The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu is a 1980 comedy film, notable as the final film of Peter Sellers, David Tomlinson and John Le Mesurier. Pre-production began with Richard Quine as director. By the time the film entered production, Piers Haggard had replaced him. Peter Sellers handled the re-shoots himself.[1] Based on characters created by Sax Rohmer, the film stars Sellers in the dual role of Fu Manchu, a stereotypical Chinese evil genius,[2] and English country gentleman detective Nayland Smith (he also appears in an uncredited cameo as a Mexican bandito). Released less than a month after his death and despite it being the last film Sellers appeared in while he was alive, the film was a commercial and critical failure.


Sellers had previously recorded a 1955 Goon Show entitled The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu-Manchu [3] set in 1895. In the film his Fu insists friends call him "Fred" and that he had once been the groundsman at Eton.
In addition to Sellers, the film features Sid Caesar as FBI agent Joe Capone, David Tomlinson as Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Roger Avery, Simon Williams as his bumbling nephew and Helen Mirren as Police Constable Helen Rage (her performance is notable for her singing the Music Hall standard, "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow").
Burt Kwouk, Sellers' longtime co-star in The Pink Panther films, makes a cameo appearance as a Fu Manchu minion who accidentally destroys the elixir vita, prompting the inside joke that Fu thinks he looks familiar (possibly a veiled reference to Kwouk's two uncredited appearances in the "Fu Manchu" films of Christopher Lee). John Le Mesurier has a small part in the film as Nayland-Smith's butler.
Unlike other Fu Manchu works, Fu's daughter and Nayland-Smith's friend Dr. Petrie do not appear in the film.

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu was universally panned by critics. Phil Hardy described the film as a "British atrocity".[8] Sellers's ill health and tiredness are clearly visible throughout the film and affected his portrayal of Nayland-Smith, who in comparison to past detectives such as Clouseau, he portrays in a very subdued and quiet fashion. Orange Coast Magazine wrote "Peter Seller's last hurrah isn't nearly as impressive as his recent Being There. Even in the dual roles ... detective and the devious 168-year- old Fu Manchu, he musters only an occasional bright moment.[9] Tom Shales of The Washington Post described the film as "an indefensibly inept comedy",[10] adding that "it is hard to name another good actor who ever made so many bad movies as Sellers, a comedian of great gifts but ferociously faulty judgment. "Manchu" will take its rightful place alongside such colossally ill-advised washouts as Tell Me Where It Hurts, The Bobo and The Prisoner of Zenda"


Peter Sellers gets to play both hero and bad guy at the same time in this comedy variation on Sax Rohmer's infamous stories of Asian super-villian Fu Manchu. The 168-year-old Fu Manchu (Sellers) is starting to run out of the youth-preserving formula that has kept him alive and kicking for the past eight or so decades, and he decides it's high time he made up some more. However, the list of ingredients includes a few items you can't usually get at your corner drug store, and Fu and his minions become a crime wave of their own as they attempt to steal an ancient Egyptian mummy and the Crown Jewels of England. (In the meantime, Fu keeps his heart beating by administering himself the occasional electric shock.) When word gets out that the evil Fu Manchu is back, his long-time nemesis, Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith (also played by Sellers), is put on the case, but like Fu, Smith isn't quite the man he used to be after all these years. Peter Sellers also contributed to the screenplay of The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu without credit, and is said to have briefly taken over as director, though the results lack the snap of his best work; sadly, it would prove to be the great comic's last film. Sid Caesar, Hellen Mirren, and David Tomlinson also appear in the supporting cast.