Daily Archives: August 16, 2016

Rusty Knife (Sabita naifu)
Directed by Toshio Masuda
Written by Shintaro Ishiharo and Toshio Masuda
1958/Japan
Nikkatsu
First viewing/Hulu

[box] “You can get much further with a kind word and a gun then you can with a kind word alone” ~ Al Capone[/box]

This is a gritty Japanese noir with more graphic violence that we would have seen on US screens at the time.

The authorities have been unable to pin anything on local crime boss Katsumata so he is loose and creating chaos.  Finally they get an anonymous letter from one of three men who witnessed the murder of a city councilman by Katsumata and his gang.  Katsumata astutely guesses and eliminates the rat.  The other two witnesses were named in the letter and it is a race between the mob and the police as to who will catch up with them first.

One of the witnesses has been trying to go straight after five years in jail for murdering the thug who raped his girlfriend and caused her suicide.  During the course of the story, he learns that he may not have eliminated all the culprits and sets about trying to do so.

This is solid if not great.  There’s some nice cinematography and a jazzy score.  One wonders how corrupt Japan really was at the time.  It seems to be a recurrent theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0GZPcqod0E

Trailer (no subtitles)

Dunkirk
Directed by Leslie Norman
Written by David Divine and W.P. Lipscomb from a novel by Trevor Dudley Smith and a book by Ewan Butler and J.S. Bradford
1958/UK/USA
Ealing Studios
First viewing/YouTube rental

[box] Merchant Seaman: It may be a phoney war to you, but it’s not to all the blokes at sea. Never has been.[/box]

This war history was the kind of excellent “sleeper” I am always hoping for.

This is a dramatization of the events surrounding the evacuation of over 300,000 British and Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk.  We follow three different stories.  The briefest is press conferences and official conversations following the fate of the British army.  We also focus on the home front.  Bernard Lee plays a concerned citizen and Richard Attenborough plays a man who is more concerned with his wife and new baby than what he thinks of as a phony war.  Both of these men are boat owners who will have to decide whether to put their vessels on the line.

The major drama comes from a small group of soldiers who have been separated from their company and must desperately try to cross enemy lines in an attempt to rejoin their comrades.  John Mills is a corporal who must keep them moving.

This was just my cup of tea.  It is the kind of moving historical drama that the British were so good at.  The story is equal parts action and pathos.  Richard Attenborough is becoming one of my favorite actors but the rest are no slouches either.

Trailer