Sam Fuller is one of the few directors who improves when one sees his movies several times. Yeah, I know that his reputation is that of a director who enjoyed sensationalism too much, but he also knew how to use sensationalism like a spice in a recipe - not too much of it in all situations (the madhouse in SHOCK CORRIDOR is an exception), but enough to maintain our interest.
Fuller once said that the story had to be a good one to make a good picture. Perhaps this truism sounds as simple as Coolidge's, "The business of America is business!" But like most people who dismiss Coolidge's comment as second-rate, they don't realize he meant that the American people see all means of employment as business and pursue it for advantage. He just said it in that laconic style of his. Fuller's truism is also correct at the simplest: good films have good stories. Yeah...but how many film directors and actors and producers get to work with good stories? Not that many - just look at the number of film flops each year.
THE CRIMSON KIMONO starts off with stripper Sugar Torch (Gloria Pall) doing her normal act in some shabby theater on Main Street in Los Angeles. She is all smiles as she does the act, and then she leaves at the end, and her face shows the weariness of two or three shows a night on it. She heads for her dressing room, sees the theater owner and borrows a puff from his cigarette, and then heads for her door. She hears a shot - opens the door and sees a masked figure with a gun who fires at her. She runs out of the theater into the street and down into the street, where she is shot and killed in the gutter. While watching this three minute sequence (long because of the initial song and strip tease) I compared it to another sequence in a film noir of one year earlier: the opening three minutes of Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL, wherein Rudy Linnekar and his girlfriend drive off in a car that we know is going to blow up. Welles rarely got big budgets but did so on the 1958 film, and did the most he could. Fuller was given a larger budget than usual for THE CRIMSON KIMONO, and managed to get considerable mileage from it too. Both set the mood of the film quite well.
The death of the strip tease star brings two L.A. Detectives on the case: Sgt. Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta). The two have been pals since serving in the Korean War together (Bancroft was badly wounded and Kojaku gave him a pint of his own blood). Now living together in a residential hotel they are assigned to this case...one with two few clues. The theater manager can only tell them that Sugar was going to move to Las Vegas with a new act called "The Crimson Kimono" wherein she is the prize in a battle to the death between a karate master and a Samurai. But they have some pictures of Sugar in a Crimson kimono, and start looking for the artist, as well as the fellow who would have played the karate master.
Fuller loads his canvass with colorful types. Bancroft knows an alcoholic artist named Mac (Anna Lee) who knows all the artist talent in the L.A. area. After getting her a bottle of her favorite bourbon Mac goes to town, and the next day recalls the artist of the drawings, "Chris" is connected to some art school. It turns out "Chris" is not a man but a woman named "Christine Downs" (Victoria Shaw). Bancroft goes to interview her, and she recalls a man who was with Sugar - and draws a sketch of him. But Bancroft finds he is falling for her, and takes her to dinner as well as to headquarters to hand in the sketch. Kojaku in the meantime has found the person who was to be the karate specialist in the sketch, one Yuki. He tries to catch him, but finds it impossible.
Chris's sketch gives her unwanted notoriety. While at her sorority house that night she is lured to the phone by the man who she drew, Hansel (Neyle Morrow). Someone shoots at her while she is on the phone. She is taken into protective custody by the two detectives, and Mac is used as a chaperon. They proceed to find Yuki and this time subdue him together. He finally tells them what he knows of the man known as "Hansel". We see them trace him, but he always seems one step ahead of them. Bancroft goes out one night to investigate, leaving Chris alone with Kojaku. The two get into a discussion of art and find they have much in common. In fact, Chris admits she is in love with Kojaku. This is troubling, for he feels the same way, but he knows Bankcroft loves her too.
At this point the film seems to leave the film noir element and concentrates on Fuller's look at bi-racial love affairs, and racial bigotry. A lot of criticism is flung at Fuller for this because the eventual resolution of the noir plot is relatively mild compared to the bigotry theme or love affair theme. Actually Fuller keeps our interest in the new twist by the karate class mock duel that a jealous Kojaku turns into a violent attack on Bankroft. Also, the resolution of the noir plot deals with a second jealousy fueled murder, which makes Kojaku realize what has happened to him. And the final confrontation with the perpetrator ends in the gutter (during a parade) and somewhat compares with the earlier shooting of Sugar. Fuller pulled his story together well - he knew how to tell a good story.
Fuller once said that the story had to be a good one to make a good picture. Perhaps this truism sounds as simple as Coolidge's, "The business of America is business!" But like most people who dismiss Coolidge's comment as second-rate, they don't realize he meant that the American people see all means of employment as business and pursue it for advantage. He just said it in that laconic style of his. Fuller's truism is also correct at the simplest: good films have good stories. Yeah...but how many film directors and actors and producers get to work with good stories? Not that many - just look at the number of film flops each year.
THE CRIMSON KIMONO starts off with stripper Sugar Torch (Gloria Pall) doing her normal act in some shabby theater on Main Street in Los Angeles. She is all smiles as she does the act, and then she leaves at the end, and her face shows the weariness of two or three shows a night on it. She heads for her dressing room, sees the theater owner and borrows a puff from his cigarette, and then heads for her door. She hears a shot - opens the door and sees a masked figure with a gun who fires at her. She runs out of the theater into the street and down into the street, where she is shot and killed in the gutter. While watching this three minute sequence (long because of the initial song and strip tease) I compared it to another sequence in a film noir of one year earlier: the opening three minutes of Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL, wherein Rudy Linnekar and his girlfriend drive off in a car that we know is going to blow up. Welles rarely got big budgets but did so on the 1958 film, and did the most he could. Fuller was given a larger budget than usual for THE CRIMSON KIMONO, and managed to get considerable mileage from it too. Both set the mood of the film quite well.
The death of the strip tease star brings two L.A. Detectives on the case: Sgt. Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta). The two have been pals since serving in the Korean War together (Bancroft was badly wounded and Kojaku gave him a pint of his own blood). Now living together in a residential hotel they are assigned to this case...one with two few clues. The theater manager can only tell them that Sugar was going to move to Las Vegas with a new act called "The Crimson Kimono" wherein she is the prize in a battle to the death between a karate master and a Samurai. But they have some pictures of Sugar in a Crimson kimono, and start looking for the artist, as well as the fellow who would have played the karate master.
Fuller loads his canvass with colorful types. Bancroft knows an alcoholic artist named Mac (Anna Lee) who knows all the artist talent in the L.A. area. After getting her a bottle of her favorite bourbon Mac goes to town, and the next day recalls the artist of the drawings, "Chris" is connected to some art school. It turns out "Chris" is not a man but a woman named "Christine Downs" (Victoria Shaw). Bancroft goes to interview her, and she recalls a man who was with Sugar - and draws a sketch of him. But Bancroft finds he is falling for her, and takes her to dinner as well as to headquarters to hand in the sketch. Kojaku in the meantime has found the person who was to be the karate specialist in the sketch, one Yuki. He tries to catch him, but finds it impossible.
Chris's sketch gives her unwanted notoriety. While at her sorority house that night she is lured to the phone by the man who she drew, Hansel (Neyle Morrow). Someone shoots at her while she is on the phone. She is taken into protective custody by the two detectives, and Mac is used as a chaperon. They proceed to find Yuki and this time subdue him together. He finally tells them what he knows of the man known as "Hansel". We see them trace him, but he always seems one step ahead of them. Bancroft goes out one night to investigate, leaving Chris alone with Kojaku. The two get into a discussion of art and find they have much in common. In fact, Chris admits she is in love with Kojaku. This is troubling, for he feels the same way, but he knows Bankcroft loves her too.
At this point the film seems to leave the film noir element and concentrates on Fuller's look at bi-racial love affairs, and racial bigotry. A lot of criticism is flung at Fuller for this because the eventual resolution of the noir plot is relatively mild compared to the bigotry theme or love affair theme. Actually Fuller keeps our interest in the new twist by the karate class mock duel that a jealous Kojaku turns into a violent attack on Bankroft. Also, the resolution of the noir plot deals with a second jealousy fueled murder, which makes Kojaku realize what has happened to him. And the final confrontation with the perpetrator ends in the gutter (during a parade) and somewhat compares with the earlier shooting of Sugar. Fuller pulled his story together well - he knew how to tell a good story.