Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Crimson Kimono Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 22, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Noir Archive Volume 3: 1956-1960.

Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment continue their deep dive into what might be thought of as the substratum of film noir with this third collection culled from the Columbia catalog. The fact that this latest offering supposedly spans the years of 1956 through 1960 may give some indication of just how deep this particular dive is, since many film fans will probably (rightly or wrongly) feel like the late fifties and first year of the sixties are decidedly past the heyday of film noir. (That "supposedly" is in the previous sentence because the earliest actual release date for the films in this set seems to actually be 1957, not 1956, which perhaps makes my point even better.) Still, as with the first two collections, there are some really interesting films in this set, and genre aficionados will most likely find at least a few titles in this set, including some more British productions, that may well spark interest.

For an overview of the previous two releases in this series, please click on the following review links (which, like this one, will contain links of their own pointing to reviews of the individual films in the set):

Noir Archive Volume 1: 1944-1954 Blu- ray review

Noir Archive Volume 2: 1954-1956 Blu- ray review

Perhaps you’ve stumbled across complaints on various internet forums about the old Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song, perhaps not so coincidentally one of the few films based on a Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical still awaiting its debut on Blu-ray. One of the complaints lobbed at the film version is that non-Chinese performers were hired to portray various supposedly Chinese characters, and among those actors was James Shigeta, probably one of the few Japanese-American actors of his generation who managed to make at least a few waves in the Hollywood film industry. One of his more interesting entries came out a couple of years before the film version of Flower Drum Song, and in this film Shigeta is “appropriately” (?) cast as a Japanese detective named Joe Kojaku, partnered with an American named Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett). Kojaku and Bancroft are tasked with investigating the murder of an “exotic dancer” named Sugar Torch. That investigation ultimately leads them to a woman named Christine Downes (Victoria Shaw), and rather interestingly this Samuel Fuller written and directed drama starts to explore issues of interracial romance and friction between races as both Joe and Charlie fall for Christine. While there are certainly some aspects of “traditional” noir here, this is another outing where it’s the character drama that provides a lot of the interest.

The Crimson Kimono Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Crimson Kimono is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kit Parker Films and Mill Creek Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While the vast majority of this transfer looks rather good, there are some odd interstitial moments where quality suddenly suffers, to the point that I'm wondering if two different source elements may have been utilized. To cite just two examples, a quick moment featuring Glenn Corbett crossing the street at slightly past the seven minute mark, and then another sequence with Corbett in his apartment that begins slightly past the thirteen minute mark are noticeably softer, with less fine detail and a rather dramatically increased grittiness in the grain field. A very late moment featuring a close-up during the film's climax seems like it might have been optically enlarged, rather than the product of a zoom lens, and it, too, looks considerably more ragged than the bulk of the presentation. Those anomalies aside, this transfer boasts good contrast, nice black levels and some appealing detail levels on some of the finery in terms of ethnic costumes that crop courtesy of the Japanese subplot. While there's not a ton of damage, the credits sequence looks pretty rough, and there are occasional issues with flickering and slight mottling that creeps through the frame.

The Crimson Kimono Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Crimson Kimono features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that offers good support for the film's dialogue, along with some kind of fun cues courtesy of composer Harry Sukman. Kind of weirdly, Sukman's brass inflected opening music is used in the scene introducing Sugar Torch, where it sure looked to my eyes like she was supposed to be singing something. Sound effects dot the track on occasion, and reverberate with decent authenticity.

The Crimson Kimono Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

None of the three discs in this set feature any supplements.

The Crimson Kimono Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Crimson Kimono is a rather interesting film from a number of angles, and it manages to address some provocative issues within the context of a supposed murder mystery. The star trio all do fine work, and some of the location photography will delight armchair historians. Technical merits are generally solid, and The Crimson Kimono comes Recommended.