House Of Bamboo

Year: 1955

Grade: C+

Country: USA

Director: Fuller

Review

a not-very-good remake of street with no name. other than the fact that this takes place in japan, house of bamboo differs most strikingly in its choice to leave the audience out of the loop until about 30 minutes into the picture. street with no name begins with the murders and we see the police/fbi responding to those crimes by sending stevens in as an undercover agent. this film begins with the murder, but we don’t see the law enforcement’s response until about 30 minutes in when it’s revealed that robert stack is an undercover MP.

fuller uses the camera in a very japanese style (long takes, good movement, good coverage), but the story sags and stack’s acting is wooden. i liked the visual aspect of fuller’s direction, particularly the use of high angle shots, however, the story wasn’t very well crafted. robert ryan does his typically good job, but he’s still not as good as richard widmark who played the same character in the original.