The Terror of the Tongs

I fondly remember this film as it was the first X certificate film I ever saw.I was 14 at the time and I saw it in a double bill with Forgo at the ABC Golders Green.This is a Hammer film but not a horror film.It is set in a very studio bound Hong Kong.Nearly all of the main oriental characters are played by European actors.Christopher Lee plays the black hearted tong leader.He has a secret ally in the Hong Kong establishment.There is some violence,a torture scene which seems as if the torturer is an expert in acupuncture.There is also a great deal of Axe throwing.It is difficult at this distance in time to understand why the film was awarded an X certificate.The writer,the ubiquitous Jimmy Sangster,seems to included many plot elements from Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu films.

To enjoy this movie you must ignore that most of the 'Chinese' are played by obviously English actors. That was how it was done back then. Hammer worked with limited budgets but almost always came up with suspenseful and colourful movies. Christopher Lee plays his role with his usual aplomb, whilst the rest of the cast made up of many familiar faces keeps the movie rolling along. I first saw this movie over thirty years ago and it took me quite a while to track down a copy on VHS but to this day I still enjoy it immensely. Don't regard it as a piece of art. It's an adventure film in the same vein as Big Trouble in Little China, done very well for the small money and time they had to make it.

Hammer Studios once again proves that they knew no bounds when it came to film making. Here we see a tale of corruption, torture, murder and revenge and it actually works very well for a studio renowned for it's horror films. Christopher Lee plays the leader of, *The Red Dragon Tong* in Hong Kong at the beginning of the 20th century, this organization used torture and murder to keep the people of the city under it's rule and when they kill an English sea Captain's daughter in an attempt to keep information from being brought before the authorities, the film becomes a story of revenge with scenes of torture and murder. Hammer Studios did a great job with this film and if you're a Hammer fan, this is definitely a film you'll want to see.

In 1910 Hong Kong Christopher Lee plays Chung King, an evil leader of tongs who will kill anyone who stands in their way of their slave and opium trade. A sea captain (Geoffrey Toone) battles them when his daughter is murdered. Violence follows and then bodies begin piling up. Unusual Hammer film--not really a horror movie--more like a violent action film. Lee is having a whale of a time playing King and Toone is OK in his role. Everyone else is pretty terrible--especially pretty Yvonne Monlaur and all the Asian actors. The low budget does show and the script is sort of scattershot. I'm giving it a 7 because it's no longer than it needs to be (79 minutes), Lee is very good, there's some beautiful color photography and some pretty strong bloody violence for 1961--but then this IS a Hammer film. Worth seeing on a slow day.