Category Archives: 1945

The war is over!  How could any movie’s pleasures possibly compare?  They sure gave it the old college try though.  And, at the conclusion of the war, the U.S.  Government ended restrictions on the allocation of raw film stock, midnight curfews, and bans on outdoor lighting displays as well as censorship of the export and import of films.

The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), created by major US film studios in 1922 to police the industry, was renamed as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It was responsible for implementing the voluntary film rating system and continues in that capacity. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), an organization created in 1938 with the goal of domestically stopping subversive activities, un-Americanism and communism, was made into a permanent standing committee under Congressman John Rankin (of Mississippi). By 1947, the Hollywood motion picture industry became one of its main targets when the committee initiated an investigation of Communist influence there.  Films such as Children of Paradise, Rome, Open City, and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail hinted at the great renaissance in film making outside Hollywood that would take place after the war.

The ruins of Hiroshima

President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12 after beginning a fourth term in office. Vice President Harry S. Truman took office that same day.   Rocket scientist Werner von Braun and his team of 120 researchers surrendered to U.S. forces, later providing a foundation for the U.S. space program.   World history changed forever when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6.  Benito Mussolini was executed on April 28 and Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30. On December 10, the U.S. Senate approved the entry of the U.S. into the United Nations.  John Hersey’s A Bell for Adano won the Pulitzer Prize and the rendition of “Sentimental Journey” by Les Brown and Doris Day topped the charts for 28 weeks.

A list of the films I will choose from can be found here and here.

I reviewed the following 1945 releases during Noir Months 2013 and 2014:  Mildred Pierce; The Spiral Staircase; Detour; Hangover Square; Fallen Angel; and Lady on a Train.  I also reviewed Rome, Open City here for the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Blog Club.

Stills from the 1945 Oscar winners

Stills from all films nominated for an Oscar

Samurai (AKA “Orders from Tokyo”)
Directed by Raymond Cannon
Written by Raymond Cannon
1945/USA
Cavalcade Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video

Tagline: THE VILE JAP CODE THAT HORRIFIED THE CIVILIZED WORLD!

I’ve stopped reviewing most of the B pictures I watch on the blog but I found one so wrong-headed and laughably awful that I just had to share.

America in its great humanitarianism reached out to the people of Tokyo with massive aid during the 1923 earthquake.  Saintly medical missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Morley find little orphaned Ken lying amid the rubble, adopt him and take him home to America.  They lavish affection upon the boy and when he grows send him to medical school in Germany (or was that England?) followed by a stint at art school in Paris.

some real samurai

Unfortunately for the welfare of humanity, little Ken had already been spotted by an evil priest of the religion of Bushido while sketching near the sea.  The priest indoctrinates the boys in the mysteries of the cult of the war god Samurai and teaches him to be a good (i.e. treacherous) Japanese.  He is assigned to learn the ways of foreign secret service agents while he is in Europe.  Ken returns an licensed doctor and acclaimed modern artist.

He reports that Germany and Japan are now poised to rule the world and that he has worked out a method for hiding  highly detailed technical specifications for military installations in his paintings.  The priest sends him to Tokyo for further instruction.  The Japanese are highly suspicious of his intentions so he heads off to Shanghai.  There he impresses his handler by photoshopping rising sun logos onto pictures of Chinese relief workers to counter the bad press the Japanese are getting in China.  He is sent onto Peking.  After Ken passes a loyalty test consisting of watching a Japanese mistreating American female prisoners, the leadership is convinced.  Based on his Photo Shop and artistic skills, Ken receives a commission to be Governor of California after the coming invasion of the U.S. West Coast.

I will leave the denoument to your imaginations.

some movie Samurai – from The Last Samurai (2003)

Of course, this film is absolutely appalling in its total misrepresentation of Japanese culture and its propagation of prejudices that landed thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans in internment camps.  But it is also just so astoundingly bad as to be both hilarious and mesmerizing.  No chance of turning it off before the end because one just has to see what ludicrous incident will happen next.

Some examples of its delights.  All the Japanese are played by Chinese.  The man who plays the grown Ken is at least as old as his adoptive parents.  The acting is uniformly atrocious but it a totally overblown way.  All the exteriors seem to have been shot using rear-screen projection of the most fake kind.  Little Ken is discovered lying on what appears to be a photo of rubble in Tokyo.  The scene with the captive white women could have come from a Duain Esper exploitation flick.  The paintings are unbelievably childish in concept.

In short, this film was made for connoisseurs of bad movies.  You know who you are.