Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown
Made before the Hays Code, The Mask of Fu Manchu packs quite a fetishistic kick. There's a little something for everyone here: scenes of the evil doctor preparing to torture the handsome fiancé of the blonde heroine, stroking his victim's naked chest with his long fingernails before injecting him with a serum that will turn him into a slave. A kinky sequence where the young man is whipped by two semi-naked black minions of Fu Manchu's daughter (played by Myrna Loy in yellowface). Loy's character is clearly enjoying the spectacle, but her heart still belongs to Daddy.
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John
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Sep 12, 2015 05:02PM
Myrna Loy in yellowface? What an idea. I added a brief comment to your column.
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She struggled until she landed the role of Nora Charles. Did you watch the clip? Creepy!
Yes, I watched it. A bit unpleasant, a bit shocking: creepy, in a word.
I'm reading a Somerset Maugham bio now, thinking about all the sexual shenanigans that went on in his plays and fiction, well before the First World War and into the twenties. Pre-Code films could be quite risqué. There was even miscegenation!
Your mention of Maugham reminds me that I have little idea what went on in Britain at the time America, presumably responding in part to its Protestant and Puritan heritage, clamped down on licentiousness in films.
Jass wrote: "Is that how one acquires a kink?: from a fetishistic kick! (Lordy, Lordy, where to put that question mark)How I love following others onto other others trippy reviews.
Thank you, and now I want to see it."
LOL. I believe "The Mask of Fu Manchu" is out there somewhere for streaming.
"Oh and my favourite Somerset Maugham is The Moon and Sixpence. Can the depths of passion and malice ever be better brought to life.
On Maugham, I'm thoroughly enjoying Selena Hastings' The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography. It's making me appreciate Maugham as a man. Poor guy was desperate for love.
