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After a train carrying a large amount of gold crashes, it is robbed, with the gold to be smuggled out
of Macao by none other than Fu Manchu (Glen Gordon). Of course Sir
Nayland Smith (Lester Matthews) & surgeon general Dr.Petri (Clark
Howat) are on the case, but their only lead turns out to be an amnesiac
woman (Jean Willes) found besides the corpse of a man who was to be an
undercover agent at Fu Manchu's. Fu Manchu meanwhile tells his
(caucasian) employee Bill (Rick Vallin) to take care of that woman,
unbeknowest that Bill is actually that woman's hubby - my my, do
coincidents happen ?! Bill refuses to
kill her of course, instead wants to escape with her & the gold,
leaving both Fu Manchu & Macao behind forever. But Fu Manchu has
already grown wise to Bill, in the end having him killed when he is
defending his wife - but luckily, Bill was followed by Smith &
Petri, who can clean up Fu Manchu's operations in Macao thanks to Bill's
help. The arch-villain of course escapes as usual.
Republic Pictures' main product was serials & b-movies of
all genres since its founding year 1935. By the mid 50's however
these sources of income had run relatively dry, the serial & the b-
or series-western being a thing of the past (their audiences having long
shifted to television) & the market for b-horrors
& science fiction mainly occupied by AIP & Allied
Artists. So
Republic tried a few rather half hearted stabs at television (besides
this one there was also Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe
from 1953, which was re-using the
lead characters & much footage from a popular latter-day Republic serials, Radar Men from the Moon) before closing
production altogether in the late 50's - the company, mind you, is still
in existence today, mainly living on licensing off their stock.
The Fu Manchu series itself was utterly unremarkable, mainly
shot indoors with outdoor sequences almost entirely consisting of
stock-footage, all pasted together in a so-so way - as was usual with
50's tv series -, there was little to remind audienes of the great
outdoor Republic serials of yesteryear, which were full of stunts & action -
but that also was usual for 50's tv series.
This episode fares little
better or worse than most others of the 13 episodes made, with the
script taking just a few twists & turns too many to stay believable
- that Bill finds out that the woman he is supposed to be killing is of
all people his wife means really stretching it a tad far.
Glen Gordon - a caucasian of course, as was always the case
with Fu Manchu-actors - is actually pretty bad in the lead role, actually doing
precious little to bring the character to life - besides from a phony
accent maybe.
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