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The Adventures of Fu Manchu

 

 
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The Adventures of Fu Manchu
 
 
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The Adventures of Fu Manchu was a 1956 American television series.

From September 3, 1956 till November 26, 1956, Hollywood Television Service, a subsidiary of Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures is an in-name only independent film, television, and video distribution company that was originally a movie production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, best known for its specialization in quality B-film pictures, Western and movie Serial s....
 produced a 13-episode syndicated programme, The Adventures of Fu Manchu. The show featured Glen Gordon (13 Mar 1914-16 September 1972) as Dr Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu

Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character first featured in a series of novels by English author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century....
, Lester Matthews
Lester Matthews

Lester Matthews was an English people actor born on the 6 June 1900 in Nottingham. In his career, he made more than 180 appearances in film and on television....
 as Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, Clark Howat as Dr John Petrie, Carla Balenda as Betty Leonard, Laurette Luez as Karamaneh and John George as Kolb (his dwarf flunkey).

Republic Pictures had paid US$4 Million to Sax Rohmer
Sax Rohmer

Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward , better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific England novelist. He is most remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr....
 and announced they would film 78 episodes, but only 13 were made.

Each episode would start off with a chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
 game, with a narrator
Narrator

A narrator is, within any story , the entity that tells the story to the audience. The narrator --or, the archaic female equivalent, narratress-- is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind....
 telling us that the white pieces were good/life and the black pieces bad/death; that the Devil was said to play chess for men's souls and so does Fu Manchu who is evil incarnate.






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The Adventures of Fu Manchu was a 1956 American television series.

From September 3, 1956 till November 26, 1956, Hollywood Television Service, a subsidiary of Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures is an in-name only independent film, television, and video distribution company that was originally a movie production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, best known for its specialization in quality B-film pictures, Western and movie Serial s....
 produced a 13-episode syndicated programme, The Adventures of Fu Manchu. The show featured Glen Gordon (13 Mar 1914-16 September 1972) as Dr Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu

Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character first featured in a series of novels by English author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century....
, Lester Matthews
Lester Matthews

Lester Matthews was an English people actor born on the 6 June 1900 in Nottingham. In his career, he made more than 180 appearances in film and on television....
 as Sir Dennis Nayland Smith, Clark Howat as Dr John Petrie, Carla Balenda as Betty Leonard, Laurette Luez as Karamaneh and John George as Kolb (his dwarf flunkey).

Republic Pictures had paid US$4 Million to Sax Rohmer
Sax Rohmer

Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward , better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific England novelist. He is most remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr....
 and announced they would film 78 episodes, but only 13 were made.

Each episode would start off with a chess
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two Player . Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from History of chess and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older...
 game, with a narrator
Narrator

A narrator is, within any story , the entity that tells the story to the audience. The narrator --or, the archaic female equivalent, narratress-- is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind....
 telling us that the white pieces were good/life and the black pieces bad/death; that the Devil was said to play chess for men's souls and so does Fu Manchu who is evil incarnate. At the end of each episode, after Nayland Smith and Petrie had foiled Fu Manchu's latest fiendish scheme, he would signify that it was over by breaking a black chess piece.

The series was directed by noted serial director Franklin Adreon
Franklin Adreon

Franklin "Pete" Adreon was a movie director/producer for many movies and commercials in the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's. A Marine Reservist during the 30s, he served in the United States Marine Corps in World War II....
 as well as William Witney
William Witney

William Nuelsen Witney was an United States film director. He is most famous for the movie serials he co-directed with John English for Republic Pictures such as Daredevils of the Red Circle, Zorro's Fighting Legion and Drums of Fu Manchu....
. Unlike the Holmes/Watson type relationship of the films, the series featured Smith as a law enforcement officer and Petrie using his medical knowledge to complement each other.

The series was similar in some ways to a serial but each episode ended in a resolution rather than a cliffhanger
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....
. Republic sent out a film crew to Hong Kong to shoot background footage and supplied stock footage
Stock footage

Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that is not custom shot for use in a specific film or television program....
 from its library of films.

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