Iron Man Week: The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu

There's no hero in armor in this one, but Peter Sellers (in his final film role) stars as an ancient and mysterious Chinese wizard of sorts.  Though there was a nod to Iron Man's nemesis the Mandarin in the first Iron Man film (the terrorist gang is called "The Ten Rings",) there's nothing quite like that in Iron Man 2.  I think Iron Man needs to face off against the Mandarin, if only because it would get away from the enemies always being other armored characters.  I'm not sure how the Marvel films would deal with a character like the Mandarin, but in my mind, Peter Sellers' Dr. Fumanchu has always been a kind of goofy template for such a character.

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu isn't a lost classic by any stretch, but it's a movie I loved as a kid.  It kind of felt like a weird cousin to things like the Apple Dumpling Gang and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Big Trouble in Little China's Lo Pan might be a better 1980's prototype for the Mandarin, but this film is so goofy and the ending comes from so far out of left field that I thought this would be a fun pick to represent the as-yet unseen villain in the Iron Man universe.  Here's the first couple of minutes of Fu Manchu, courtesy of the YouTubes.