Customer Reviews

House of Bamboo (Fox Film Noir)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was expecting a lot more from this movie than I got. On one level it's a fairly taut crime drama that takes place in Tokyo in the mid-Fifties. On the other hand, it has a lot of tough guy cliche dialogue and a performance by Robert Stack that is just not good. The story line is simple, but look out for spoilers ahead.

Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan) heads up a gang of ex-servicemen in Tokyo who pull off robberies with military precision and complete ruthlessness. If anyone gets wounded, he's killed right then. The U.S. Army and the Japanese police join forces to crack the gang. They send in a ringer, Eddie Spanier (Robert Stack), to infiltrate the gang. Spanier is a false identity; he's actually an Army crime investigator. What follows is the story of Dawson's operation and how it works, and of Spanier gradually gaining Dawson's trust. The climax pits the two against against each other when Dawson at last learns of Spanier's real job.

The movie was shot in Tokyo and looks great. Anyone who has spent time there will recognize a number of locations. (One false note is when Samuel Fuller cuts to a scene that was actually filmed in Kamakura at the Great Buddha and at the Hachiman shrine.) Robert Ryan and, in a smaller role, Cameron Mitchell as Griff, his second in command, do first-rate jobs, especially Ryan. Sandy Dawson is a dangerous man, superficially polite and solicitous, but not far below the surface is a big ego, a streak of cruelty and what could be a hint of homoerotic feelings for Spanier. This isn't stressed, but it explains Dawson's actions concerning Spanier, and his intensity when he finds he has been betrayed. Dawson is also just a bit off. His last dialogue with a silent Griff is not that of a man who is in total command of his marbles. Ryan dominates the movie. Unfortunately, the movie is about the efforts to catch Ryan's character, and these efforts center on Robert Stack's character. Stack just isn't a good enough actor. Sam Fuller evidently wanted Stack to play Eddie Spanier like a real tough guy, but Stack can't carry it off. He "acts" like a tough guy would walk and move. He "acts" the way a tough guy would speak and sound. It's phony from the first sentence out of Stack's mouth, and it undercuts the effectiveness of the story.

The romance scenes between Stack and Shirley Yamaguchi seem stilted and almost unnecessary, but Fuller pumps up the tension on the action sequences. The train robbery, the robbery at the cement factory and the set up for the robbery of the bank bus are well handled. And the showdown between Dawson and Spanier, with the Tokyo police, at a children's fun park high on top of a business building is great. On balance, however, House of Bamboo's strong points seem to me to be a nice performance by Robert Ryan and some great scenery. The DVD picture is first rate.

This 1955 Sam Fuller film noir is basically saved, character-wise, by Robert Ryan who plays a vicious crime boss in, of all places, post-WW II Japan. The first American film shot there after the war, this is unique for that aspect. Ryan is great, as usual; I can't think of one film he's in that he doesn't make better than it is thanks to his presence. He runs a bunch of pachinko (read: pinball) parlors, a front for his crime operations which include robbing American supply trains of all kinds of stuff (the opening scene shows this really well).

Robert Stack plays an undercover cop who infiltrates Ryan's gang to find out exactly how the man murdered at the beginning of the film during the heist bought it. Thanks to not only colorful settings, but Ryan's great performance, this is better than it should be. The script is kind of ho-hum. Stack is OK, pretty good, not great; he's Robert Stack. He falls for the widow of the murdered guy; she's Japanese so Fuller brings in another (semi-)controversial element, interracial love (which he also did in Crimson Kimono).

Fuller's an original, no question. Whether that originality is always of high quality is questionable, but he does love to hit the viewer in the face with issues challenging social convention and in that respect, he's definitely worth watching. When he's great--as in Pickup on South Street, or Shock Corridor--where everything fits together and purrs like a Ford Cobra engine--he's unbeatable. Here, in House of Bamboo, he gets some of the issues in, but the story is nowhere near as strong as it could or should be.

Worth seeing. Owning? I dunno.

House of Bamboo isn't a great movie, but it sure is a good one, and certainly the most lavish of Sam Fuller's career. Robert Stack's hardboiled lead is pure teak - he actually makes his Elliot Ness look hip and laidback by comparison - but luckily Robert Ryan is on hand to dominate proceedings with his sheer presence and talent. Graced with a great entrance, Ryan makes much more of his quietly hubristic, possibly gay gangster than was probably ever on the page: his monologue to a man he has just murdered as he gently, sensitively holds the corpse's head above water is genuinely shocking. Throw in a great use of colour and the widescreen (this was from the days when CinemaScope really WAS CinemaScope), and you may not have a 100% classic, but you've certainly got a visual treat.

I agree with Zack's take on this movie...I had just returned from two [2] sojourns in Kyoto, Japan [ 1954]...and I found this movie/DVD lacking of any Japanese mystique to a great degree...standard crime movie with the predictable ending, all taking place in Tokyo, Japan [1955]....yes, where were the Yakusa??...Robert Stack and Robert Ryan headline with the charming Shirley Yamaguchi, but that's all you get for your time and effort; incidentally, Director: Sam Fuller lured Shirley Yamaguchi away from her wealthy/socialite lifestyle in NYC...to return to her native Japan for this 20th Century Fox cinemascope picture, she remained onboard for a few more flicks and then, just disappeared from the silver screen forever.

Shot on location, adapted and directed by Sam Fuller, "House of Bamboo", is a terrific film from the 50's. Robert Stack is the lead and he's wooden, as always but, Robert Ryan more then makes up for it portraying a calculating mob boss who likes to run his outfit the way he learned in the U.S. Army, a principaled ,unprincipled murderer and thief. Great shots of Japan and a compelling narrative. A very good film transfer, done by Fox, make this a worthwhile purchase for fans of mid century crime tales.

If you are a fan of crime drama, this one is must-have for your collection. The film has great acting, a perfect setting in post-war Tokyo, and can truly claim to have an all-star cast (with Robert Ryan in one of his best roles). Also a major plus is the commentary track, which provides valuable insights into the screenplay and making of the movie. House of Bamboo is also one of the rare film noir releases to be made in color during the classic years of the genre (1941-1958). Even after several viewings, there are small nuances that one notices for the first fime. A Samuel Fuller masterpiece not to be missed.

A pretty ordinary gangster movie but with a few twists and turns that make it worth watching. First, it's all shot in Japan with some great traditional clothing that I doubt is worn anymore and other shots that show us the real post-war Japan.

Second, the Robert Ryan character is complex as heck. He definitely out-performs both his co-stars and his material.

The plot itself is ok but you can't expect to follow it if you are multitasking...I just had to watch the whole first half a second time because I lost it. Save this one for a time you can devote wholly to a movie.

But to a three-star movie? If it is good enough to watch uninterrupted, doesn't it rate more than three stars? Not really...watch it and write a review and tell me if I am right or wrong.

Army sergeant, Robert Stack, working undercover, breaks up a syndicate led by expatriate Robert Ryan, in this hard-boiled melodrama set against the urban sprawl of post-war Japan. Expert commentary by Fuller scholars James Ursini & Alain Silver makes it all seem rather more interesting than it is - yet, effective characterizations abound, notably Stack's taciturn investigator, later honed to perfection as The Untouchables' Elliot Ness, a radiant Shirley Yamaguchi as the love interest, and Robert Ryan as an unusually sympathetic villain (more avuncular than sexually ambivalent, as suggested by some commentators).
The letterboxed image is fine, though the drab color transfer blunts the immediacy of Joe McDonald's on-location photography.

There are three ways to examine this film: as a standard crime caper; as a cross-cultural examination; and finally as a takeoff on film noir, except in this case bad guy Robert Ryan has fallen for homme fatale Robert Stack.

In regards the first, you have a crime in post-war Japan and then Tokyo cops and U.S. Army work together to discover who the bad guys are and put in Stack, undercover, who quickly infiltrates the mob. Ryan is partial to ostentatiously rough-edged Stack and buys his fake ID and planted background data, and wants him as his new second-in-command. Ryan becomes busy subtly phasing Stack in as Cameron Mitchell - in a slick turn as "Ichiban" (boy #1) - steams his way towards a nervous breakdown as he is systematically undermined in favor of Stack. After Stack's life is saved by Ryan, all bets are off, it seems, though Ryan is unaware his new "Ichiban" is working undercover to get evidence against him.

In the cross-cultural class, you have Stack off the boat, the prototypical ugly American, but this one with an agenda to contact the gang that killed their own wounded man in the commitment of a crime. His first mission is to locate the fledgling widow of the dead soldier, then find out what she knows. Turns out she knows nothing, except she buys the fake ID he gives her, so she instantly trusts him. She turns out to be a convenient alibi for him, but eventually he softens towards her, just as she is falling for him, and their trust in each other and regard becomes mutual. Nothing overt sexually, perhaps because of the racial implications of the time (mid-50s film). However, his rough and awkward American ways soften and he becomes more acclimated because of his surroundings and the time spent with this woman. In this contrast, you can see the partaking of Japanese ways of Ryan and his boys is purely superficial, as they don't pay more than lip service to the people or their customs.

The deliberate director-initiated homosexual subtext is what draws most attention to the movie nowadays. Ryan is instantly attracted to Stack, invites him into his gang, comes up with an alibi for him when it looks as if Stack's alibi and therefore life is in jeopardy, saves his life when his own Code says wounded men are immediately executed, and has Stack move into his house on the pretext he's wounded, but this turns into an open-ended stay. (This great scene has been described by director Fuller as the moment Ryan is forcing Stack to address his attraction to him, but Ryan is also aware the other `boys' are in the room and has to back down.) There follows a wedding reception of sorts, as Ryan has Stack seated next to him at a banquet; at this party Mitchell forces a confrontation with Ryan over the preference of Stack to him. The tensions emanating from Mitchell's character (a great Cameron Mitchell turn as an actor) will climax in a later scene.

Some really inventive uses of staging are the military-planning style Ryan uses for briefing his men, and the fun use of a pool table for replicating streets with pool cues and toy cars for the ones they'll use, etc. The long shots and hidden camera techniques also make for some fabulous cinematography and moments, especially as the Stack character is taken for a real criminal on the streets. Also fun for director Fuller, was turning American film convention on its ear, when he had Stack stripping to bathe, etc., rather than the usual film cliché of the woman as the object of beauty.

But the overall screenplay seems lacking, with not enough scenes of Ryan and Stack together to display/explain Ryan's fondness for Stack, besides the obvious - Stack was a handsome man. After all, it's several weeks these characters are together, yet we don't see much interaction between them, yet it is their relationship pushing the film. Stack's performance overall is one of a (deliberately) clumsy tough-guy imitation in the first part of the film, then he softens and is quite animated in his scenes with Yamaguchi. But he maintains a steadfast silence in the Ryan and gang related scenes, appropriate to when he's there to learn and not give anything away himself. It's like he's living a double-life along with a dual personality. Yamaguchi is lovely, and acts well, but there are a few moments I was unaware if she was mimicking geisha clichés or if this would have been an honest representation. Ryan steals the film with his icy, elegant determination - a sophistication homosexual characters of 40s and 50s films always seem to have, making it a time period cliche. Mitchell is so spot-on perfect with his character's suspicion, discernment, and rise in seething rage, he is a joy to watch all on his own.

So many commentators malign Robert Stack's performance I wanted to state that he is well cast and EFFECTIVE in this film as a righteous, unyeilding wall of morality. (Just like Elliot Ness whom we have no problem accepting.) Sam Fuller is comparing Rob Stack's ham-handed good American against (the amazing) Robert Ryan's morally corrupt American carpetbagger in post-war Japan and in this conflict we see our country's long hard struggle to resolve the divide betwwen our ideals and our reality.