Dear Sam,

As to who was the best Fu Manchu, my guess would be Warner Oland, as he was very much associated with that role when he was chosen to portray Charlie Chan. In fact, there is even an "in-joke" reference to Fu Manchu in the words of a song that Charlie Chan sings to a group of children in "Charlie Chan in Shanghai."

I believe that the films you mention are available for viewing. Admittedly, I have never seen them, though!

Sincerely,
Rush

I would guess Oland was the best Fu Manchu. He is only One of Two actors to play him more than once(The other actor is Christopher Lee), however Boris Karloff is the most famous Fu Manchu. There was a book (I think it was called "Saturday Afternoon At The Bijou"), which had chapters on different movie characters(Like Frankenstein, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Blondie, even Charlie Chan as well as Fu Manchu and there was a picture of Warner Oland as Fu Manchu). Very good book from the 1970's.

Yes, the 3 Fu films were originally produced by Paramount and now owned by Universal. UCLA has restored them and they look incredible. Sadly, there are rights issues on all three films and they are tied up, thus negating television and video releases.