''The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu'' is a syndicated American television series that aired in 1956. The show was produced by Hollywood Television Service, a subsidiary of Republic Pictures.

Cast and characters

* Glen Gordon as Dr.

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, com ...

Lester Matthews Arthur Lester Matthews (6 June 1900 – 5 June 1975) was an English actor. In his career, the handsome Englishman made more than 180 appearances in film and on television. He was erroneously credited in later years as Les Matthews. Matthews pla ...

as Sir Denis Nayland Smith *

Clark Howat John Clark Howat (January 22, 1918 – October 30, 2009) was an American film and television actor. Life and career Howat was born in Calaveras County, California. He began his career in 1947, appearing in the Broadway play ''The Wanhop ...

as Dr. John Petrie *

Carla Balenda Carla Balenda (born Sally Bliss, November 22, 1925) is an American former film and television actress. Early life She was born on November 22, 1925, in Carthage, New York, U.S. She attended high school in Baldwin, Long Island, and participated ...

as Nurse Betty LeonardAaker, Everett (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 26–27. *

Laurette Luez Laurette Luez (born Loretta Mary Luiz; August 19, 1928 – September 12, 1999) was an American supporting actress and successful commercial model who appeared in films and on television during a 20-year career. She was a widely known Hollywood ce ...

as Karamaneh * John George as Kolb.

Production

Development

Early in the 1950s, an NBC pilot starring

John Carradine John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later ...

and

Cedric Hardwicke Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and ...

was made, but the sponsors were disappointed in the scripts, and the TV series never materialized. In 1955, Republic Pictures paid US$4 million to

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 ...

and announced they would film 78 episodes, but only 13 were made following a protracted court battle over the rights between Rohmer and the producers.

Details

Each episode would start off with Dr. Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith playing a game of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

with the

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

telling us, "Black and white. Life and death. Good and evil. Two sides of a chess game. Two forces of the universe, one magnificent, the other sinister. It is said the devil plays for men's souls. So does Dr. Fu Manchu, Satan himself, evil incarnate." At the end of each episode, after Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie had foiled Dr. Fu Manchu's latest fiendish scheme, Dr. Fu Manchu would be seen breaking a black chess piece as the closing credits rolled. The series was directed by noted serial director

Franklin Adreon Franklin "Pete" Adreon (November 18, 1902 – September 10, 1979) was an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Early life and career Born in Gambrills, Maryland, Adreon was a Marine Reservist during the 30 ...

, as well as by

William Witney William Nuelsen Witney (May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002) was an American film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serials: '' Dick Tracy Returns'', '' G-Men vs. the Bl ...

. Unlike the Sherlock Holmes/

Dr. Watson John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). The last work by Doyle f ...

type relationship of the films, the series featured Smith as a law enforcement official and Petrie as a staff member of the Surgeon General. The series was similar in some ways to a serial, but each episode ended in a resolution rather than a

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

. Republic sent out a film crew to Hong Kong to shoot background footage and supplied stock footage from its library of films.

Episodes

Feature films

Several of the episodes were put together into

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s that were released in Germany.Bergfelder, Tim ''International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-productions in the 1960s'', Berghahn Books, January 1, 2005, p. 78.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adventures Of Dr. Fu Manchu, The 1956 American television series debuts 1956 American television series endings 1950s American television series Black-and-white American television shows Espionage television series Television shows based on British novels Television series by CBS Studios First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Fu Manchu Television shows filmed in Hong Kong