House of Bamboo....

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"House of Bamboo" is a 1955 American film noir shot in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color, directed and co-written by Samuel Fuller starring Robert Ryan and Robert Stack. The other co-screenwriter was Harry Kleiner. The cinematographer was Joseph MacDonald.


POSTER 1955

FULL MOVIE 1 hr. 42 min


HOUSE OF BAMBOO SONG - 1955
by Andy Williams

HOUSE OF BAMBOO SONG -1960
by Earl Grant


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PLOT

In 1954, a military train guarded by American soldiers and Japanese police is robbed of its cargo of guns, ammunition, and smoke bombs. During the robbery, a U.S. Army sergeant guarding the train is shot and killed. Five weeks later, a thief named Webber lies dying in a Tokyo hospital, shot by one of his own cohorts during a holdup in which smoke bombs were used. U.S. Army investigators discover Webber was shot by the same P38 pistol that killed the sergeant during the train robbery. Webber is questioned by military and police investigators, who discover among his possessions a letter from an American named Eddie Spanier, who wants to join Webber in Japan after his release from a U.S. prison. Though Webber refuses to implicate his fellow gang members, he does reveal that he is secretly married to a Japanese woman named Mariko Nagoya.

 Three weeks later, Eddie arrives in Tokyo and makes contact with Mariko, gaining her trust with a photograph of himself taken with Webber, and learns about Webber's death. Mariko admits that Webber made her swear to keep their marriage a secret; she did not know about his criminal life and never sought help from the police out of fear that she could be targeted by his killers. Later, Eddie goes to a pachinko parlour, attempting to sell "protection" to the manager. But when he tries to shake down another parlour, he is beaten by a group of Americans led by racketeer Sandy Dawson, who is so intrigued with Eddie's audacity that he later arranges for him to join his gang, a group of disgruntled former American servicemen who have been dishonourably discharged. After being accepted into the gang, Eddie secretly meets with U.S. and Japanese investigators, for whom he is actually working undercover. To solidify his cover, Eddie asks Mariko to live with him as his "kimono girl." Hoping to discover who killed Webber, Mariko consents to Eddie's offer. In the meantime, Sandy grows to trust Eddie and even saves his life when Eddie is wounded during a robbery, surprisingly disregarding his own rule to leave wounded gang members for dead.

 Eddie finally informs Mariko of his real identity – he is actually U.S. Army Sergeant Edward Kenner and is working as an undercover infiltrator into the Dawson gang. Mariko pledges to continue to assist Eddie in his investigation. When Charlie, one of Sandy's men, spies Mariko meeting with an American army officer to fill him in on the details of the Dawson gang's next heist, he notifies Sandy, and the job is thus aborted. However, an outside informant reveals to Sandy that (a) the police are poised to capture him and that (b) Eddie is a military plant. Sandy thus sets up Eddie's death with a fake robbery; he has Charlie knock Eddie unconscious and props him as the shop robber so that he will be shot by the police; but that plan backfires when Charlie is shot while trying to keep Eddie upright. Sandy is chased by the police and a recovered Eddie to a rooftop amusement park. After an intense gunfight, Eddie shoots and kills Sandy. The film ends with Eddie and Mariko being reunited.


LYRICS

Number fifty-four
The house with the bamboo door
Bamboo roof and bamboo walls
They've even got a bamboo floor
You must get to know Soho Joe
He runs an Expresso
Called the house of bamboo
It's a made of sticks
Sticks and bricks
But you can get your kicks
In the House of Bamboo
In this casino
You can drink a chino
And it's gotcha swingin' to the cha cha
Dance the bolero in a sombrero
Shake like a snake
You wanna stop in when the cats are hoppin'
Let your two feet move-a to the big beat
Pick yourself a kitten and listen to a platter
That rocks the juke-box
I'm-a telling you
When you're blue
Well there's a lot to do
In the House Of Bamboo
You've got to know
Soho Joe
He runs an Expresso
Called the House of Bamboo
In this casino, you can drink a chino
Let your two feet move-a to the big beat
Pick yourself a kitten and listen to a platter
That rocks
I'm-a telling you
When you're blue
Well there's a lot to do
In the House of Bamboo
Number fifty-four
The house with the bamboo door
Bamboo roof and bamboo walls
They've even got a bamboo floor
In the House of Bamboo