The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980)

Directed by Piers Haggard. Starring Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, David Tomlinson, Steve Franken, Sid Caesar, Simon Williams, John Sharp, Kwan-Young Lee, Stratford Johns, John Le Mesurier. [PG]

Sellers does what he loved to do best—inhabit multiple comedic roles in the same movie, allowing him to play in a sandbox with various get-ups, props, accents, and so forth—but he doesn’t do it well in the final film he completed during his lifetime. His failing health almost certainly contributed to his tired, uninspired schtick as ancient Fu Manchu and his Scotland Yard nemesis, Nayland Smith, but he’s also ill-served by the tedious, witless writing that sets up the premise (Fu Manchu must recreate a lost elixir of immortality) and forgets to go anywhere with it or provide humorous gags. Every once in a long while, a chuckle will squeak through, but the rest of the experience is truly tiresome, and the supporting cast fails across the board to do what they’re supposed to do: support. But by all means, stick around to the end to see a revitalized Fu Manchu, dressed Elvis-style, belting a song called “Rock-a-Fu”, if you’re a glutton for punishment. Also the final film of David Tomlinson, best remembered as Mr. Banks from Mary Poppins.

21/100