HOUSE OF BAMBOO is a film from the early part of director Sam Fuller's career. Despite the director having a reputation for shooting a film very, very quickly, this film looked more expensive and prettier than the usual Fuller film because it was filmed in color and the entire production was taken to Japan. This change of style, though unusual, generally worked very well as he managed to make an odd concoction indeed--a Film Noir set in Japan (and in color--something almost unheard of in the genre).
The film begins with a robbery of US military equipment in occupied Japan--during which a member of the service is killed. Some time later, the same gun is used in a cold-blooded shooting where gang members shoot one of their own just because he got injured during a robbery! Talk about rough! Well, the military decides to investigate by having an undercover man infiltrate this mob.
For the most part, the film worked well. Robert Stack played lead and his delivery and style made it almost seem like Sgt. Joe Friday was undercover with the mob. More impressive was the usual effortless looking performance by Robert Ryan. He managed to be tough AND smooth at the same time--a tough job indeed. However, what bothered me a lot about the film is that although Ryan was so ruthless and cool, his brain oddly took a vacation about 10 to 12 minutes before the end of the film--and this made no sense since his character was so clever and had previously done so much to avoid getting caught. Instead of just shooting Stack in the head or beating him to death when they discovered he was a fake, Ryan takes him on a robbery and concocts a way to kill him with about a 50% chance of working!! What happened--was he reading through the James Bond or Batman super-villain handbook and realized he needed to do it this way?! Instead of killing him, they stage a fake robbery and wait for the cops to kill him--though Japanese police aren't exactly known for being trigger happy! While this and the subsequent shootout are exciting, this is uncharacteristically sloppy for a usually tightly written Fuller film (and in this case, Fuller only co-wrote the script).
Overall, if you can ignore this huge mental blunder, the film is lovely to watch and exciting--well worth your time. Just don't expect it to be nearly the total package like films such as STEEL HELMET or PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET--though like SOUTH STREET, you do get to see a Fuller trademark, as Stack belts a lady square in the mouth! By the way, a younger DeForest Kelley is in the film. While he made plenty of movies in the 50s and 60s, practically all of them seemed to be Westerns and so this is a nice change of pace.
The film begins with a robbery of US military equipment in occupied Japan--during which a member of the service is killed. Some time later, the same gun is used in a cold-blooded shooting where gang members shoot one of their own just because he got injured during a robbery! Talk about rough! Well, the military decides to investigate by having an undercover man infiltrate this mob.
For the most part, the film worked well. Robert Stack played lead and his delivery and style made it almost seem like Sgt. Joe Friday was undercover with the mob. More impressive was the usual effortless looking performance by Robert Ryan. He managed to be tough AND smooth at the same time--a tough job indeed. However, what bothered me a lot about the film is that although Ryan was so ruthless and cool, his brain oddly took a vacation about 10 to 12 minutes before the end of the film--and this made no sense since his character was so clever and had previously done so much to avoid getting caught. Instead of just shooting Stack in the head or beating him to death when they discovered he was a fake, Ryan takes him on a robbery and concocts a way to kill him with about a 50% chance of working!! What happened--was he reading through the James Bond or Batman super-villain handbook and realized he needed to do it this way?! Instead of killing him, they stage a fake robbery and wait for the cops to kill him--though Japanese police aren't exactly known for being trigger happy! While this and the subsequent shootout are exciting, this is uncharacteristically sloppy for a usually tightly written Fuller film (and in this case, Fuller only co-wrote the script).
Overall, if you can ignore this huge mental blunder, the film is lovely to watch and exciting--well worth your time. Just don't expect it to be nearly the total package like films such as STEEL HELMET or PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET--though like SOUTH STREET, you do get to see a Fuller trademark, as Stack belts a lady square in the mouth! By the way, a younger DeForest Kelley is in the film. While he made plenty of movies in the 50s and 60s, practically all of them seemed to be Westerns and so this is a nice change of pace.