House of Bamboo

Last updated
House of Bamboo
Houseofbambooposterart.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Screenplay by Harry Kleiner
Samuel Fuller
Produced by Buddy Adler
Starring Robert Ryan
Robert Stack
Shirley Yamaguchi
Cameron Mitchell
Cinematography Joseph MacDonald
Edited by James B. Clark
Music by Leigh Harline
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • July 1, 1955 (1955-07-01)(New York City)
  • July 13, 1955 (1955-07-13)(Los Angeles)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,380,000 [1]
Box office$1.7 million (US) [2]

House of Bamboo is a 1955 American film noir shot in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color, directed and co-written by Samuel Fuller, [3] and starring Robert Ryan. The other co-screenwriter was Harry Kleiner. The cinematographer was Joseph MacDonald.

Contents

Plot

In 1954, a military train guarded by American soldiers and Japanese police is robbed of its cargo of guns, ammunition, and smoke bombs. During the robbery, a U.S. Army sergeant guarding the train is shot and killed. Five weeks later, a thief named Webber lies dying in a Tokyo hospital, shot by one of his own cohorts during a holdup in which smoke bombs were used. U.S. Army investigators discover Webber was shot by the same P38 pistol that killed the sergeant during the train robbery. Webber is questioned by military and police investigators, who discover among his possessions a letter from an American named Eddie Spanier, who wants to join Webber in Japan after his release from a U.S. prison. Though Webber refuses to implicate his fellow gang members, he does reveal that he is secretly married to a Japanese woman named Mariko Nagoya.

Three weeks later, Eddie arrives in Tokyo and makes contact with Mariko, gaining her trust with a photograph of himself taken with Webber, and learns about Webber's death. Mariko admits that Webber made her swear to keep their marriage a secret; she did not know about his criminal life and never sought help from the police out of fear that she could be targeted by his killers. Later, Eddie goes to a pachinko parlor, attempting to sell "protection" to the manager. But when he tries to shake down another parlor, he is beaten by a group of Americans led by racketeer Sandy Dawson, who is so intrigued with Eddie's audacity that he later arranges for him to join his gang, a group of disgruntled former American servicemen who have been dishonorably discharged. After being accepted into the gang, Eddie secretly meets with U.S. and Japanese investigators, for whom he is actually working undercover. To solidify his cover, Eddie asks Mariko to live with him as his "kimono girl." Hoping to discover who killed Webber, Mariko consents to Eddie's offer, and the two slowly begin to fall in love. In the meantime, Sandy grows to trust Eddie and even saves his life when Eddie is wounded during a robbery, surprisingly disregarding his own rule to shoot wounded gang members and leave them for dead.

Eddie finally informs Mariko of his real identity – he is actually U.S. Army Sergeant Edward Kenner and is working as an undercover infiltrator into the Dawson gang. Mariko pledges to continue to assist Eddie in his investigation. When Charlie, one of Sandy's men, spies Mariko meeting with an American army officer to fill him in on the details of the Dawson gang's next heist, he notifies Sandy, and the job is thus aborted. However, an outside informant, Ceram, reveals to Sandy that (a) the police are poised to capture him and that (b) Eddie is a military plant. Sandy thus sets up Eddie's death with a fake robbery; he has Charlie knock Eddie unconscious and props him as the shop robber so that he will be shot by the police; but that plan backfires when Charlie is shot while trying to keep Eddie upright. Sandy is chased by the police and a recovered Eddie to a rooftop amusement park. After an intense gunfight, Eddie shoots and kills Sandy. The film ends with Eddie and Mariko being reunited.

Cast

Background

The narration at the film's beginning tells the viewer that the film was photographed entirely on location in Tokyo, Yokohama, and the Japanese countryside. At the movie's end, an acknowledgments credit thanks "the Military Police of the U.S. Army Forces Far East and the Eighth Army, as well as the Government of Japan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department" for their cooperation with the film's production.

The film was one of a number of 20th Century Fox movies produced by Buddy Adler being shot on location in Asia around this time. Others included Soldier of Fortune , The Left Hand of God , and Love is a Many Splendored Thing . [4] It was the second CinemaScope Fox film that Samuel Fuller made for the studio. Fuller, Stack, and Yamaguchi arrived in Japan on 26 January 1955. [5]

Reception

Critical response

The staff of Variety magazine wrote of the film, "Novelty of scene and a warm, believable performance by Japanese star Shirley Yamaguchi are two of the better values in the production. Had story treatment and direction been on the same level of excellence, House would have been an all-round good show. Pictorially, the film is beautiful to see; the talk's mostly in the terse, tough idiom of yesteryear mob pix." [6]

Film critic Keith Uhlich believes the film is an excellent example of wide-screen photography. He wrote in a review, "Quite simply, House of Bamboo has some of the most stunning examples of widescreen photography in the history of cinema. Traveling to Japan on 20th Century Fox's dime, Fuller captured a country divided, trapped between past traditions and progressive attitudes while lingering in the devastating aftereffects of an all-too-recent World War. His visual schema represents the societal fractures through a series of deep-focus, non-theatrical tableaus, a succession of silhouettes, screens, and stylized color photography that melds the heady insanity of a Douglas Sirk melodrama (see, as an especial point of comparison, Sirk's 1956 Korea-set war film Battle Hymn ) with the philosophical inquiry of the best noirs." [7]

For many years after its initial release, the film was seen only on television in pan-and-scan prints, leading people to believe that DeForest Kelley has a small role near the end of the film. When Fox finally struck a new 35mm CinemaScope print for a film festival in the 1990s, viewers were surprised to see that Kelley is in the film all the way through; he was just always off to one side and thus had been panned out of the frame.

References in other films

A scene from House of Bamboo (in which Robert Ryan kills Cameron Mitchell while Mitchell is in a Japanese bathtub) is briefly shown prominently in the 2002 film Minority Report , when Tom Cruise (as Anderton) visits the squalid eye clinic. The scene actually echoes the plot of Minority Report and anticipates what happens next (or what is supposed to happen next): Mitchell is killed while not being responsible for what Ryan accuses him of; symmetrically, Mike Binder (as Leo Crow) is supposed to be killed by Anderton/Cruise, when Binder/Crow did not actually commit the crime Anderton/Cruise thinks he did (kidnapping and killing his son). Thus, the screening of that scene indicates that Anderton/Cruise would kill an innocent, and will fall into a trap.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Minority Report</i> (film) 2002 film by Steven Spielberg

Minority Report is a 2002 American cyberpunk action film directed by Steven Spielberg, loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1956 novella "The Minority Report". The film takes place in the Washington metropolitan area in 2054, in which a specialized police department—Precrime—apprehends criminals by use of foreknowledge provided by three psychics called "precogs". The cast stars Tom Cruise as Precrime chief John Anderton, Colin Farrell as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer, Samantha Morton as precog Agatha Lively, and Max von Sydow as Precrime director Lamar Burgess. The film combines elements of tech noir, whodunit, thriller, and science fiction genres, as well as being a traditional chase film, since the main protagonist is accused of a crime he has not committed and becomes a fugitive. Spielberg characterized the story as "fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Minority Report</span> 1956 science fiction novella by Philip K. Dick

"The Minority Report" is a 1956 science fiction novella by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Fantastic Universe. In a future society, three mutants foresee all crime before it occurs. Plugged into a great machine, these "precogs" allow a division of the police called Precrime to arrest suspects before they can commit any actual crimes. When the head of Precrime, John Anderton, is himself predicted to murder a man whom he has never heard of, Anderton is convinced a great conspiracy is afoot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yamaguchi-gumi</span> Japanese organized crime (yakuza) group

The Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan's largest yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe before World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Fuller</span> American screenwriter, novelist and director (1912–1997)

Samuel Michael "Sam" Fuller was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, actor, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made outside the conventional studio system. Fuller wrote his first screenplay for Hats Off in 1936, and made his directorial debut with the Western I Shot Jesse James (1949). He would continue to direct several other Westerns and war thrillers throughout the 1950s.

<i>Dead or Alive</i> (1999 film) 1999 Japanese film

Dead or Alive, abbreviated as DOA, is a 1999 Japanese yakuza action film directed by Takashi Miike. It stars Riki Takeuchi as the gang boss and former yakuza Ryūichi and Show Aikawa as the Japanese cop Detective Jojima and focuses on their meeting and conflict. It is the first in a loosely-connected three-part series, followed by Dead or Alive 2: Birds in 2000 and Dead or Alive: Final in 2002.

<i>The Street with No Name</i> 1948 film by William Keighley

The Street with No Name is a 1948 American film noir directed by William Keighley. A follow-up to The House on 92nd Street (1945), it tells the story of an undercover FBI agent, Gene Cordell, who infiltrates a deadly crime gang. Cordell's superior, FBI Inspector George A. Briggs, also appears in The House on 92nd Street. The film, shot in a semidocumentary style, takes place in the Skid Row section of fictional "Center City".

<i>The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery</i> 1959 American film

The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery is a 1959 American heist film directed by Charles Guggenheim and starring Steve McQueen as a college dropout hired to be the getaway driver in a bank robbery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shootout</span> Combat between two parties using firearms

A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is an armed confrontation entailing firearms between armed parties using guns, always entailing intense disagreement(s) between the fighting parties. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.

Kenichi Shinoda, also known as Shinobu Tsukasa, is a Japanese yakuza and the sixth and current kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masaru Takumi</span>

Masaru Takumi was a powerful Japanese organized crime figure assassinated in 1997. Until his death, he was the second-in-command (wakagashira) and financial overseer of Japan's largest yakuza gang, the Yamaguchi-gumi. Known as "the man who never sleeps", he also headed his own sub-organization, the 1000-member Takumi-gumi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Hall (bushranger)</span> Australian bushranger

Ben Hall was an Australian bushranger and leading member of the Gardiner–Hall gang. He and his associates carried out many raids across New South Wales, from Bathurst to Forbes, south to Gundagai and east to Goulburn. Unlike many bushrangers of the era, Hall was not directly responsible for any deaths, although several of his associates were. He was shot dead by police in May 1865 at Goobang Creek. The police claimed that they were acting under the protection of the Felons Apprehension Act 1865, which allowed any bushranger who had been specifically named under the terms of the Act to be shot, and killed by any person at any time without warning. At the time of Hall's death, the Act had not yet come into force, resulting in controversy over the legality of his killing.

The Richardson Gang was an English crime gang based in South London, England in the 1960s. Also known as the "Torture Gang", they had a reputation as some of London's most sadistic gangsters. Their alleged specialties included pulling teeth out using pliers, cutting off toes using bolt cutters and nailing victims to floors using 6-inch nails.

<i>Forty Guns</i> 1957 film by Samuel Fuller

Forty Guns is a 1957 American Western film written and directed by Samuel Fuller, filmed in black-and-white CinemaScope and released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Gene Barry.

<i>Goodbye Charlie Bright</i> 2001 film by Nick Love

Goodbye Charlie Bright is a 2001 comedy-drama film directed by Nick Love and starring Paul Nicholls, Roland Manookian and Danny Dyer. The film is also known by the U.S. title Strong Boys.

Yoshinori Watanabe was a yakuza, the fifth kumicho of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization. He became kumicho in 1989. He was known for a more low-key approach than his predecessors, partly due to an anti-gang law passed in 1992. He retired in 2005.

<i>Queen of the Mob</i> 1940 film by James P. Hogan

Queen of the Mob is a 1940 American film, directed by James P. Hogan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robbie Roscoe</span> UK soap opera character, created 2013

Robbie Roscoe is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Charlie Wernham. He made his first screen appearance on 2 April 2013. Robbie is part of the Roscoe family and the first member to be introduced. On 19 March 2013, a Channel 4 press release revealed that Robbie "leads the way for a family of boys to descend on Hollyoaks, headed by Gillian Taylforth as mother, Sandy." Wernham's casting was confirmed on 27 March 2013. Wernham auditioned for the show the previous year, attending his second audition on 24 October 2012. Daniel Kilkelly from Digital Spy later revealed Robbie is a "troublesome new student" and he would befriend established character Callum Kane. The writer added that Robbie's headteacher Patrick Blake thinks he can control his behaviour. But Robbie soon begins to cause trouble.

<i>The Invisible Avenger</i> 1954 film by Motoyoshi Oda

The Invisible Avenger is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film directed by Motoyoshi Oda, with special effects and cinematography by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film is a loose adaptation of the 1897 H.G. Wells story The Invisible Man.

<i>According to Mrs. Hoyle</i> 1951 film directed by Jean Yarbrough

According to Mrs. Hoyle is a 1951 American crime film directed by Jean Yarbrough and written by Scott Darling and Barney Gerard. The film stars Spring Byington, Anthony Caruso, Tanis Chandler, Brett King, Stephen Chase and Robert Karnes. The film was released on May 20, 1951, by Monogram Pictures.

<i>Outlaws of Stampede Pass</i> 1943 American Western film

Outlaws of Stampede Pass is a 1943 American Western film directed by Wallace Fox and written by Adele Buffington. This is the fourth film in the "Marshal Nevada Jack McKenzie" series, and stars Johnny Mack Brown as Jack McKenzie and Raymond Hatton as his sidekick Sandy Hopkins, with Ellen Hall, John Dawson, Harry Woods and Charles King. The film was released on October 15, 1943, by Monogram Pictures.

References

  1. Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989, p 249.
  2. 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1955', Variety Weekly, January 25, 1956.
  3. House of Bamboo at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  4. Schallert, Edwin (Jan 5, 1955). "Anson Bond, Eddie Rio Plan Super Packaging; King to Direct Jennifer". Los Angeles Times. p. B7.
  5. "Three Film Stars in Tokyo". New York Times. Jan 27, 1955. p. 17.
  6. Film review Variety, July 1, 1955. Accessed: August 2, 2013.
  7. Uhlich, Keith film/DVD review. Slant magazine, 2005. Accessed: August 2, 2013.

Bibliography