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Adventure / Mysticism - Serial Thriller (1939 - 40?)
 The Shadow of Fu Manchu presented radio adventure derived from
the Sax Rohmer novels "The Insidious Fu Manchu", "The
Hand of Fu Manchu", and "The Return of Fu Manchu".
The insidious Oriental criminal mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu (like Conan
Doyle's Dr. Moriatry) were a very popular villain between the World
Wars. Today they are still enjoyed by fans of pulp fiction as classics
of the late-Edwardian style.
 The fifteen minute serial follows in the footsteps of Holmes/Watson
in that Nayland Smith, an officer in the British Army on special
assignment, and his smart cohort Dr. James Petrie are the savvy
detectives who face Fu Manchu's many machinations. John Daly did
a great, albeit restrained and cold-blooded radio acting job as
the insidious Dr. Fu. Hanley Stafford is perfect as Nayland Smith
and Gale Gordon is Dr. Petrie, a Dr. Watson type friend and confidant
who offers medical expertise and serves as a second to Nayland.
Gale Gordon went on to be one of radio's famed actors, appearing
on a host of shows including Burns and Allen, and featured as Mayor
LaTrivia on Fibber McGee and Molly,
Rumson Bullard on The Great Gildersleeve,
and Principal Osgood Conklin, on Our Miss Brooks.
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2007 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited. The continuing saga recounts harrowing adventures in foggy London
with an exotic foe from the shadowy Orient. Fu Manchu's a master
of the obscure arts of the East - green mists, vipers, fungus, unknown
drugs, biological weapons... yet Dr. Fu Manchu is only the tip of
a shadow network of terror and evil from the East. This is nothing
at all like our favorite Hawaiian detective of Chinese honorable
ancestors, Mr. Charlie Chan.
Unlike the kid's superhero exploits of Captain
Midnight, The Green Hornet,
or Superman, the Shadow of
Fu Manchu is an earlier radio serial done in the more general
audience style of I Love a Mystery. Music, sound effects
and the acting are first-rate, and the theme, played at the beginning
and end of each show, is a minute that allows for local sponsor
messages. This show had topical relevance in 1939, and it has topical
relevance today. Ultimately, it's diabolical fun in the grand criminal
manner.
For more mystic radio shows, see also: The Green Lama and
Chandu the Magician .
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