Walk Like a Dragon (1960)

I saw this film when it first came out, at the drive-in from the back of my parents' station wagon. I was very small and the ideas behind it were way over my head, but I always remembered it reverently over the years, although I forgot its name. My favorite character was the Deacon, who I thought was just the coolest gunfighter ever. Many, many years later it surfaced on TCM as part of an Asian tribute. I was totally amazed to discover that the Deacon was Mel Torme! He also sang the theme song.Anyway, WLAD is some excellent, heartfelt, moving social commentary hidden in a B-western. It was written and directed by James Clavell and featured acting that's second to none. That's because parts for Asians were almost non-existent at the time, and these Asians made the very most of their rare opportunity. I mean that in the most complimentary fashion possible. There's no hambone over-emoting, just some dignified, highly skilled, restrained performances by all of them.Nobu McCarthy is gorgeous and heartbreaking, and James Shigeta is enormously powerful. These two are Japanese, but they play Chinese immigrants and their performances are quite moving. Benson Fong and Kam Tong play much smaller, but still vital roles. Both the older men are first introduced as being servile, pidgin-English-speaking, scurrying stereotypes around whites. But they're something else entirely around their fellow Chinese. It's a nice touch, and Clavell uses it in the opening scene to great effect.The white cast are all perfect fits for their roles and turn in some fantastic support for the stars. Jack Lord is right on the money for his rigid, stubborn, hot-tempered Linc Bartlett character. Josephine Hutchinson is his mother and Lilyan Chauvin is his French girlfriend. Both are outstanding. The bigoted townspeople are all excellently portrayed as well. This is an obviously low-budget B-western but the actors are all superb. Not a single dud in the bunch.WLAD takes place in 1870 California and Linc is a former Union Army captain. He's in San Francisco on business and he agrees to let Cheng Lu (James Shigeta) ride back with him to his hometown of Jericho. Then he's outraged when he happens upon a slave auction of Chinese girls who are being sold into prostitution. The youngest is 19-yr-old Kim Sung (Nobu McCarthy), and when she's forced to strip in front of the crowd of bidders, Linc is overwhelmed by her humiliation and her shame and her shy nature. So he bids $750 in gold coins for her and then closes the bidding by drawing his gun and pointing it at the auctioneer. Linc then tries to set Kim free, but Cheng Lu explains to him that it's not that simple. She is helpless and can't speak English and has nowhere to go, so she will just end up right back where she started. So Linc takes both Kim and Cheng Lu back to Jericho with him and sets an epic tragedy in motion.I can't recommend this film highly enough. If you watch it, I guarantee you'll be deeply impressed. I saw it on TCM, but it can now be seen for free whenever you want on YouTube on "The Pilar Seurat Channel". If you want something unusual and touching, try it. You'll be glad you did.

This is one of the strangest westerns I can recall--and for many reasons. First, the cast is odd. Jack Lord is the star and his friend is played by none other than Mel Tormé! It's also interesting that a Hawaiian of Japanese ancestry (James Shigeta) would play a Chinese man. And, the leading 'Chinese' lady in the film (Nobu McCarthy) was Japanese. Second, the plot is just odd...very, very odd. The film begins with a slave auction in California circa 1870 (give or take). When Linc Bartlett learns about this, he's appalled. He's even more upset to see a poor girl who is obviously very humiliated being stripped and sold. He steps in and buys the girl--intending to set her free. However, what happens next is completely unforeseen. I'd say more but it's just something you should probably see for yourself.To me, this film was quite enjoyable but was also intended less as a history lesson and more a metaphor for the changing civil right atmosphere in the US in 1960. Still, it's pretty good--and quite interesting. One of Lord's few starring roles before vaulting to super-star status with "Hawaii Five-O".

This film is set in Gold Rush California. The protagonist is an exiled Chinese who will stop at nothing to get the girl - he finds it utterly unfitting that his countrywoman is interlocking with a foreign devil (played by Jack Lord). The disgruntled Chinese vows to make himself equal in stature to the ignorant bigoted white men around him; as he puts it, "I will walk high, like a dragon". He apprentices himself to the gun-toting town deacon, who does duty as local clergyman as well as local amateur law enforcer. We know why he enters into this project: of course, he looks forward to a bloodily successful showdown with his caucasian nemesis, whose chief sin is being engaged to the Chinese woman whom he also loves and regards as too good for a white man. When the planned gunfight occurs, however, the pesky white rival is victorious, and the uppity Chinese appears to have little chance of recognizing his ambitions. In the end, however, the fact that he and the girl are of the same nation-in-exile is what prevails: the Jack Lord character loses the girl because blood is thicker than water. And yet, to make a necessary point, the Chinese man has to conclude the film by making a culturally impossible demand of her, which she executes. This suggests irresistibly some kind of symbolic castration - in a sense it takes away his Chinese nationality. He has chosen a life of exile in America, where he has made is fortune among enemies and anti-Chinese bigots, over the possibility of returning to China with his bride.Not that it's easy for her to make the choice. The Lord character saved her from a life in a brothel. But still . . . And while Lord doesn't get the girl, he certainly gets the best line: "Who do you think taught the deacon?"!!

The movie is very typical of westerns with the exception of the role played by Mel Torme. Also it was different with a chinese man becoming a gunfighter. Very unusual for that time era. Jack Lord plays the usual hero. Protect the girl - fall for the girl - lose the girl.