Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Bill Slocum Ostensibly a murder mystery but more a romantic drama with strong social overtones, "The Crimson Kimono" comes armed with noble intentions and the stylistic panache you associate with director- writer Samuel Fuller, but not much in the way of a story.A stripper named Sugar Torch is gunned down one night on a busy Los Angeles street. Detective Sgt. Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and his partner Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) develop a lead with the help of a young artist named Chris (Victoria Shaw). Both men also develop strong feelings for Chris, which leads to sparks and considerable misunderstandings after she makes her decision.In a DVD doc that comes with this movie, director Curtis Hanson notes that this "fits in no genre except the Sam Fuller genre," which is a great description. "The Crimson Kimono" starts with a typical Fuller bang, a big brassy stripper doing her act and then walking into a dressing-room ambush. The killing doesn't really make sense, either as it goes down or when you think about it after the movie is over, but it makes an impression, which is why Fuller was Fuller.The problem of the murder isn't only its incoherence, but the way it is swept under the rug so soon in favor of a social-issues drama which ostensibly deals with racism but is really about a guy his partner correctly describes at one point as a "meathead." At one point, we hear Bancroft even say "Nobody cares who killed that tramp," which is a heckuva line from a homicide detective except it fits with the mood of the film.Corbett and Shigeta make for a sturdy pair in their film debuts, so much so we care more about their issues as the story develops than we do about any progress they make on the case. Too much time is spent on a secondary character, Mac (Anna Lee), who drinks, smokes, and dispenses enough folky wisdom about art and love we come to understand that she's basically Sam in a dress. Lovers of the quintessential Fuller argot will have a field day here: "I'll have to tap her for a raincheck." "You tackle Rembrandt at the school and I'll shortstop Shuto." "You believe that eyewash?" All the above lines are from Kojaku, who seems like the last person to suffer a big emotional crisis by suddenly discovering he's a Japanese- American. But he does, because it's that kind of movie.Fuller fans will appreciate the film's dynamics at play, the way he challenges the audience by setting up a potential romance between Bancroft and Chris and then pushing the race buttons once he's got you thinking you're all assimilated. It's a strange sort of racial- issues story in that none of the white characters seem to have serious hang-ups. Fuller did like to complicate racial issues in his movies, but the curves that worked so well in "Shock Corridor" kind of flop here.Sam Leavitt's cinematography captures a somewhat hallucinatory Los Angeles at night, with smoky nimbi hanging over characters as they prowl lonely alleyways and pool halls. As a police procedural, "Crimson Kimono" has the right atmosphere.Liking the atmosphere, the characters, and the tangy Fuller spirit is not enough when the story doesn't connect. In the end, you are left with a film about failure to communicate that itself doesn't really communicate much of anything other than the wrongness of jumping to conclusions and the need for a good mystery to care more than a little at the end as to whodunit.

JohnWelles "The Crimson Kimono" (1959), directed by "cult" filmmaker Samuel Fuller, comes from the tail end of the film noir period; a year later it would have been classed as a neo-noir. As it is, it's an excellent little thriller, well acted and bolstered by a particularly good script, courtesy of Fuller himself.This screenplay is also among the oddest in the dark world of noir: after an exhilarating opening scene detailing the killing of burlesque queen Sugar Torch, the story of the hunting down of the murder takes a backseat to a (for then) ground breaking inter-racial love triangle, with American LAPD cop Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and Japanese LAPD Detective (James Shigeta) falling for Christine Downes (Victoria Shaw). There is no negative stereotypes here and of the three Shigeta gives the best performance, however all the acting is to an admirably high standard, as is Fuller's characteristically brilliant use of long takes, aided by Oscar winning cameraman Sam Leavitt.Fuller's movies always had an extra vibrancy to them, and this no different with surprisingly modern feeling editing by Jerome Thoms and sharp direction. A classic noir that deserves to be as well as known as Fuller's other crime greats, this one not to miss.

MartinHafer Maybe it's just me, but only a short time into this film I was already wondering just WHO acts like these characters?! For instance, there is a stripper (sugar Torch) who was planning a classy(?) striptease act where she would dress as a Japanese woman in a crimson kimono and two men would fight over her--one with a kitana (Japanese sword) and the other using his bare hands and karate. Another woman is a bohemian painter who talks in a very broad style and throws beer on canvases and seems a bit like Maynard G. Krebs. So, at the onset I was taken out of the moment because the film was trying too hard to be different. While director Sam Fuller's films usually excel at realism, this one just didn't quite make it. It's a shame, as I've loved many of his films and from this point on, it would be hard to sell me on THE CRIMSON KIMONO.The film begins with some maniac chasing Sugar Torch out of the theater after she finishes her act. She is gunned down in the middle of the street AND the killer takes the time to shoot a painting of her in the kimono in the throat that is in the dressing room. Two police detectives, Glenn Corbett and James Shigeta are sent in to investigate this murder in the Japanese section of Los Angeles. Naturally, with the bullet in the painting they think that there is something more to it. It's even MORE so when someone tries to shoot the artist ("Chris") next--though HOW the killer could have missed when he shot at her is beyond me.Now I noticed that some call this movie an example of Film Noir. However, I really didn't see that. Part of this was because the music was heavy on violins and sounded more akin to the soundtrack from PEYTON PLACE, the camera angles and darkness of typical Noir is missing and the characters are just too pretty--particularly the men, Shigeta and Corbett. When I think Noir, I think snappier and grittier dialog and ugly guys like John Ireland, Edmond O'Brien or Broderick Crawford. Plus, there is an interracial love interest that I liked...but it just didn't seem like Noir. Noir is NOT just a cop film but a style and attitude this one lacked--not that it was badly directed or produced. At heart, it's much more of a romance film.As for the interracial love interest, BOTH cops fall for Chris (the woman painter; had it been some other Chris, this might have been REAAAALLLY interesting and daring). And, Chris is feeling very strong feelings towards Shigeta. Eventually, the two men come to blows over this woman during a kendo match. Shigeta is convinced that his partner is a racist, though he seems to be reading something into his partner's (and long-time friend) thoughts and actions. However, Corbett is feeling normal jealousy...and still cares about his friend deeply. And, it turns out that the motivation for the killing early in the film is related, in a way, with Shigeta's struggle.Overall, despite a very rough beginning and it being incorrectly labeled 'Noir', the movie turned out to be pretty good and daring for its interracial love story. Yes, it had been done before in movies such as SAYONARA, but it was still a tough sell in 1959. Well worth seeing.

theowinthrop 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.