Breaking the Commandments - Pre-Code Hollywood: The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
It’s a race between the British Secret Service and Dr. Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) to find the lost tomb of Ghenghis Khan. The Brits had best be the first to break ground lest the merciless Chinese madman — with a British Accent and decked out in an Asian woman’s ceremonial wedding gown — convinces his followers that he’s the rebirth of the great Mongol warlord. Here you’ll find something to offend everyone: the film’s portrait of a violent, power-hungry potentate whose goal it is to engage the white devil in a race war, was slammed by the Chinese government on its initial release. The Japanese American Citizens League later declared it “offensive and demeaning to Asian-Americans". #MeToo followers will no doubt be shocked to hear Myrna Loy described by the good doctor as his “ugly and insignificant” daughter. And what’s all this talk of "Kill the white man and take his women!" Fu on political correctness! This unseemly, ravishingly designed picture — the type one would never expect from the otherwise weighty studios of M-G-M — is the most fun you’ll have at the movies this month.