THE TERROR OF THE TONGS - Hammer Studios (1961)

Tonight's Saturday night special is part two of my mini-Christopher Lee tribute, an odd film from 1961, "The Terror Of The Tongs!"

"The Terror Of The Tongs" is set in 1910, the movie was made in 1961, and it wasn't until 1984 that England released it's grasp on Hong Kong! That's why the Brits found movies like this so fascinating, and Hammer Studios was more than happy to oblige!

Bottom line was they had some bad Juju going on, with an opium market rife with corruption and greed!

The best advice I could give you would be mind your own business, and stay out of the way if you possibly can, because The Tong ain't messing around!

 

Enter Geoffrey (Dr. Who) Toone as the enterprising Captain Jackson Sale, and Barbara (Gonks Go Beat) Brown, as his sweet and innocent daughter Helena!

When I was about 15 or 16, I always envisioned that someday I would live in an apartment that looked something like this!!

What I didn't envision was these guys being in there too! Christopher Lee as unmerciless Tong leader Chung King, and Dungeon fave ex wrassler Milton Reid as his faithful sidekick guardian!

Hatchets and Pajamas, much better than Guns and Roses!

 

"Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop!!"

The Tong might be cruel and ruthless, ("Where did Ruth go?") but they still put on a pretty good show;  music, dancing, a jiggler and a juggler!!

If they open up a "TONG" casino in Las Vegas, I might go there for the food, but I am definitely not gambling there!

I forget exactly why The Tong kills off the Captain's Daughter, but it didn't exactly win them a lot of friends! Now, the Captain has some serious investigating to do!!

 Enter the beautiful Yvonne Monlaur as Lee! If she looks a little familiar, it's because Yvonne was also in "Brides Of Dracula," and "Circus Of Horrors!" I think in almost every scene she's in, she has a different colored dress on!

I had to get a shot of the main Tong logo!

"I said Captain, I said What?" The Captain starts snooping around a little too much, and quickly finds himself in a passel of hot water!

Milton Reid gets the job of scraping the Captain's bones! Milton is that guy that you've seen in "Blood Of The Vampire," "Night Creatures," and "Dr. No." Just like all our favourite characters, Milton was also a professional wrassler! What I wrote about him a couple of years back is still the story: Milton started wrestling in 1952 as Jungle Boy, and as his career progressed, he became best known as The Mighty Chang! After his career fell apart, Milton went to India to act, and sometime in the late 80's, he mysteriously disappeared, and they still haven't figured out what happened to him! A bona fide WTF!? situation!

 The Captain escapes, and Milton is in hot pursuit until he misses the catch in the hatchet throw competition!

While he's resting up from that little episode, this evil Doctor impersonates a good Doctor and almost gets away with shooting up the Captain in his juggler vein with some vile substance!!

As you would expect, the Captain prevails and only leaves you with one last burning question, where was Tennille the whole time?