House of Bamboo

Starring:Clifford Arashiro, Sandy Azeka, Brad Dexter, Biff Elliot, Sandro Giglio, Peter Gray, Elko Hanabusa, Reiko Hayakawa, Sessue Hayakawa, Frank Kwanaga, Jack Maeshiro, Cameron Mitchell, Neyle Morrow, Robert Quarry, Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, May Takasugi, Barbara Uchiyamada, Shirley Yamaguchi
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

This 17 film collection includes some of the best in film noir from 1944 - 1955, with 12 Oscar nominations between them. These are the films that defined the genre and the style of film-making. Mystery, Suspense, Murder, this collection has it all! Films Included: Call Northside 777, Laura, Panic in the Streets, House of Bamboo, Nightmare Alley, Street with no Name, House on 92nd Street, Somewhere in the Night, Whirlpool, Dark Corner, Kiss of Death, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Fallen Angel, The House on Telegraph Road, No Way Out, I Wake Up Screaming and House of Strangers

Customer Reviews:

Film Noir Boxed Set.......2007-03-28

I have watched about half of these movies & so far all of them have been very good, in fact, much better than I expected. I find Dana Andrews to be a very compelling leading man & the actresses in all of these are superb as well. I hope Fox will resolve their issues with "Boomerang" which is #16 in the set, (which is not included with your purchase) so that I can add this one to the collection. My only complaint is that this collection is not really a boxed set. It is simply 17 great film noir DVD's shrink-wrapped together. However, this is a great value & lots of these titles are being released for the first time in this set. Highly recommended for those who like the genre.

remember...no 16 Boomerang is still missing.......2007-03-18

This set misses out no.16 "Boomerang". It got recalled at the eleventh hour by Fox because of a legal tangle.
You can find it on sale for $45.00 on amazon marketplace, because it was actually printed and ready to go.
Clearly a few boxes have found their way out the back door!!!!
But despite that wee dissapointment you'll love the rest.
Hopefully Fox will sort out the mess soon..... and then you can plug the gap without having to shell out silly money.

better price (than list) to start your collection, but not the best deal on noir.......2007-03-12

I haven't yet purchased these titles & was just about to, until I checked up on what's included with the current bundle (March 1 2007) that Amazon is offering. As previously mentioned, this is not a box set (misleading description from Amazon), but rather a bundle of the first 17 titles in Fox's noir series. I purchased the Warner Bros.' boxes 1-3 (and reviewed them there) which I thought were an excellent value for the money (when on sale, roughly 6 - 7$ per disc). I've held off on these since the price is higher. This bundle discounts the titles to about $8 per disc, which is better than the usual price for each, but a local retailer often sells these titles for 7.50 - 10.00 (with a buy 3 get 1 free sale). Still I would have jumped on this price had this been a bonafide box set with the slimmer DVD cases, but these regular dvd's will take up quite a bit of real estate in my storage. Moreover, the more recent titles aren't included (missing titles: Boomerang, 14 Hours, Shock, Vicki, all released last year). If Fox would release all the titles to date (plus the next releases: Hangover Square & The Lodger) in slim cases & a box at a comparable price I'll jump, otherwise I'm holding out for a better deal.

Don't Forget This One Too................2006-03-05

For some reason the Fox Noir release Dark Corner (Mark Stevens, Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix) doesn't get much coverage under the typical outlets for obtaining these Fox Noir titles, Amazon included. I didn't even know the title was even out there, but it is, and it is quite a Noir gem. I say this without hesitation because I was never a Lucy fan at all. But in this one, she's actually pretty cool. Too bad she went goofy in later life (I guess it paid the bills).
If you like the Fox Noir series and Noir in general, don't forget this one too. I got mine from Tower Records (seems hard to find for some reason). The famous "peering through the venetian blinds" scene that you see stills of all the time, that's Mark Stevens. A somewhat overlooked actor in Noir circuit, but he can hold up to any of the other more noted ones in my opinion. Check it out.

An indispensable series for aficionados of film noir.......2006-01-10

The Fox film noir collection is an "Amazon.com exclusive" consisting of 9 DVDS in their individual cases (alas including individual shrink wrap, which one tediously has to remove) presented in one blister pack. The nine titles are:
*** BATCH 1 (DVDs released 3/05): Call Northside 777 (1948); Laura (1944); Panic in the streets (1950)
*** BATCH 2 (DVDs released 6/05): House of bamboo (1955); Nightmare alley (1947); Street with no name (1948)
*** BATCH 3 (DVDs released 9/05): House on 92nd Street (1945); Somewhere in the night (1946); Whirlpool (1949)

The film restorations are superbly done. The DVD cases are in uniform format, being part of the "Fox film noir" series. Each title has a film commentary (Laura has two) plus other extras, minimally a trailer. In addition, each title has a 4-page booklet with these sections: "the lineup," "the look," "the scoop," "the story," and "scene selection."

The DVDs list for $14.95 each and currently Amazon sells them for around $10 each. Amazon sells the 9-DVD collection for $74.99, which works out to $8.33 for each DVD. Certainly, not all titles are of the caliber of Laura (1944), but this collection is a must-have for the firm-noir aficionado.

Incidentally, BATCH 4, was released 12/05 and consists of: The dark corner (1946); Kiss of death (1947); Where the sidewalk ends (1950). BATCH 5 will be released in 3/06: Fallen angel (1945); House on Telegraph Hill (1951); No way out (1950)

Alain Silver & Elizabeth Ward's "Film noir: An encyclopedic reference to the American style" (1992, 3rd ed.) lists 32 noir titles by Fox. Hence we can probably expect from Fox another 20 or so titles in the "Fox film noir" series. If these 32ish titles all materialize in this excellent series, it will be a big chunk both out of one's purse and DVD shelf space.

Average customer rating:

Intrigue! Action! Kimono girls!
Ryan Gives Standout Portrayal in Noir Misfire
A unique peek at post-war Tokyo
Noir at its best
A routine big-budget crime drama with fascinating Japanese locations!

House of Bamboo (Fox Film Noir)
Starring: Clifford Arashiro , Sandy Azeka , Brad Dexter , Biff Elliot , and Sandro Giglio
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Film Noir | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Detectives | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

The Street With No Name (Fox Film Noir)
Nightmare Alley (Fox Film Noir)
Whirlpool (Fox Film Noir)
Somewhere in the Night (Fox Film Noir)
Panic in the Streets (Fox Film Noir)

ASIN: B0006UEVVI
Release Date: 2005-06-07

Amazon.com

Samuel Fuller came up with one of his gutsiest "headline shots" for House of Bamboo: Mount Fuji, in CinemaScope, framed between the boots of a U.S. soldier lying murdered on a snowy Japanese embankment. Happily, the movie that follows is no letdown. This brutal gangster film was the first American production to shoot in Japan, and Fuller exploits his locations to the max, up to and including a climactic gun battle around a Tokyo rooftop facsimile of the turning Earth. Officially the screenplay is credited to Harry Kleiner, with Fuller cited for "additional dialogue"; in actuality, the 20th Century-Fox movie transplants the basic premise of the Kleiner-scripted Street with No Name (1948) from an American Midwest town to Tokyo, but otherwise the picture is unmistakably Fuller's own. A gang of American expatriates is robbing U.S. military ammunition and supply trains, and using military tactics to do it. They're a ruthless bunch, killing not only any troops and police that get in the way but also their own wounded. Robert Stack has a satisfyingly dark-edged role as an American drifter who's drafted into the gang, and Robert Ryan is mesmerizing as the psychotic crimelord. The action is tough--there's a genuinely shocking killing in a bathhouse--and Fuller's canny deployment of the newly widened screen is just as forceful. It's great to have this early-CinemaScope classic in widescreen DVD. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

In Tokyo a ruthless gang holds up U.S. ammunition trains. Ex-serviceman Eddie Spannier arrives from the States apparently at the invitation of one such unfortunate. But, Eddie isn't quite what he seems.

Customer Reviews:

Intrigue! Action! Kimono girls!.......2007-06-22

A Film Noir set in post-war Japan seems like bliss. A dismal and lawless society, the people desperate, struggling back from the brink of destruction. Enter a lone hero, trying to do something worth facing himself in the mirror for. I can see it in my head right now. It's called... "Stray Dog" by Akira Kurosawa. But it isn't "House of Bamboo".

"House of Bamboo" is a different film, one that I have a hard time seeing as Film Noir. It's too bright. The good guys are too good. The morals too upstanding. Oh, it has some fantastic scenes in it. Brilliant scenes, stuff that make the movie worth watching. The assassination of a certain key figure while he is in a Japanese bath is pure movie magic. Hard-boiled goodness. Director Samuel Fuller tries his best to work the beauty of Japan in there, and it is impressive. That man can work Mt. Fuji into pretty much any situation possible, including peaking from between a dead man's boots. But on the whole...it falls flat.

Much of the flatness is the Japanese setting. This is basically a re-make of "The Street with No Name", with only the location changed. But what worked there doesn't work here. Having the entire Tokyo crime scene being run by a bunch of white guys just doesn't ring true. Where are the Yakuza? Why does a film set in Japan have so few Japanese people in it? Its little wonder people in Japan were furious when "House of Bamboo" was released, due to its entire lack of authenticity and its way of showing Japan as a quaint little country in need of the white man's help, in both the underworld and the police. Not to mention having the entire female of Japan population dismissed as "kimono girls", to be used as toys, traded amongst each other, and then cast aside when a new model appears.

Even if you are willing to look all of that aside, the acting, particularly Robert Stack, is pretty much by-the-numbers. Nobody seems to be willing to rise to any level above "standard". Shirley Yamaguchi stands around and looks pretty as well as any pretty girl can. It is funny to listen to her American-accented Japanese, which is something you don't hear in films that often. Robert Ryan, as the mastermind and cold-blooded villain, is the only bright light in the flick, bringing a bit of character to his role.

"House of Bamboo" is not horrible film. Its more of a disappointment of potential than anything else. Even as it is it is worth a watch or two, mainly for Fuller's camera work, and those few perfect scenes that will take your breath away. Just don't expect too much.

Ryan Gives Standout Portrayal in Noir Misfire.......2007-04-26

Robert Ryan never delivered a bad performance. His memorable portrayal of a Tokyo crime boss is the best thing in "House of Bamboo" (1955) -- director Samuel Fuller's flat attempt at Japanese film noir. Ryan easily towers over Robert Stack's routine characterization, which looks like a dry run for "The Untouchables." Apart from Ryan and Joseph MacDonald's on-location CinemaScope photography, this reworking of the superior "Street With No Name" collapses at the starting gate.

A unique peek at post-war Tokyo.......2007-02-17

Sam Fuller is one of the great hard-boiled/low budget directors of the 1950s, ranking with the likes of Robert Aldrich. This picture is one of his best financed, shot in color widescreen, boasting location shooting in Japan, and featuring actual Hollywood movie stars. This picture has been packaged as a noir, it is not. Fate does not crush our hero, and thers no expressionist lighting (depite the poster image). It's a crime thriller, and a damned good one at that. It has a romantic subplot that modern audiences might find a bit slow and melodramatic, but know that a bi-racial couple was a big deal at the time. Fuller like dealing with romances that crossed cultures. in this case an American soldier and a Japanese woman. The climax is dynamite. Both the director Fuller and his star Robert Ryan are in tip-top form.

Noir at its best.......2007-01-10

Great film noir set in post-war Japan. A must for admirers of the genre. Great story and acting.

A routine big-budget crime drama with fascinating Japanese locations!.......2007-01-02

After World War II, Hollywood saw the Far East as simply a new background for familiar heroics.

"House of Bamboo" is in fact a remake of a 1948 gangster melodrama called "The Street With No Name" with Richard Widmark...

Robert Stack - in love with the charming widow Shirley Yamaguchi - moves into undercover action in collaboration with the Japanese authorities against Tokyo gangsters, and their leader Robert Ryan - an intellect mastermind racketeer - head of an impressive organization engaged in fraudulent business whose plots challenge the magnificent effort of the international police..

Photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor, the film is a routine big-budget crime drama with fascinating Japanese locations...

Average customer rating: