THE FIENDISH PLOT OF FU MANCHU

Peter Sellers and Helen Mirren

THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU (1980). Director: Piers Haggard.

On Dr. Fu Manchu's (Peter Sellers) 168th birthday, his life-sustaining elixir vitae is spilled, and he orders his loyal men to run about stealing the necessary ingredients. Naturally this alerts his longtime adversary, Nayland Smith (also played by Peter Sellers), who has become a little strange after being tortured by the Si-Fan, the group of which Fu is leader. Suspecting that the queen may be a target, Smith has her impersonated by policewoman Alice Rage (Helen Mirren), who is kidnapped by Fu -- and falls in love with him! If you're looking for an inventive laugh riot, look elsewhere, for Fiendish Plot is a mediocre film despite the genius of Peter Sellers, the film's chief saving grace. Helen Mirren [Phil Spector] shows why she became so famous with her excellent portrayal of the kind of schizoid Alice, and David Tomlinson scores as Sir Roger Avery with Scotland Yard. Sid Ceasar does what he can as an FBI agent who, unfortunately, keeps referring to Chinese people as "chinks" throughout the movie, another black mark against the production. Clement Harari as dietitian Dr. Wretch and John Le Mesurier as Smith's valet Perkins are more suitably cast. Fiendish Plot does have a small share of chuckles, and one laugh-out-loud moment involving a mechanical spider. but it lacks pacing and suspense, which is required even for a parody. Fu also employs a big plant that emits a sleeping gas, while Smith's country cottage contains a balloon through which he and his associates fly off in the cottage to the Himalayas to confront Fu, who becomes a rock star with a "Rock a Fu" production number. This was executive produced by Hugh Hefner when Playboy wanted to get into the movie game, which everyone probably regretted. (Hefner was also exec. producer for Kim Novak's TV vehicle The Third Girl from the Left.)  Piers Haggard also directed one of my favorite movies, A Summer Story, which is about a zillion times better than this; genre movies were not his forte. Sadly, this was Peter Sellers' last movie.

Verdict: Not Fu's -- or Sellers'-- finest hour. **

THE GUILT OF JANET AMES

Rosalind Russell lost in a fantasy

THE GUILT OF JANET AMES (1947). Director: Henry Levin.

Janet Ames (Rosalind Russell) is a war widow whose husband died throwing himself on a grenade, thereby saving the lives of five men. A bitter Janet decides to find out if these five men were worthier of life than her husband, but the problem is the method the film employs to help her do so. Instead of actually meeting these men (aside from one of them) Janet encounters an alcoholic reporter named "Smitty" (Melvyn Douglas) who helps her fantasize about these men in tiresome dream sequences, supposedly inspired by a character in Peter Ibbetson. [One of these men is comic Sid Caesar of Curse of the Black Widow playing, well, a comic.] Smitty has his own dark secret, relating to Janet's husband, and Janet also has to face some harsh truths about her marriage. The premise is excellent, and this is -- or could have been -- strong, adult material, but the screenplay and approach are silly and pull the viewer out of the story despite some interesting developments. Russell and Douglas both give excellent performances, however. Arthur Space [Target Earth], Hugh Beaumont [Murder is My Business], and Harry von Zell are also in the cast.

Verdict: Perhaps well-intentioned, but it just doesn't work. **.

CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW

CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW (1977 telefilm). Director: Dan Curtis. Originally presented as an ABC Friday Night Movie.

A woman comes into a bar and asks for help with her car. A guy named Frank obliges, and is later found dead and drained of blood. His fiancee, Leigh (Donna Mills), asks one of the men who was in the bar that night, private investigator Mark Higbie (Tony Franciosa of Wild is the Wind) to find out what happened, as she's under suspicion because her first husband died at sea under mysterious circumstances. Higbie learns that there were several previous victims found in the same condition and one witness saw what appeared to be a giant spider leaving the scene. Could Leigh's family be under some kind of mystical curse?  ... This is an utterly absurd but entertaining horror film with good performances from Franciosa, Mills, Patty Duke Astin as Leigh's fraternal twin sister, Max Gail as a cop, and even June Allyson [The Shrike] as Leigh's aunt [you have to see her caught in a spider web]! The cast even includes Sid Caesar as a landlord, Vic Morrow [Great White] as a detective, Jeff Corey [Seconds] as a caretaker, and June Lockhart as a mysterious old lady locked in an attic. Roz Kelly nearly steals the show as Mark's spirited and funny secretary. The effects are not exactly high-tech but serviceable.The best thing about the movie is the ad [see photo]. Dan Curtis directed many made-for-TV horror films such as The Night Strangler, as well as such theatrical films as Burnt Offerings.

Verdict: Tarantula is way better but this has its moments. **1/2.