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The Films of Sam Fuller

I Shot Jesse James

The Baron of Arizona

The Steel Helmet

Fixed Bayonets!

Park Row

Pickup on South Street

Hell and High Water

House of Bamboo (July 18/05)

House of Bamboo is a gritty, surprisingly violent little film from acclaimed director Samuel Fuller, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Robert Stack stars as Eddie Spanier, a military officer who must go undercover as a seedy criminal to infiltrate a ruthless gang of thieves operating out of Tokyo. His primary target is their leader, Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan), a charismatic criminal who has come to believe that his group is unstoppable (this is partly due to his policy to kill injured cohorts, in order to prevent them from talking to the police). There's also a subplot revolving around Eddie's relationship with Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi), a widower whose husband was killed by Sandy during a high-profile robbery. It's that aspect of House of Bamboo that drags the film down, as it's melodramatic and dull; Fuller spends far too much time in the movie's midsection dealing with their relationship, resulting in a number of sequences that are completely superfluous (exemplified by a pointless scene in which Mariko makes Eddie breakfast). Having said that, the positives here outweigh the negatives - ie Fuller's fluid camerawork, the action-packed conclusion, Stack's tough-as-nails performance, etc - and you just have to admire the idiocy of Sandy's elaborate but incompetently-executed scheme to get back at Eddie.

out of

China Gate

Run of the Arrow

Forty Guns

Verboten!

The Crimson Kimono

Underworld U.S.A.

Merrill's Marauders

Shock Corridor

The Naked Kiss

Shark

The Big Red One

White Dog

Les voleurs de la nuit

Street of No Return

The Madonna and the Dragon

© David Nusair