Saturday, March 10, 2007

Moments of Distinction

The Film – House of Bamboo, dir. Sam Fuller

The Set-Up – This the final showdown between Robert Ryan’s Tokyo gangster Sandy Dawson and the undercover cop Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack)

A long shot of a sidewalk carnival.

Dawson runs along the tracks of a toy railway.

Employing the dumb move made by countless movie crooks, Dawson tries to escape by going up a flight of stairs. (Highlighted area)

He gets on the planet merry-go-round seen in the first frame. What a great shot this is.

He blasts away as the police and Kenner move in.

Kenner sneaks up on him.

The end of the line.

This moment is featured not because of anything profound that I see in it, but rather because I just think it’s neat. It’s a fabulous use of a location, and the camerawork is superb.

House of Bamboo is not a great film, but it is an interesting one. It's a standard undercover-cop-in-the-mob storyline with some very sly gay undertones sprinkled in. And it has a great final chase scene, as you now know.

2 comments:

Kimberly Lindbergs said...

I've never seen House of Bamboo and now I really want to.

Sometimes all it takes is some amazing cinematography to make me fall in love with a film and these shots are fantastic.

Jeff Duncanson said...

Thanks for the comment, Kimberley. HoB is easily available in a good letterboxed DVD. Check it out.