Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

zetes For a long while, this seemed like it was going to be one of Sam Fuller's best movies. The direction is great and the story and characters interesting. Unfortunately, it gets bogged down by a silly love triangle plot and starts to fall apart a bit. It is interesting that the romance in question is an interracial one - it was actually the selling point of the movie if you look at the poster! - but it never really works. The film follows two detectives in L.A., Glenn Corbett and James Shigeta, who are investigating the case of a slain stripper. One of their leads is a painting of the girl in a crimson kimono, done by an artist named Chris. They quickly discover that Chris is actually a woman (Victoria Shaw), and she helps them with their case. Corbett immediately takes a liking to her, and she returns his affection at first. But after an afternoon spent hanging out with Shigeta, she's in love with him. This is quite daring, but then the film starts to focus on nothing but the romantic entanglement for the last third of the film. About five minutes before the end, it feels like Fuller snaps out of it and says, "Crap, we forgot about the plot!" and throws together a reasonably satisfying finale. It's definitely a good film, though, when all is said and done.

kenjha After a stripper is shot dead, two LAPD officers investigate. Corbett and Shigeta, each making his film debut, play the cops. Corbett does OK, but Shigeta appears to be an unnatural actor; he looks like he is simply reading his lines. The murder investigation becomes secondary as the film focuses on the love triangle between the two cops and an artist, played by beautiful Australian actress Shaw. Fuller had a tendency to tackle social issues in his films and here it is the interracial romance between Japanese Shigeta and Shaw. Unfortunately, the romance is rather clumsily handled and the film goes off in too many different directions before abruptly wrapping things up too neatly.

lastliberal Simon Fuller (The Big Red One, White Dog) opens his film with Sugar (Gloria Pall) running away from a gunman, her 39 inch chest bouncing in a bra. Too late, he is successful, and so begins a film noir with two detectives Charlie (Glenn Corbett) and Joe (James Shigeta - Takagi in Die Hard) in hot pursuit. Both Corbett and Shigeta made their acting debuts in this film.This is Fuller in his prime, and it makes for an exciting detective story, mixing Japanese and Korean cultures and customs in Los Angeles in the period.Anna Lee, who played Lila Quartermaine on "General Hospital" and "Port Charles," really stole the show when she appeared on screen.In the midst of the investigation, both detectives fall in love with the same woman (Victoria Shaw). Race comes to the forefront in a dramatic way.Filmed against the backdrop of Little Tokyo and a Japanese street festival, it was an excellent film.

a666333 This movie, though flawed is definitely worth seeing. Definitely the love triangle overtakes the murder in significance. That is OK in itself but it means that the details of the murder are dealt with and wrapped up rather sloppily. At least another 10 minutes or so could have rounded things out much better. They seemed in a hurry to make their points. Also, I will never buy into the movie habit which sees so many people fall seriously in love in a few hours of real time.The cinematography works well in black and white and delivers a good feel. The race relations theme was bravely and openly addressed. Placing the East Asian man as a real romantic force, as opposed to a menace or threat, was still adventurous at the time for Hollywood. (East Asian women, on the other hand, had been well established as legitimate love interests) Hollywood seemed to have been very interested in making James Shigeta into a star male lead. He was given a number of lead roles in the late 50s/early 60s but then they pushed him off into supporting roles. I can see why. It was a chore to come up with plausible roles for him that the public of the day would buy into. More fundamentally, he struggled at time with his delivery. Here, both he and Corbett are forced to deliver a good bit of overdone jargon. Corbett, who was never a big star nonetheless handles it better than Shigeta. He didn't deliver with the kind of strength that a lead role generally requires.