What movie did YOU just FINISH watching?
Oct 2, 2018 6:03:14 GMT
teleadm, petrolino, and 1 more like this
Post by kijii on Oct 2, 2018 6:03:14 GMT
The Crimson Kimono (1959) / Samuel Fuller
Rented from Amazon Prime
As I watched this movie today, I was prepared to see yet another Sam Fuller B movie without any well-known actors and having a somewhat contrived plot. But, boy was I wrong!! I liked it so much, I watched it again to re-check if it was as good as I had thought it was. It was even better the second time since I picked up so many more details in the story, the camera work, and the acting.
While it is true that there are no real well-known performers in it, I think it is something of an overlooked masterpiece in the crime movie genre. Added to the crime story is a love story, a love-triangle, a story about self-discovery, and an homage to the Japanese-America soldiers who had fought for the US in the Korean War.
The story is set in the Los Angles and involves two police detectives who share an apartment: one Caucasian and the other a Japanese-American. Their friendship goes back to their time as fellow soldiers who had fought together in Korea. The two men, now as police detectives, are working on a murder case of a stripper, Sugar Torch (Gloria Pall) who was planning an act about a crimson kimono. As they work on the case, they are led to a young woman who had painted a picture of "the crimson kimono" for Sugar Torch as part of the overall publicity for the act that she had hoped to eventually take to Las Vegas.
The movie takes on several different themes including: art, Japanese martial arts, and an annual Japanese celebration (Nisei Week) that incorporates several aspects of the Japanese culture (art, dancing, and martial arts). It is amazing how many things are included in this movie, yet the story holds together perfectly without preaching or overstating anything it presents. The movie, written, produced, and directed by Sam Fuller, showed me that some B movies can be great!
Harry Sukman's musical score also added a lot to this movie, just as it did in Sam Fuller's Forty Guns (1957), Underworld U.S.A. (1961), and Verboten! (1959).
Christine Downs (Victoria Shaw): Were you ever in love with a man from a different world?
Mac (Anna Lee) : Ah, many, many times!
Christine Downs : Well, was he, uh, someone of a different race?
Mac : [pauses] There was a Hindu in Bombay...
Christine Downs : Was he sensitive about the difference between you?
Mac : [laughs] HE wasn't... but his father looked down his imperious nose at me.

TCM oveview with SPOILERS:
Rented from Amazon Prime
As I watched this movie today, I was prepared to see yet another Sam Fuller B movie without any well-known actors and having a somewhat contrived plot. But, boy was I wrong!! I liked it so much, I watched it again to re-check if it was as good as I had thought it was. It was even better the second time since I picked up so many more details in the story, the camera work, and the acting.
While it is true that there are no real well-known performers in it, I think it is something of an overlooked masterpiece in the crime movie genre. Added to the crime story is a love story, a love-triangle, a story about self-discovery, and an homage to the Japanese-America soldiers who had fought for the US in the Korean War.
The story is set in the Los Angles and involves two police detectives who share an apartment: one Caucasian and the other a Japanese-American. Their friendship goes back to their time as fellow soldiers who had fought together in Korea. The two men, now as police detectives, are working on a murder case of a stripper, Sugar Torch (Gloria Pall) who was planning an act about a crimson kimono. As they work on the case, they are led to a young woman who had painted a picture of "the crimson kimono" for Sugar Torch as part of the overall publicity for the act that she had hoped to eventually take to Las Vegas.
The movie takes on several different themes including: art, Japanese martial arts, and an annual Japanese celebration (Nisei Week) that incorporates several aspects of the Japanese culture (art, dancing, and martial arts). It is amazing how many things are included in this movie, yet the story holds together perfectly without preaching or overstating anything it presents. The movie, written, produced, and directed by Sam Fuller, showed me that some B movies can be great!
Harry Sukman's musical score also added a lot to this movie, just as it did in Sam Fuller's Forty Guns (1957), Underworld U.S.A. (1961), and Verboten! (1959).
Christine Downs (Victoria Shaw): Were you ever in love with a man from a different world?
Mac (Anna Lee) : Ah, many, many times!
Christine Downs : Well, was he, uh, someone of a different race?
Mac : [pauses] There was a Hindu in Bombay...
Christine Downs : Was he sensitive about the difference between you?
Mac : [laughs] HE wasn't... but his father looked down his imperious nose at me.
TCM oveview with SPOILERS:
One night, in the Los Angeles' Little Tokyo neighborhood, a stripper named Sugar Torch is shot and killed. While examining the Japanese art that adorns the dancer's dressing room, homicide detectives Charlie Bancroft and Joe Kojaku learn that she had been developing a new act. In the narrative paintings, Sugar is dressed as a geisha, and she and her Japanese lover are killed onstage by a jealous karate expert. Joe, who knows everyone in Little Tokyo, questions local kendo and karate practitioners about the identity of the male characters in the new act, while Charlie seeks out Christine Downes, the artist who painted the portrait of Sugar in her kimono. Back at the apartment they share, Joe confesses to Charlie that because his girl friend was reared in Japan and he in the United States, they argue about the "old country" constantly. Later Charlie questions Chris, an art student at the University of Southern California, about the man who commissioned Sugar's portrait, Mr. Hansel. As Chris sketches Hansel's portrait, Charlie flirts with her, and she smiles. Joe discovers from two nuns that a formidable Korean man named Shuto, who was to be the karate expert in the striptease act, knows his old friend, Mr. Yoshinaga. Joe finds the kindly Yoshinaga in the local Buddhist temple, where he has come to observe the anniversary of his son's death. After the private ceremony, he leads Joe through Little Tokyo to the Koga Rice Cake Co. Shuto, who works at the factory, panics when he sees the detective, and Joe loses sight of him during the ensuing chase. Charlie's friend Mac, an eccentric but endearing artist who lives on Skid Row, worries that because Chris's sketch of Hansel has now been broadcast on television, the criminal might try to kill her. As feared, someone takes a shot at Chris that night. For her protection, she moves in with Charlie and Joe, and when fear causes her to burst into tears, Charlie kisses her. Later, Charlie and Joe visit Roma, a wigmaker, who knows Hansel, but she provides little information. They then learn that Hansel has just left his position as an Asian specialist at the public library, where he was known by his real name, Paul Sand. That evening, Joe and Chris realize while talking together that they are deeply in love. Afraid of hurting Charlie, Joe resolves to hide his feelings from his friend, but becomes sullen and uncommunicative. Worried by Joe's moodiness, Charlie fears that Chris may have inadvertently expressed prejudice toward Joe, and this concern causes Chris to realize the depth of the men's friendship. Joe and Charlie face off in the Nisei Week kendo demonstration, and Joe surprises everyone by attacking his friend mercilessly. Later, Joe confesses his love for Chris. When Charlie looks up and gravely asks Joe if he intends to marry Chris, Joe assumes that his friend's anger is based on racism and is devasted. After expressing his confusion to Chris, Joe packs his bags, resigns from the force, and prepares to leave town. Chris and Charlie try to persuade him that neither of them feels anything but love for him, but Joe cannot believe this. As Chris is speaking, she suddenly sees Hansel. When Charlie and Joe corner him, Hansel claims that as an Asian specialist, he only meant to advise Sugar Torch on her act. When they ask Hansel why he shot the stripper, Roma appears and takes a shot at Charlie. Joe pursues her through the Nisei Week parade and is finally forced to shoot her. As they await the ambulance, the distressed woman admits it was she who killed Sugar. Having assumed that Hansel preferred the stripper to her, the wigmaker killed her rival, but later realized there was nothing between the two. Joe takes this in and immediately turns and apologizes to Charlie. As the friends reconcile, Chris runs into Joe's arms and they kiss.

