{{about |the fictional femme fatale}} {{short description|Fictional femme fatale}} {{Infobox character | name = Sumuru | series = | image = | caption = | first = | last = | creator = Sax Rohmer | voice = | portrayer = {{unbulleted list|Shirley Eaton|Alexandra Kamp}} | gender = Female | title = | occupation = Supervillainess | affiliation = | nationality = Japanese | family = | full_name = Sumuru | franchise = | alt = | first_major = | first_minor = | first_issue = | first_date = | last_major = | last_minor = | last_issue = | last_date = | firstgame = | based_on = | origin = | home = | adapted_by = }} '''Sumuru''' {{IPAc-en|'|s|u:|m|@|r|u:}} is a female supervillain created by Sax Rohmer, author of the Fu Manchu series of novels.<ref>{{cite book |last =Rovin |first =Jeff |title =The Encyclopedia of Supervillains |publisher =Facts on File |date =1987 |location =New York |isbn = 0-8160-1356-X |page=331}}</ref> She first appeared in a 1945–1946 BBC radio serial, which was rewritten as a novel in 1950. Four more novels were published between 1951 and 1956. Two movies were then made in the 1960s and one more in 2003.
==Character biography and analysis== Like her criminal mastermind forerunner Dr. Fu Manchu, the beautiful Sumuru leads a secret organization aimed at taking control of the world. Sumuru's society, the Order of Our Lady, recruits beautiful women to seduce and exploit men in order to establish a matriarchal world order.<ref name=Benstock>{{cite book |last1=Benstock |first1=Bernard |last2=Staley |first2=Thomas F. |title=Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol 70: British mystery writers, 1860-1919 |date=1988 |publisher=Gale Research Co. |isbn=978-0810317482 |page=267 |url=https://archive.org/details/britishmysterywr70bens/page/266 |accessdate=23 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Sumuru |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Super Villains |page=331 |author=Jeff Rovin |year=1987 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=9780816013562}}</ref>
==Radio== After the end of World War II, Rohmer was approached by the BBC to do a radio serial. As the BBC did not wish to offend the Republic of China (Britain's ally in the war), Rohmer used the same basic plots with a female mastermind named Sumuru.<ref>Briney, R.E. editor ''The Rohmer Review No. 15, September. 1976''</ref> The series ''Shadow of Sumuru'' was broadcast from 1945-1946 on the BBC Light Programme in eight half-hour shows with Anna Burden and Robert Beatty in the cast.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/lost9.html | title=Radio Plays 1945-1997: Serials, DIVERSITY website - radio drama, plays}}</ref>
==Novels== In 1950, Rohmer published his radio serial as a novel entitled ''The Sins of Sumuru''. The American Fawcett Gold Medal paperback publishing house printed it under the title ''Nude in Mink'', against Rohmer's wishes.<ref name=Benstock/> When the book went into a second printing in a month's time, the publisher commissioned a book series, with the first four books having different titles in the U.K. and the U.S.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sax Rohmer's Sumuru |website=The Page of Fu Manchu |url=http://www.njedge.net/~knapp/sumuru.htm |accessdate=2011-02-09 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229224019/http://www.njedge.net/~knapp/sumuru.htm |archivedate=2010-12-29 }}</ref>
*''The Sins of Sumuru'' (U.K.) / ''Nude in Mink'' (U.S.) (1950) *''The Slaves of Sumuru'' (U.K.) / ''Sumuru'' (U.S.) (1951) *''Virgin in Flames'' (U.K.) / ''The Fire Goddess'' (U.S.) (1952) *''Sand and Satin'' (U.K.) / ''Return of Sumuru'' (U.S.) (1954) *''Sinister Madonna'' (U.S. and U.K.) (1956) *''The Sumuru Omnibus'' (2011) compiled by John Robert Colombo
At the request of his American publishers, Rohmer added more explicit sexual content in the Sumuru series than was seen in his previous works.<ref name=Benstock/> The Fawcett editors also made some textual changes in some of their editions. For instance, the ending of ''The Slaves of Sumuru'' is significantly altered in its Fawcett edition (''Sumuru''). In ''The Fire Goddess'' (U.S. edition of ''Virgin in Flames'') one important paragraph of text is omitted by the Fawcett editors. Bookfinger restored Rohmer's texts in their editions published later.
Anthony Boucher described the 1954 instalment as "melodrama almost as entertainingly Perelmanesque as the exploits of the evil Doctor."<ref>"Recommended Reading", ''F&SF'', September 1954, p.93.</ref> He later praised ''Sinister Madonna'' as "outrageously enjoyable", describing it as "critically indefensible, but my God, such fun . . . !"<ref>"Recommended Reading", ''F&SF'', June 1956, p.102-03.</ref>
On the other hand, the 1988 ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' found Rohmer's work wanting: "The Sumuru novels are second-rate, in some cases thematic recyclings of earlier, better, work. Unlike the Fu Manchu books, they contain no main protagonist in the mold of Nayland Smith, although the hero of [the 1929 novel] ''The Emperor of America'' is a continuing character. Broken by Sumuru, he struggles back in the final Sumuru novel, ''Sinister Madonna'', which ends on an uncertain note and with the promise of a sequel which was not to be."<ref name=Benstock/>
==Films== Harry Alan Towers, who had produced the Fu Manchu film series in the mid-1960s with Christopher Lee, produced his first two Sumuru films featuring Shirley Eaton as Sumuru. Years later, he produced yet another Sumuru film in 2003. The third film took its basic plot premise from the books, but set it in the far future.
* ''The Million Eyes of Sumuru'' (1967), starring Shirley Eaton and directed by Lindsay Shonteff * ''The Girl from Rio'' (1969), starring Shirley Eaton and directed by Jess Franco * ''Sumuru'' (2003), starring Alexandra Kamp and directed by Darrell Roodt
It has been noted that in ''The Million Eyes of Sumuru'', the character's matriarchal goals are subverted by the filmmakers' insistence on ultimately upholding traditional gender roles: "Sumuru... leads an all-girl cult that rejects marriage as male-dominated and focuses on breeding children without benefit of clergy in order to build a new civilization. The movie turns all of this into a Bond knockoff right down to Sumuru -- who decrees that execution is the punishment for her followers who fall in love -- melting into West's arms and telling him she needs a man to take her and dominate her."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sherman |first1=Fraser A. |title=Screen Enemies of the American Way: Political Paranoia About Nazis, Communists, Saboteurs, Terrorists and Body Snatching Aliens in Film and Television |date=2010 |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated |isbn=9780786462254 |page=147 |chapter=Sexual Politics and the War Between Men and Women |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9ejsOrootcC&dq=%22Sumuru%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA147 |accessdate=23 January 2020}}</ref>
The 1969 sequel also undercut the character's gynarchic agenda by bowing to current fashion: "In [[Jesús Franco|[Jesús] Franco's]] ''The Girl from Rio'', Sumuru and her Amazons are transported to the future city of "Femina", actually Brazil's own future city, Brasília. Once more the core business is the seduction, financial ruin and destruction of her rich male victims. However, herein Carnaby Street plastic capes and "kinky boots" are the order of the day. But in attempting '60s kitsch, Franco fails to hit the mark."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mann |first1=Dave |title=Harry Alan Towers: The Transnational Career of a Cinematic Contrarian |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated |isbn=9780786479825 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_bXZBAAAQBAJ&q=%22Sumuru%22%20 |accessdate=23 January 2020}}</ref>
==See also== * Yellow Peril
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{citation |url=http://lostpages.net/calder2004sumuru.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050309095406/http://lostpages.net/calder2004sumuru.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 March 2005 |work=The Lost and Found |date=28 September 2004 |author=Richard Calder |title=Sumuru}} *The Page of Sumuru http://philsp.com/SaxRohmer/sumuru.htm *Book reviews https://web.archive.org/web/20131001031650/http://community-2.webtv.net/BaronHermes/sumuru/index.html {{Sumuru}} {{Fu Manchu}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Sumuru}} Category:Fictional cult leaders Category:Science fiction film characters Category:Characters in pulp fiction Category:Fictional warlords Category:Female literary villains Category:British film series Category:Literary characters introduced in 1945 Category:Characters in 20th-century American novels