The Knocking on the Door

Evil Dr Fu-Manchu visits London's historic waxworks, while a country cottage is plagued by odd knocking, awful groans and fiendish laughter...

The evil Dr Fu-Manchu proves to be a master of disguise as well as villainy in this thrilling episode of the popular adventure serial. Adopting the persona of a long-bearded professor, Fu-Manchu pays a visit to London's Madame Tussauds waxworks. Elsewhere, there's something horribly uncanny going on at a remote country cottage: sleuths Nayland Smith and Petrie leave the capital to investigate.

Based on the closing chapters of Sax Rohmer's first Fu-Manchu novel, this episode remains largely faithful to the book, even reproducing snatches of the text verbatim via the intertitles. But where this film version shows Nayland Smith, Petrie and Karamaneh enjoying the waxy delights of Madame Tussauds, the original novel had them - rather less memorably - visiting an 'exhibition of watercolours' in Bond Street.