Tonight's Movie: The Crimson Kimono (1959)

THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959), written, directed, and produced by Samuel Fuller, was a real find for me.

Within the confines of this fairly run-of-the-mill 82-minute crime drama lies an interesting interracial romance.

Even better, from my perspective as someone who loves Southern California locations, the movie is a love letter to Downtown Los Angeles.

The movie begins with the murder of a burlesque stripper, Sugar Torch (Gloria Pall), who is gunned down in the middle of a busy Los Angeles street. This strikingly filmed scene, which I later learned was captured with a hidden camera, hooked me from the start.

Police detectives Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta), partners and close friends since the Korean War, work the baffling case.

Charlie meets Christine "Chris" Downs (Victoria Shaw), an art student at the University of Southern California, who saw a potential suspect and draws a sketch broadcast by the police. While they investigate the case Charlie and Joe also look out for the safety of Chris, whose life is endangered when the suspect realizes she can make an ID.

As the investigation continues, Charlie is surprised to find himself falling head over heels for Chris. But he's got another surprise coming, as Chris falls for the more sensitive, artistically minded Joe. Joe reciprocates, which threatens his years-long friendship with Charlie.

There were many things I loved about this film, starting with the uncliched treatment of race. It's a non-issue for Chris and Joe from the standpoint of their feelings for one another, and it only comes into play when Joe misinterprets Charlie's response to Joe's love for Christine as involving racial animosity rather than simple jealousy.

Neither man has ever given the other a reason for race to be an issue between them, but in the emotion of the moment Joe goes off the rails and unfairly thinks the worst of his longtime partner.

The crux of the film is Joe and Charlie working to reclaim their friendship, rather than Joe and Chris having to overcome any other divisive racial obstacles in order to be together. I appreciated the movie approaching the relationships from a somewhat unexpected angle.

The performances and characters of the three leads are uniformly interesting. I liked that there wasn't a "bad guy," per se, simply good people with normal human frailties. I also enjoyed Chris being so calm and composed, rather than a damsel in distress, and her directness in expressing her feelings.

I haven't seen much of Corbett's work, but I recall him playing the character who married Betsy Garth (Roberta Shore) on TV's THE VIRGINIAN (1965). I enjoyed James Shigeta so much that I immediately ordered a DVD of FLOWER DRUM SONG (1961), which I don't think I've seen since watching a hacked-up print on TV in the '70s.

The movie also features a colorful performance by Anna Lee, cast against type as a hard-drinking painter who hangs out in a rough part of town.

I absolutely loved the extensive shooting in Downtown Los Angeles, including Little Tokyo. It's a fabulous look at the city as it was in the late '50s; some familiar sights, including City Hall, are still part of the landscape today. The movie also filmed in Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights.

The attractive widescreen black and white photography was by Sam Leavitt.

I watched this film on a beautiful Blu-ray which is part of the Noir Archive 3 collection. The movie was also released in a limited edition Blu-ray from Twilight Time.

It's on DVD in the Samuel Fuller Collection or as a single-title release.

This film has also been shown on Turner Classic Movies, most recently as part of the Noir Alley series.