Tokyo Joe

Moviecut—Tokyo Joe

For die-hard Bogart fans only, and I'm sure that they probably won't like it either, just like me. It stars out with Bogart going into Japan and has only sixty days before he has to leave. He goes to a bar he used to own before the war and it is now run by a friend of his. He also wants to find his wife but he finds out that she divorced him and is married again and has a daughter, and then he finds out the girl is his. Then the plot has him running an airline that is just a front for something illegal. Bogart was blackmailed into running the airline because it turns out his wife was forced into using propaganda against the Americans and she had to because they took her kid. The plot is a load of crap and the only good thing in here is Bogart. Watch one of Bogart's better films instead.

Although this movie is not one of Humphrey Bogart's more noted projects, it is a good movie. At first the plot seems absurd but as the story unfolds it becomes more comprehensible. It is hard to imagine that there was a time when the United States actually occupied Japan and directly supervised the Japanese people. It was another era, when the United States was in every sense of the term the dominant power. Once again Humphrey Bogart believes that he has been jilted by a woman and once again finds out that there is more to the story, and in this movie, this scenario works well. Alexander Knox is great as the other main male character but it is Sessue Hayakawa who once again delivers a strong performance as a shady, underworld figure in post-war Japan. This movie is worth watching.

(Flash Review) A few years after WWII, Joe (Bogart) returns to a different Japan than the one he knew before when he had a night club with a Japanese partner and a wife whom he abruptly left before the war. We quickly learn she has remarried without his consent. Joe's visa only lasts 60 days. Not sure he can win her back in time, he finds a job quickly so he remain in Japan longer; a sketchy and risky job. One with a boss who has knowledge that his wife had made treasonous propaganda broadcasts so he uses that as leverage to ensure Joe doesn't back out of his risky job. Can he win her back while avoiding arrest? This film had excellent and CRISP black and white film stock with sharp scene framing. Bogart smoothly carries yet another film.

Satisfying Bogart vehicle has our hero as a veteran seeking to return to his prewar life in Tokyo as part-owner of a jazz bar ("Tokyo Joe's") and also as the husband of his former diva (Marley). Inconveniently, she's already divorced him and married a lawyer in the provisional government (Knox). In order to remain the country, Bogey starts an air freight service with some shady Yakuza types who eventually blackmail him into importing war criminals. The bait is his daughter, who he's just met. Very sentimental, with Bogart's performance dead on the mark and showing some sides of his persona which had not been explored before. Produced by Bogart's company, Santana Productions.