoxious. Add in O.P. Heggie for further over-acting which is up there with those delightfully silly Tod Slaughter British melodramas. The only thing Oland doesn't do is twirl his mustache.

Early Hollywood Racism - The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu

[arthur_tafero · 4/10 · 6 October 2022]

I have always enjoyed the intelligent films made by Warner Oland as Charlie Chan (as there were no native Chinese actors who could have played that role in the 1930s). However, I found his Fu Manchu series to be quite inferior for a few reasons. The blatant racist implications of the "pure" white race being threatened by the "Yellow Peril" is highly prevalent in this film. This, of course, was a pure Hollywood fabrication, because generally speaking, criminals in Chinese society seldom, if ever, ventured outside of Chinatown, and never got involved with situations involving non-Chinese. The last thing these people needed was attention from the legal authorities of the city they were operating in. Not my cup of Green Tea.

Talkative but never boring nor lousy

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 18 July 2022]

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.