Sumuru is a female

supervillain A supervillain or supercriminal is a variant of the villainous stock character that is commonly found in American comic books, usually possessing superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero. Supervillains are oft ...

created by

Sax Rohmer Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da ...

, author of the

Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, comic ...

series of novels. She first appeared in a 1945-1946 BBC radio serial, which was rewritten as a novel in 1950. Four more novels were published between 1951 and 1956. Two movies were then made in the 1960s and one more in 2003.

Character biography and analysis

Like her criminal mastermind forerunner Dr. Fu Manchu, the beautiful Sumuru leads a secret organization aimed at taking control of the world. Sumuru's society, the Order of Our Lady, recruits beautiful women to seduce and exploit men in order to establish a matriarchal world order.

Radio

After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Rohmer was approached by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

to do a radio serial. As the BBC did not wish to offend the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

(Britain's ally in the war), Rohmer used the same basic plots with a female mastermind named Sumuru. The series ''Shadow of Sumuru'' was broadcast from 1945-1946 on the

BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...

in eight half-hour shows with Anna Burden and

Robert Beatty Robert Rutherford Beatty (19 October 1909 – 3 March 1992) was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK. Early years Beatty was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, O ...

in the cast.

Novels

In 1950, Rohmer published his radio serial as a novel entitled ''The Sins of Sumuru''. The American Fawcett Gold Medal paperback publishing house printed it under the title ''Nude in Mink'', against Rohmer's wishes. When the book went into a second printing in a month's time, the publisher commissioned a book series, with the first four books having different titles in the U.K. and the U.S. *''The Sins of Sumuru'' (U.K.) / ''Nude in Mink'' (U.S.) (1950) *''The Slaves of Sumuru'' (U.K.) / ''Sumuru'' (U.S.) (1951) *''Virgin in Flames'' (U.K.) / ''The Fire Goddess'' (U.S.) (1952) *''Sand and Satin'' (U.K.) / ''Return of Sumuru'' (U.S.) (1954) *''Sinister Madonna'' (U.S. and U.K.) (1956) *''The Sumuru Omnibus'' (2011) compiled by John Robert Colombo At the request of his American publishers, Rohmer added more explicit sexual content in the Sumuru series than was seen in his previous works.

Anthony Boucher William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio d ...

described the 1954 installment as "melodrama almost as entertainingly Perelmanesque as the exploits of the evil Doctor." He later praised ''Sinister Madonna'' as "outrageously enjoyable", describing it as "critically indefensible, but my God, such fun . . . !" On the other hand, the 1988 ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' found Rohmer's work wanting: "The Sumuru novels are second-rate, in some cases thematic recyclings of earlier, better, work. Unlike the Fu Manchu books, they contain no main protagonist in the mold of Nayland Smith, although the hero of he 1929 novel''The Emperor of America'' is a continuing character. Broken by Sumuru, he struggles back in the final Sumuru novel, ''Sinister Madonna'', which ends on an uncertain note and with the promise of a sequel which was not to be."

Films

Harry Alan Towers Harry Alan Towers (19 October 1920 – 31 July 2009) was a British radio and independent film producer and screenwriter. He wrote numerous screenplays for the films he produced, often under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck. He produced over 80 ...

, who had produced the

film series in the mid-1960s with

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...

, produced his first two Sumuru films featuring

Shirley Eaton Shirley Jean Eaton (born 12 January 1937) is an English actress, author and singer. Eaton appeared regularly in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and gained her highest profile for her iconic appearance as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in ...

as Sumuru. Years later, he produced yet another Sumuru film in 2003. The third film took its basic plot premise from the books, but set it in the far future. * ''

The Million Eyes of Sumuru ''The Million Eyes of Sumuru'' is a 1967 British spy film produced by Harry Alan Towers, directed by Lindsay Shonteff and filmed at the Shaw Brothers studios in Hong Kong. It stars Frankie Avalon and George Nader, with Shirley Eaton as the title ...

'' (1967), starring

and directed by

Lindsay Shonteff Lindsay Craig Shonteff (5 November 1935 – 11 March 2006) was a Canadian born film director, film producer and screenwriter who achieved fame for low-budget films produced in the United Kingdom. Biography Lindsay Shonteff was born in Toronto, O ...

* '' The Girl from Rio'' (1969), starring Shirley Eaton and directed by

Jess Franco Jess is a unisex given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Jessica, Jesse, Jessie, etc., and a surname. It may refer to: Given name * Jess Atkinson (born 1961), American football player * Jess Cain (1926–2008), American radio host * J ...

* '' Sumuru'' (2003), starring

Alexandra Kamp Alexandra Kamp-Groeneveld (born 29 December 1966) is a German model and actress. Biography She was born in Karlsruhe to Peter Kamp and his wife and grew up in Baden-Baden. She visited drama schools in New York, Los Angeles and Paris before s ...

and directed by

Darrell Roodt Darrell James Roodt (born in Johannesburg, 28 April 1962) is a South African film director, screenwriter and producer. He is probably most well known for his 1992 film '' Sarafina!'' which starred actress Whoopi Goldberg. Also regarded as South ...

It has been noted that in ''

'', the character's matriarchal goals are subverted by the filmmakers' insistence on ultimately upholding traditional gender roles: "Sumuru... leads an all-girl cult that rejects marriage as male-dominated and focuses on breeding children without benefit of clergy in order to build a new civilization. The movie turns all of this into a

Bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...

knockoff right down to Sumuru -- who decrees that execution is the punishment for her followers who fall in love -- melting into West's arms and telling him she needs a man to take her and dominate her." The 1969 sequel also undercut the character's pseudo-feminist agenda by bowing to current fashion: "In esúsFranco's ''The Girl from Rio'', Sumuru and her Amazons are transported to the future city of "Femina", actually Brazil's own future city,

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

. Once more the core business is the seduction, financial ruin and destruction of her rich male victims. However, herein

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion boutiques. Stre ...

plastic capes and " kinky boots" are the order of the day. But in attempting '60s kitsch, Franco fails to hit the mark."

Notes

External links