The Unimaginable City

My latest collection of poetry, The Unimaginable City, is now available on Kindle.

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The Crimson Kimono

Released by Columbia Pictures in 1959

Written, Directed, and Produced by Samuel Fuller

Starring Victoria Shaw, Glenn Corbett, James Shigeta, and Anna Lee.

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Crimson Kimono is a gritty detective story mixed with a melodramatic love story and the typical blunt social commentary that Sam Fuller brought to all of his films.

The film opens with the famous stripper Sugar Torch (Gloria Pall) finishing her act then coming backstage, taking a drag off her manager's cigarette, then approaching her dressing room door. A gun shot is heard, Sugar Torch opens the door and sees someone inside. Sugar Torch runs out of the night club and is chased into a Los Angeles street where she is shot dead by an unknown assailant. Detectives Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbet) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) are assigned to the case.

During their first interview with Sugar Torch's manager Casale (Paul Dubov), they learn that Sugar was planning a new act called the Crimson Kimono, which was to a very elaborate piece telling the story of a tragic love triangle in a Geisha setting. While questioning Casale in the deceased's dressing room, the detectives come across a portrait painted of Sugar Torch wearing a Crimson Kimono. They inquire about the artist and who else had been hired to perform in the show. Once the information they need is obtained Charlie and Joe go off separately to track down the individuals involved.

Joe ends up at a local Martial Arts studio to see Willy Hidaka (George Yoshinaga), who was to play a Samurai in the Crimson Kimono. Willy tells Joe a man named Shuto (Fuji) was supposed to be the third star in the Crimson Kimono. Charlie, meanwhile, makes his way to Los Angeles Skid Row where his artist friend Mac (Anna Lee) has a studio. The scene in Mac's studio gives the film an unintentional moment of comic relief as it tries to capture the feel of the bohemian/Beat scene of 1950's. At the time of the films release, I'm sure seemed rather hip, but nearly fifty years later comes off as contrived and comedic.

The next morning Charlie and Joe are beginning their day in the apartment/hotel suite they share in downtown L.A. We learn that Joe is far more ambitious when it comes to obtaining a promotion than Charlie is, but being a Nisei is holding him back and forces him to work much harder than his white counterparts.

Charlie goes off to interview Chris (Victoria Shaw), a USC art student who painted Sugar Torches portrait. When Charlie meets Chris, he discovers that Chris is short for Christine and the woman behind the portrait is quite beautiful. At the this point, the professional interview turns more into pure flirtation, bringing together two-thirds of the love triangle that is to carry the film.

While Charlie is interviewing/flirting with Chris, Joe is attending a Buddhist service with George Yoshinaga (Bob Okazaki) who knows Shuto. After the service, George takes Joe to a rice cake shop where Shuto can be found. Joe confronts him in the shop and Shuto quickly flees. A chase down a street in Little Tokyo ensues, a fight between the two men takes place, but Shuto manages to escape.

The two detectives take Chris to meet Mac in a downtown bar. Mac warns Chris that the murderer, now identified as Hansel (Neyle Morrow) will now be after her since he's now aware that she knows what he looks like, since a sketch she drew of him for the police is now being broadcast on television. The tone of the film begins to shift here, as the melodramatic elements of the story begin to replace the gritty crime feel the film had up until this point. After the detectives drop Chris off back at her sorority house, Hansel appears outside of a window and takes a shot at Chris while she sits in the living room, fortunately missing her.

Charlie is now protecting Chris at the place he shares with Joe. We learn that Charlie and Joe became friends while serving together in Korea and that the strength of their friendship rests on their wartime experiences. When the doorbell suddenly rings, Chris becomes frightened and runs off into the bedroom as Charlie goes to answer the door. When Charlie returns, he finds Chris in the bedroom crying. He comforts her by continuously flirting with her, then kissing her.

Charlie and Joe are now on the hunt for Hansel. During their search it is revealed that Charlie has fallen quickly and deeply in love with Chris. So much so, he is already speaking about marriage. This revelation completely surprises Joe, as Charlie has always prided himself on being a easy going, commitment free, ladies man.

Later on, while Charlie is following up on a lead on the whereabouts of Hansel, provided to him by a local snitch, Joe and Chris are spending time together alone in the apartment. As Joe and Chris are talking, she discovers that Joe is a highly intelligent and deeply sensitive man who loves art and classical music. Before the night is over, Chris finds herself falling for Joe. Not too long after that Joe realizes that he too has fallen for Chris, but both the racial implications and knowing how Charlie feels about Chris, and that if he pursued her, he would be betraying Charlie, begins eating Joe up inside.

At this point in the film, Fuller has completely abandoned the gritty noir influence that the film began with and has now given way to a melodrama about love and race in 1950's America. Fuller uses a Kendo battle scene between Charlie and Joe that is part of the Nisei Week celebration in Little Tokyo to convey the building dramatic tension. In the scene, Joe's emotions get the better of him and he uncontrollably begins beating Charlie with his shinai (bamboo sword). After the fight, Joe confesses to Charlie that he and Chris are in love and out of respect for Charlie he hasn't touched her. A powerful scene unfolds in which Joe accuses Charlie of being disgusted by the fact that he has lost Chris not to just another man, but a Nisei man. This scene is then followed by a deeply emotional scene in which Joe confesses to Chris that he feels she can never truly love him because she can't understand what he goes through being a Japanese American.

Later on, in a bar, Charlie and Chris try to talk to Joe. As the three are talking Chris spots Hansel leaving the bar. Joe and Charlie chase him, following him into a shop in Little Tokyo. As they are questioning him, his accomplice Roma (Jaclynne Greene), whom Joe and Charlie questioned earlier in the film about Japanese costumes, comes into the shop and pulls a gun. She takes a shot at Joe and Charlie, missing, before running out into the street, right into the middle of a parade. The two detectives give chase through the parade, but are separated. Joe moves in, but is shot at a couple more times before he manages to take aim and shoot her. As Roma lays bleeding in the street, she confesses to Joe she killed Sugar out of jealousy. Hansel had been helping Sugar out planning the Crimson Kimono act, and Roma was convinced Hansel would leave her for Sugar, only to realize Hansel had no interest in Sugar, but it was too late, she had already killed Sugar.

The film ends with Joe and Charlie squaring things, then Joe and Chris kissing in the street before fading into an overhead shot of the lights of 1950's downtown Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, Columbia elected to market the film as just another Hollywood “B” exploitation movie, using such catch phrases as “L.A. BY NIGHT” and “WHY DOES SHE CHOOSE A JAPANESE LOVER?” Though The Crimson Kimono is imperfect in many ways and definitely not one of Fuller's best films, it is far better than the treatment it was given by the studio and audiences. But I guess that is what one should expect from a film that tries to break conventions both stylistically and in regards to subject matter. As Fuller himself said, “Upsetting the apple cart is fair game if you're striving to develop a character or underscore an emotion. In Run of the Arrow and Forty Guns, I'd broken plenty of rules to make characters more credible. And I'd do it again, as long as it gave my stories a fresh twist and allowed my characters to stay true to themselves.”

The Unimaginable City

My new collection of poetry, The Unimaginable City, is now available in a print edition through Amazon U.S. and Amazon U.K.


I will be releasing news of the ebook edition in the near future.

Fats Navarro

Theodore “Fats” Navarro was born September 24, 1923 in Key West, Florida. Navarro began playing piano at age six, later taking up the trumpet (the instrument he would become known for) at age thirteen. By the time he graduated from Douglass High School in Key West in 1941, he was desperate to leave, so he took a job playing with a traveling dance band that was headed to the Midwest.

Navarro spent the next few years touring with various bands, including, Andy Kirk's and Billy Eckstine's, which is where he was given the nickname “Fats”. Like most of the modernist trumpet players, or beboppers as they would later be known, Fats was heavily influenced by Roy Eldridge. But it was while in Eckstine's band, playing alongside Howard McGhee, that he began to fall under the influence of bop which enabled him to develop his own style.

After years of touring, Fats settled in New York in 1946. A new style of jazz had begun developing during the late 1940's. Lead by the great innovators, Charlie “Bird” Parker, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk, the Swing and Big Band music that got America through the Depression and World War II was replaced by the highly demanding and improvisational music the critics would dub BeBop. The new music was perfect for Navarro's talents and it was at this point that his career finally took off and Fats became an in demand player and could command a high salary.

During his time in New York, which sadly only lasted a few short years, Navarro played mostly in small combo bands which was ideal because it gave him a chance to explore the full range of his musical ideas. Besides playing gigs in all the hottest spots in Harlem and 52^nd Street, Fats recorded over 150 sides. Some of them under his own name, but most as a sideman. Navarro appeared on recordings with some of the greats of modern jazz including, Kenny Clarke, Dexter Gordon, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron, and Charlie Parker.

By 1949 Navarro's health was in serious decline. Plagued by a serious heroin addiction and tuberculosis, his musical activity was fading fast. Fats did manage to go out on the road one last time for seven weeks (February and March), playing on the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour.

Then after playing a gig with Charlie Parker on July,1 1950, Fats was hospitalized and would eventually pass on July 6. Navarro was only twenty-six years old and was survived by his wife Rena and daughter Linda.