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Cowboys, Creatures, and Classic: The Story of Republic Pictures
Drums of Fu Manchu premiered in the spring of 1940. The creepy chapter play featured a race of bald-headed, fanged slaves known as “Dacoits” who had been lobotomized into doing the bidding of the immortal and insidious Doctor Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu hopes to conquer Asia and subsequently the world but needs specific artifacts from the tomb of Genghis Khan to achieve his goal.
In Los Angeles, California, he convenes a meeting of the S-Far, an international conspiracy group that helps him draw up his plans. When archeologist Dr. James Parker is killed so Fu Manchu can obtain rare scrolls in his possession, his son Allan joins forces with Sir Denis Nayland Smith of the British Foreign Office to avenge his father’s death.
The sixteen frightful-looking “Dacoits” who contributed many of the thrills to Drums of Fu Manchu were a product of the makeup artists Bob Mark’s wizardry. The normal-looking people became grotesque monsters in Mark’s hands.
Rubber caps entirely covered their hair, giving them the impression of baldness. These caps, which could be worn only once, were specially manufactured at the cost of five dollars each. They were fitted tightly over the “Dacoit’s” heads, and heavy, theatrical grease paint was applied over them. The scars, which represented the incisions where Dr. Fu Manchu had removed the frontal lobes of their brain, were made of a special rubber composition and were held in place by rubber cement. The makeup of Fu Manchu himself, an elaboration of the “Dacoit’s” makeup, took exactly 2.5 hours each day to apply.
The fifteen-part Fu Manchu series was directed by William Witney. He considered Fu Manchu to be his finest work.
