In the past, Sheila Ellis has brought several unexpected films to Western Night. She did so again with WALK LIKE A DRAGON (1960), a cross-cultural triangle love story.
A tough-as-nails freight company owner, picking up supplies in San Francisco in 1870, stops a young Chinese girl from being sold into prostitution by purchasing her. He tells her she’s free, but she doesn’t understand or speak any English and has nowhere to go. In the hopes of helping her learn American ways, he takes her to his home in the mining town of Jericho to be a housekeeper for his mother who immediately sees her as a lowly heathen, as do many in the town.
Writer-director James Clavell, who was starting his Hollywood career (he would later write THE GREAT ESCAPE), co-wrote this script with Daniel Mainwaring (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS). Clavell cast Jack Lord (TV’s HAWAII FIVE-O) as the hard-bitten freighter Linc Bartlett, Nobu McCarthy (THE GEISHA BOY with Jerry Lewis) as Kim Sung, the Chinese girl who finds herself attracted to Linc, and James Shegita (FLOWER DRUM SONG) as Cheng Lu, a rebellious Chinese immigrant who wants Kim for himself.
There are some abrupt plot contradictions, as well as a few characters that could have used a little more fleshing out. Yet, the film firmly holds your attention in that you often do not know where it will go. The theme of “we are all immigrants” is nicely reflected in that some of the townspeople speak with accents including Australian, Spanish, French, and Irish. And it features a delightful scene featuring cockroach racing.
Shot in black-and-white by Loyal Griggs (Oscar winner for SHANE), WALK LIKE A DRAGON runs 95 minutes and is available for free on YouTube.
Along with Sheila, our group includes Johnny D. Boggs, record nine-time Spur Award-winning and Own Wister Award winner whose work includes BLOODY NEWTON, Kirk Ellis, Emmy-winning screenwriter and producer and also author of the book RIDE LONESOME about the production, themes and historical relevance of that classic film, David Morrell, award-winning author and New York Times best-selling author of FIRST BLOOD, the novel that introduced the character Rambo, and Robert Nott, author of several books on Western films, including his most recent RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY that examines the production, themes and legacy of the film that launched Sam Peckinpah’s career.