Mask of Fu Manchu (1933)

Before Myrna Loy became society alcoholic Nora Charles of the Thin Man detective films, she was Chinese. Or well, Myrna looked kinda Chinese. At least her studio-given last name “Loy” sounded vaguely Chinese…. More than Fah Lo See (fallacy — get it??) the nympho-sadist daughter of evil mastermind Fu Manchu!

There’s nothing Chinese about Fu either, played by slithering effeminate Boris Karloff on loan from low-budget horrormill Universal. MGM was new to the horror/adventure genre, at best they were exploring — or you might say exploiting, so it might be easier to classify this racist, torturific, and subtly homoerotic fantasy as a tittlating offshoot of the musical fantasy genre. No holds barred and cue the alligator pit.

After yelping with excitement watching her beau hunk prisoner bound and whipped, Loy relaxes with an opium pipe watching her father stroke the nearly nude hero before injecting him with an orgy of spider, lizard, and snake venom that will render him an obedient but unimpaired sex slave. Yeah, it’s that good.