By David in TN
Friday, May 15, 2020 at 6:03:00 P.M. EDT
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning is Sam Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono (1959) with Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta, Victoria Shaw.
Film Noir Guide: “Corbett and Shigeta are Los Angeles homicide detectives investigating a stripper’s murder. While searching for the killer, the former war buddies both fall in love with a pretty artist (Shaw) who ultimately chooses Shigeta.
“This standard murder mystery is enhanced by the love triangle subplot, the interracial affair between Shigeta and Shaw, and Shigeta’s paranoia after he mistakes his best friend’s jealousy for racism.
“The exciting jazz score and the Los Angeles backdrop add a realistic dimension to the film.
“Fuller relates in an interview published in Film Noir Reader 3 that the opening nighttime sequence, in which a stripper is shot to death after being chased through a heavily trafficked downtown street, was filmed without the knowledge of the real-life pedestrians, most of whom ignored the nearly naked actress racing past them. A neighborhood shopkeeper, however, did call the police when a shot rang out and the actress fell to the ground. Fuller and his crew quickly packed up and left before the cops arrived.”
Last week, Eddie Muller called The Crimson Kimono “racially charged.” Actually less than that, and not especially convincing. Fuller’s previous film, China Gate (1957) has a similar theme, but is more entertaining.
China Gate has Gene Barry and Nat King Cole as Americans in the French Foreign Legion during France’s Indochina War, with Angie Dickinson playing Barry’s Eurasian ex-wife. To my knowledge, China Gate has never been on TCM.
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2 comments:
Everything is racially charged today. A must. "China Gate has Gene Barry and Nat King Cole as Americans in the French Foreign Legion during France’s Indochina War". Nat played an American in the movie but was better suited to play the role of a French Senegalese colonial troop? But everything is racially charged today.
TCM'a Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight ET and 10 am ET is Edward Dmytryk's Cornered (1945). Dick Powell stars along with Walter Slezak, Micheline Cheirel, Morris Carnovsky, and Luther Adler.
Film Noir Guide: "A former Canadian flyer and newly released prisoner of war, Powell is searching for the man responsible for his French bride's death. Hellbent on vengeance, he travels to France, Switzerland, and, finally, Argentina, where he encounters French patriots, Vichy collaborators, and Nazi conspirators. His frustrating, grief-inspired mission to find and destroy a man who may not even be alive plays havoc with his intelligence and common sense, causing him to make foolish blunders. In the end, though, it's not his brain but his brawn that pulls him through. Character actor Adler plays a mysterious Nazi collaborator who already longs for the next war when, of course, the outcome will be different. Slezak is just right as the slimy, detestable cad who will work for anyone as long as the price is right. Song-and-dance man Powell, who proved in Murder, My Sweet that he could play a tough guy with the best of them, turns in another fine performance and ensured his place in the annals of hard-boiled film noir."
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