CAROLE GRAY IN 'BRIDES OF FU MANCHU' WITH CHRISTOPHER LEE

Title: THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU Year: 1966 Rating: ***1/2

Christopher Lee's version of author Sax Rohmer's nefarious Asian mastermind FU MANCHU makes like a James Bond villain that Lee would become in the next decade... herein seeking to take over the world by kidnapping the daughters of scientists who will help build the weapon to do so...

It's a shame that this plot-line's given away up front, in every online and video-box description, because the film leads the audience, and their classy Scotland Yard hero Nayland Smith (Douglas Wilmer), into a mystery-genre investigation as to why gorgeous gals Carole Gray and Marie Versini have become the least brain-washed of a dozen of Manchu's titular scantily-clad background BRIDES...

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

All living/locked inside a cavernous dungeon contrasting to officious expository-spouting boardrooms as brunette/full-lipped British scream-queen Gray... following CURSE OF THE FLY, DEVILS OF DARKNESS and ISLAND OF TERROR... has her most energetic role as a knife-wielding firebrand, who both saves lives and takes them, elegantly contrasting with Versini's more vulnerably and chaste, sophisticated French ingenue...

Meanwhile the already legendary Hammer antagonist Christopher Lee speaks very little... as the most work's done by his primary female henchman in another Bond-actor, Asian beauty Tsai Chin, hypnotizing the girls with a touch of her hands in an even more hands-on role than the titular boss: making BRIDES OF FU MANCHU matter most when the good or bad vixens are on screen.

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray and Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee, Carole Gray and Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee, Carole Gray and Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Sally Sheridan and Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Sally Sheridan and Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU with Christopher Lee

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU with Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee and Burt Kwouk in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee and Burt Kwouk in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

From THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray and Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU with Salmaan Peerzada

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray and Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray and Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray and Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray and Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Yvonne Ekmann and Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee, Carole Gray and Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee and Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Douglas Wilmer in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Tsai Chin in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray and Marie Versini in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU

Carole Gray in THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU