"Fu Manchu and the Flying Saucer"
"Fu Manchu and the Flying Saucer" (1959) What?
From 1959, where it appeared in the British newspaper supplement THIS WEEK, this is so short a story, just under ten pages, that it's little more than an anecdote. Still, it's interesting in its connection of Fu Manchu with UFOs, two topics seldom mentioned at the same time.
The story was published as "Fu Manchu and the Frightened Redhead", which sounds rather like a Mike Shayne mystery, while Rohmer's intended title was "Secret of the Flying Saucer". None of these titles really give a hint as to what the storiy is about. I suppose "Fu Manchu and the Flying Saucer" would be a fair compromise.
THOROUGH SPOILERS AHEAD But really, there's no other way to discuss a nine page story that is essentially there to just build up to a punchline.
The beginning shows Sax Rohmer in smooth, effortless command of his craft, as a young woman named Pat Merton wakes up confused in a strange room and is returned to her hotel by a comforting stranger. Yes. Well, we know who this odd Swiss scientist with "long, narrow emerald green eyes" has to be and we immediately know something devious is up. Pat meets her squeeze, scientist Bruce Garfield (who has had Scotland Yard searching London for her), and there with him is a familiar friend, still tan and lean and with white streaks in his crisp hair, none other than good old Sir Denis Nayland Smith.
As it turns out, scientists all over the world have been inexplicably disappearing (again...), this time all those who have been working on anti-gravity. Pat's abduction was not meant to hurt her but just to get Bruce out searching for her, so that Fu Mamchu's minions can rob the guy's hotel room of his little working model of a flying saucer. Humph. What nerve. Luckily, Nayland Smith is on the case, and between vague clues from the hypnotized Pat and his own long experience, they quickly sniff out one of Fu Manchu's hidden lairs and, sure enough, there is the saucer model.
Here is where some funny stuff happens. Fu Manchu's voice is heard, explaining what these antics are about. He congratulates the young scientist on his work, and then generously gives him some tips on further research. As it turns out, Bruce has made more progress than the Chinese mastermind realizes, and these helpful suggestions are just what Bruce needs to go into full scale production of his anti-gravity ships.
What is most startling is when Fu Manchu casually explains that many, but not all, of the recent sightings of UFOs were craft devised by our favorite supercrminal himself. "The others, I assume, were from distant planets", he adds. Yikes. Fu Manchu believes in life on other planets and that they have visited our world. Did anyone spot any half-naked dacoits sneaking around Roswell in 1947? Did any people abducted by aliens report that they seem to remember a tall, Asian man with green eyes and long fingernails doing the probes?
And more importantly, it's been fifty years since this story. Whatever happened to Bruce's anti-gravity flying craft, which he was ready to put into production? Don't tell me his model from this story is now in a crate in that giant warehouse where we last saw the Army stowing away the Ark of the Covenant!
From 1959, where it appeared in the British newspaper supplement THIS WEEK, this is so short a story, just under ten pages, that it's little more than an anecdote. Still, it's interesting in its connection of Fu Manchu with UFOs, two topics seldom mentioned at the same time.
The story was published as "Fu Manchu and the Frightened Redhead", which sounds rather like a Mike Shayne mystery, while Rohmer's intended title was "Secret of the Flying Saucer". None of these titles really give a hint as to what the storiy is about. I suppose "Fu Manchu and the Flying Saucer" would be a fair compromise.
THOROUGH SPOILERS AHEAD But really, there's no other way to discuss a nine page story that is essentially there to just build up to a punchline.
The beginning shows Sax Rohmer in smooth, effortless command of his craft, as a young woman named Pat Merton wakes up confused in a strange room and is returned to her hotel by a comforting stranger. Yes. Well, we know who this odd Swiss scientist with "long, narrow emerald green eyes" has to be and we immediately know something devious is up. Pat meets her squeeze, scientist Bruce Garfield (who has had Scotland Yard searching London for her), and there with him is a familiar friend, still tan and lean and with white streaks in his crisp hair, none other than good old Sir Denis Nayland Smith.
As it turns out, scientists all over the world have been inexplicably disappearing (again...), this time all those who have been working on anti-gravity. Pat's abduction was not meant to hurt her but just to get Bruce out searching for her, so that Fu Mamchu's minions can rob the guy's hotel room of his little working model of a flying saucer. Humph. What nerve. Luckily, Nayland Smith is on the case, and between vague clues from the hypnotized Pat and his own long experience, they quickly sniff out one of Fu Manchu's hidden lairs and, sure enough, there is the saucer model.
Here is where some funny stuff happens. Fu Manchu's voice is heard, explaining what these antics are about. He congratulates the young scientist on his work, and then generously gives him some tips on further research. As it turns out, Bruce has made more progress than the Chinese mastermind realizes, and these helpful suggestions are just what Bruce needs to go into full scale production of his anti-gravity ships.
What is most startling is when Fu Manchu casually explains that many, but not all, of the recent sightings of UFOs were craft devised by our favorite supercrminal himself. "The others, I assume, were from distant planets", he adds. Yikes. Fu Manchu believes in life on other planets and that they have visited our world. Did anyone spot any half-naked dacoits sneaking around Roswell in 1947? Did any people abducted by aliens report that they seem to remember a tall, Asian man with green eyes and long fingernails doing the probes?
And more importantly, it's been fifty years since this story. Whatever happened to Bruce's anti-gravity flying craft, which he was ready to put into production? Don't tell me his model from this story is now in a crate in that giant warehouse where we last saw the Army stowing away the Ark of the Covenant!