Tokyo Joe

This is a really interesting forgotten Bogie movie, I've always loved the plot of an ex-GI returning to a foreign country and digging up painful things from his past. (The Yakuza is a masterpiece) One of the first films to shoot in Japan after the war, the setting during the US occupation sets up a wonderfully dark tone that has hints of Kurosawa of the same period (see Drunken Angel, another masterpiece). Bogie returns to find his friend cowed by the war, the Army controlling everything with massive layers of red tape, his wife thought dead alive and well and married with child, the criminal underground desperate to ensnare an American in their plotting and so on.

The best thing is Bogie's performance, it elevates the overall film above the inherent flaws and corniness in some of the plotting. It is his tough guy persona betraying a sense of bitter regret and anger that he would concentrate into Dixon Steele a few months later.

3.5 balls out of 4. I can't believe how enjoyable these lesser B-movies are. Plus it has a judo fight between Bogie and SPECTRE No. 10 Mr. Osato. YES!