- Sam Fuller's House of Bamboo is a film overflowing with contradictions. Its themes and characters are those of a film noir, but its bright colors and CinemaScope ratio would fit in with a historical epic. Its hero, Eddie Spanier (Robert Stack), is an unlikable bully, while mob boss Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan) is pleasantly affable. It's an American film about Japanese culture made in the 1950s and yet uses real Japanese actors and locations in ways that don't seem exploitive. (Sure, every woman in the film is referred to as a "kimono girl," but we are dealing with a bunch of mobsters, after all.)
- The connection between Eddie and Sandy is an ex-GI named Webber (Biff Elliot), who is killed off early on while participating in the robbery of a military train. Eddie arrives in Japan claiming to be a friend of Webber's, which leads him to Webber's secret wife Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi). After roughing up a few pachinko parlor ichibans, Eddie gets tossed through a paper wall into the waiting arms of Sandy and his crew (Cameron Mitchell, DeForest Kelley). Sandy likes to hire troubled former soldiers, which makes Eddie a tempting new recruit. The members of his crew get nothing but kindness and support from Sandy, although on-the-job injuries often prove fatal, as was the case for Webber.
- While Eddie is the ostensible hero of the piece, the stalwart Mariko is a much more sympathetic character who sacrifices her reputation by pretending to be Eddie's kimono girl in order to infiltrate Sandy's gang. Despite all of her help, Eddie still doesn't treat her very well, which is all the more galling when we learn that he is actually an undercover military police officer who never even knew Webber in the first place. As Sandy begins to suspect that a member of his crew is leaking information to the police, Eddie and Mariko's situation grows all the more precarious. As Sandy points out, "If you don't make a mistake, you never know when you're right."
- Visually, House of Bamboo is a gorgeous film with terrific locations and some really impressive shots that track through elaborate Japanese dance performances, often just before landing on Robert Stack's glowering face. Its most impressive accomplishment, though, may be the characterization of Sandy, who really does come across as the sort of mob boss who would feel just terrible if he had to kill you. I never thought that gentle, patient Robert Ryan could be more intimidating than aggressive, insensitive Robert Ryan, but there you go. In any case, Ryan and Yamaguchi are both great, and I think Stack delivers the performance that Fuller wanted, even if the audience finds itself rooting against him.
