IMDb > Tokyo Joe (1949)

Tokyo Joe (1949) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.1/10   540 votes
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Director:
Stuart Heisler
Writers:
Steve Fisher (story)
Walter Doniger (adaptation)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Tokyo Joe on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
November 1949 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Thriller more
Plot:
An American returns to Tokyo try to pick up threads of his pre-WW2 life there, but finds himself squeezed between criminals and the authorities. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
Danger and intrigue in post-war Japan more (25 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Humphrey Bogart ... Joseph 'Joe' Barrett
Alexander Knox ... Mark Landis
Florence Marly ... Trina Pechinkov Landis
Sessue Hayakawa ... Baron Kimura
Jerome Courtland ... Danny
Gordon Jones ... Idaho
Teru Shimada ... Ito
Hideo Mori ... Kanda
Charles Meredith ... General Ireton

Rhys Williams ... Colonel Dahlgren
Lora Lee Michel ... Anya, Trina's daughter
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
88 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Japanese
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Certification:
Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #13749)
Filming Locations:
Tokyo, Japan
Company:
Santana Pictures Corporation more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
This was the first movie allowed to film in post-war Japan. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Joe fights with Kanda to liberate Anya, she sits on the bed twice. more
Quotes:
Photo sergeant: [taking a photograph] Stand as close to the bar as you can, sir.
Joseph 'Joe' Barrett: That's been one of my troubles.
Photo sergeant: What's that, sir?
Joseph 'Joe' Barrett: I, uh...
[pause]
Joseph 'Joe' Barrett: Skip it.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Bogart: The Untold Story (1996) (TV) more
Soundtrack:
I Never Knew more

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User Comments

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12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful.
Danger and intrigue in post-war Japan, 13 January 2005
8/10
Author: sol from Brooklyn NY USA

(There may be Spoilers) Pretty good Humphrey Bogart flick that has the distinction of being the first US made movie filmed in post-war Japan with a beautiful rendition of the song "These Foolish Things" sung by co-star and Bogie's love interest in the movie the exotic and hauntingly beautiful Florence Marly, Trina Pechinkov Landis, that rivals the song "As Time Goes By" in the Humphrey Bogart classic WWII movie "Casablanca".

Joe Barrett, Humphrey Bogart, who owned a nightclub in Tokyo, the "Tokyo Joe Cabaret" before the outbreak of the war between Japan and the USA goes back after the war to start where he left off in the nightclub business. Discharged from the US Army Joe finds it almost impossible to have a business in Japan without the approval of the US Military Occupation Government and is given only a 60 day visa to stay in the country.

Finding out from his friend and co-owner of the "Tokyo Joe" Ito, Teru Shimada, that he wife Trina, Florence Marly, and singer at the nightclub is alive not that she died during the war as Joe thought, makes Joe want to stay over his allowed 60 days. Joe is in for a big surprise when he finds out that Trina had married a top US lawyer working in Japan Mark Landis, Alexander Knox. Joe even more shocked when he finds out from Barom Klmura, Sesssue Hayakawa, an air freight owner whom Joe is fronting for to extend his visa that she also did propaganda broadcasts during the war for the Japanese government making her a traitor to America. Trina is an American citizen and libel to be prosecuted by the US Military Government in Japan.

Things get far more complicated for Joe when he discovers that Trina has a seven year old girl Anya, Lora Lee Michel, who was born after Joe left her for the USA in 1941 and who he's the father of. The fact that Trina did broadcasts for the Imperial Japanese government was because they took Anya away from her as she, like all Americans stranded in Japan during the war, was thrown into a Japanese prison camp.

While Joe is struggling with this dilemma his working for Kumura is unknowing helping him smuggle dangerous Japanese Communists and dreaded Black Dragon leaders into the country to start an open and bloody revolt against the occupying American Military Government.

Better then you would expect Bogart film since it's almost unknown when you compare it to Bogie's many great movies.The movie also has one of the most exciting fight as well as shoot-out sequences you'll ever see in an Humphrey Bogart movie.

The great photography of post-war Japan in the film as well as the fine cast make "Tokyo Joe" more then worth watching but the most intriguing thing about the movie is it's very interesting story-line that was in a way really prophetic. That had the Communists who were trying to overthrow the US installed democratic Japenese Government working out of South Korea. A country that was invaded by the North Korean Communist on June 25, 1950 a year after the movie "Tokyo Joe" was released.

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