The Crimson Kimono and The League of Gentlemen

James Shigeta as Detective Joe Kojaku.

The Crimson Kimono (1959). Writer-director Samuel Fuller's once-controversial cult film revolves around two police detectives, one Caucasian and one Japanese, who try to solve a complicated murder case involving a stripper in the Japanese quarter of Los Angeles. Along the way, both detectives fall in love with a key witness, leading to a love triangle that threatens their friendship. Fuller's on-location shooting, in and around Little Tokyo in L.A., gives The Crimson Kimono a vibrant and gritty feel. It's a perfect setting for a quirky film noir and the opening scene, in which stripper Sugar Torch is fatally shot as she runs into a busy street, promises as much. However, Fuller's primary interest lies elsewhere, leading to a plot detour into an examination of the relationship between detective Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) and Chris, an art student (Victoria Shaw). Joe has to cope with his own cultural norms (his family expects him to marry a Japanese woman) and what he perceives as racial bias from Charlie (Glenn Corbett), his detective partner and longtime best friend. It's an interesting theme and James Shigeta effectively conveys Joe's inner struggle. Still, it's a shame that there's little left time left for the mystery. When it gets wraps up quickly at the climax, I felt that Fuller had cheated me out of a potentially brilliant film noir.

Jack Hawkins as Norman Hyde.

The League of Gentlemen (1960). Forced into retirement, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Hyde (Jack Hawkins) recruits seven former army officers, each facing desperate or humiliating circumstances, for a bank robbery. Hyde convinces the team that a large-scale crime, planned and executed with military precision by former soldiers, is a "can't miss" proposition, It also helps that he guarantees each man a payout of over £100,000 (equates to $2.9 million in 2024). Like the heist it depicts, The League of Gentlemen is a well-executed film that grabs the viewer from its opening shot: Hyde, dressed in black tie, emerges from a manhole on a London street at night. While the climatic heist is sufficiently engrossing, the film's highlight is an earlier theft of weapons from an army depot. It allows the always entertaining Roger Livesey to impersonate an army general looking into a fictitious complaint about inedible army food. In addition to Hawkins and Livesey, the fine cast includes Richard Attenborough, Nigel Patrick (delightful as the second-in-command), and Bryan Forbes (who co-wrote the screenplay with John Boland). My only quibble with The League of Gentlemen is its ending. It works well enough...it's just not what I wanted to happen (which is not a valid complaint at all).

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song

Miyoshi Umeki as Mei Li.

My elementary school chorus teacher introduced me to the Broadway musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein. To be specific, she favored the catchy songs from The Sound of Music and The King and I. Hence, I always experience some built-in nostalgia whenever I watch those movie adaptations. Yet, despite that background, I never sought out the 1961 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song--and it seemed to purposefully elude me. That changed, though, when I recently discovered it on Amazon Prime.

Nancy Kwan as singer Linda Low.

Set in San Francisco, it opens with the arrival of stowaways Dr. Li and his granddaughter Mei Li (Miyoshi Umeki). The latter has journeyed to America to fulfill a marriage contract with Sammy Fong, a nightclub owner she has never met. Sammy has no interest in getting hitched, having been romantically involved with singer Linda Low (Nancy Kwan) for five years. He hatches a scheme to introduce Mei Li to Wang Chi-Yang (Benson Fong), who wants his Chinese-American son Ta (James Shigeta) to marry a woman with Old World values. This leads to a series of misunderstandings and deceptions before true love wins out.

Benson Fong's as Ta's father.

Flower Drum Song holds the distinction of being the first Hollywood production with an all-Asian cast. That may explain in large part why it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant and added to the National Film Registry in 2008. Its critics counter that it promotes cultural stereotypes and casts non-Chinese actors in Chinese roles (e.g., U.S.-born James Shigeta was of Japanese ancestry). One can't argue with the latter complaint, but the "stereotypes" in Flower Drum Song are merely stock movie characters. Who hasn't seen a movie with a feisty father figure who wants to impose his values on his children?

The screenplay has a lot of fun with portraying the differences between American and Chinese culture...and everything in-between. While the elders hold on to their old-fashioned values, the kids embrace everything snazzy and new. And in the middle, there's Ta's aunt, who has merged both worlds and become an American citizen after studying for five years. This central theme is captured playfully in the lyrics to the song "Chop Suey":

Living here is very much like chop suey 

Hula hoops and nuclear war 

Doctor Salk and Zsa Zsa Gabor 

Bobby Darin, Sandra Dee, and Dewey 

Chop suey!

Flower Drum Song features a pleasant selection of songs, although the only bona fide hit was the playful "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (lip-synced by Nancy Kwan in a clever number in which she performs with three mirror reflections of herself). Miyoshi Umeki sings the sweet opening song "A Hundred Million Miracles" and duets with Jack Soo on the clever "Don't Marry Me." Of course, there are some forgettable songs as well, including the melodic but empty "Love, Look Away."

Nancy Kwan times three!

Filmed entirely on studio sets, Flower Drum Song bursts with bright colors and the cast provides plenty of high energy. Nancy Kwan may not sing her songs (her vocals are dubbed by B.J. Baker), but she dances up a storm. And while the cast was ignored by the Academy Awards, the film earned Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography (Color), Best Art Direction (Color), Best Costume Design (Color), Best Score, and Best Sound.

Flower Drum Song may not rank with the best Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals, but even their second-best is better than most. I was happily surprised and recommend checking it out if you haven't done already.

Here's one of the musical numbers, courtesy of the Cafe's YouTube Channel:

Jack Lord x 2 = 1st Episode of "Hawaii Five-O" + "Walk Like a Dragon"

One could argue that the first episode of the original Hawaii Five-O TV series was the "pilot" broadcast on CBS on September 20, 1968. While the pilot certainly established the show's premise--and introduced Wo Fat, its most famous villain--it was still a trial run. When the series was given the green light, James MacArthur had replaced Tim O'Kelly as Danny and Richard Denning had taken over from Lew Ayres as the governor.

Louise Troy and Kevin McCarthy.

"Full Fathom Five," shown the week after the pilot's premiere, doesn't feature a villain of Wo Fat's notoriety. However, it does offer Kevin McCarthy--who specialized in slimy characters--as Victor Reese, who teams with his wife (Louise Troy) to scam and then murder lonely women with money. Interestingly, the Five-O team might have never suspected Reese if an attorney hadn't pressured McGarrett to search for a missing heiress. In an effective ironic twist, the heiress turns out to be alive. However, while investigating her disappearance, Danny uncovers ten cases where single women with no close relatives had disappeared at the rate of one per month.

When McGarrett assigns a female detective (Patricia Smith), with no field experience, to go undercover as Reese's next target, Danny takes exception.

DANNY:  I don't like it.

McGARRETT:  Nobody asked you.

Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett.

As with most of the show's episodes, the focus is on the investigation. We don't get a glimpse of the personal lives of McGarrett, Danny, Kam Fong (Chin Ho), or Zulu (Kono). But we do get plenty of stunning Hawaiian scenery, a lively shootout at the climax, and the terrific opening credits (voted #4 all-time in 2010 by TV Guide readers--and it should have ranked higher). Surprisingly, though, McGarrett never utters his signature line: "Book'em, Danno!"

For the record, Jack Lord was a last minute replacement as Steve McGarrett. Creator Leonard Freeman originally wanted Richard Boone (allegedly, Gregory Peck was also in the discussion). Lord's no-nonsense attitude was perfect for the part, though, and he played McGarrett for 12 years, making Hawaii Five-O the longest running detective series prior to Law & Order (which is a hybrid anyway).

Stephen J. Cannell (The Rockford Files, The A-Team) tried to revive Five-O with a 1997 pilot starring Gary Busey and MacArthur, who returned as Danny (now governor of Hawaii!). It didn't sell, but, of course, the 2010 series revival became a hit for CBS.

Jack Lord as Linc.

In 1960, eight years before his signature Five-O role, Jack Lord starred in Walk Like a Dragon, an underrated "B" film written and directed by James Clavell (best known as the author of Shogun). Set in California after the Civil War, it features Lord as Linc Bartlett, a small town freight line owner on a trip to San Francisco. He buys a nineteen-year-old Chinese girl, being sold as a slave, to rescue her from a certain life as a prostitute. He gives the girl, Kim (Nobu McCarthy), her freedom--but she has nowhere to go and still considers Linc her owner. Linc ends up taking Kim and a young Chinese man named Cheng Lu (James Shigeta) to his home town of Jerico--where they all have to cope with the devastating impacts of racial prejudice.

James Shigeta as Cheng Yu.

As in Shogun, Clavell does a masterful job of showing what it's like to be thrust into a totally different culture. He eschews subtitles when the Chinese characters speak, giving the viewer a taste of what it's like to not understand potentially important conversations (incidentally, the Shogun miniseries avoid subtitles as well). In one telling scene, Cheng Lu's uncle speaks in broken English in front of Linc, only to speak it fluently to Cheng Yu in private. He explains to his nephew: "If you want to stay alive, you always have to follow certain rules."

Nobu McCarthy as Kim.

Each of the three main characters struggle with the sudden changes in their lives. Linc realizes he's fallen in love with Kim, but knows their life as a married couple would be a very difficult one. Cheng Lu doesn't want to play by the "rules" like his uncle; he wants to be treated with the same respect as men like Linc. And Kim finds herself caught in the middle, unsure whether to pursue a challenging future with the man she loves or a more traditional one with a man she respects.

Mel Torme--the gunfighter?

The cast is uniformly fine, with Lord giving one of his best performances as the conflicted Linc--although Shigeta steals the film. A major surprise is Mel Torme as Deacon, a Bible-quoting gunfighter dressed in black. It's a fascinating casting choice and, frankly, Mel handles the part well. He also sings the atypical title tune.