Tokyo Joe (1949) User Reviews

Bogart action less than outstanding but worth a look.

[bill-790 · 6/10 · 24 July 2005]

"Tokyo Joe" is rightly called a "lesser Bogart effort." In fact, there is much in this film that obviously derives from earlier Bogart classics, especially "Casablanca." However, this Santana production/Columbia release is by no means without its interesting points. I would point to Alexander Knox's performance in a supporting role, for one. Sessue Hayakawa, as the old fascist surviver, is also good.

On the other hand, Florence Marly is pretty weak as the love interest and the plot is somewhat routine. The main plot problem is the Bogart/Marly relationship. There is just too much resemblance to the relationship between Rick and Ilsa in "Casablanca." When you add in Marly's unconvincing performance, the chances of a having a first-rate film are slim. I must also add, reluctantly, that Bogie seems to be walking through this role, much as he did in another Santana film, "Sirocco" (1951).

That brings me to my final point. Bogart had started Santana Productions in about 1948. "Knock On Any Door" was the company's first effort, and it was somewhat popular at the time. "Tokyo Joe" was the second Santana production. As a small start-up independent production company, Santana did not have a stable of outstanding actors to call upon. Perhaps that is why they had to make due with a Florence Marly instead of a top female lead to go opposite Bogart.

It's also true that "Chain Lightning," 1950, Bogie's next to last Warner Bros. release, wasn't so hot. Maybe the era of the tough but decent Bogart character had simply run its course.

I might add here that the third Santana production was "In a Lonely Place," 1950, one of Humphrey Bogart's best, though perhaps most under-appreciated, films.

Give "Tokyo Joe" a try. It's no world beater, but I have watched it several times, and still find it entertaining.

Anyone For a Frozen Frog?

[bsmith5552 · 6/10 · 14 December 2006]

"Tokyo Joe" takes place in post WWII Tokyo, at a time when the city was still under marshal law and controlled by the American occupation forces.

Joe Barrett (Humphrey Bogart), an ex pilot returns home to Tokyo. He goes to his now closed nightclub, "Tokyo Joe's" which he owned and operated with his partner Ito (Teru Shimada). Barrett learns from Ito that his wife Trina (Florence Marly) whom he believed to be dead, is alive and living nearby.

Barrett rushes to meet her only to discover that she has divorced him and re-married businessman Mark Landis (Alexander Knox). Determined to win her back, Barrett looks for ways to extend his 60 day visitor's visa.

Ito brings him to local Japanese "businessman", Baron Kimara (Sessue Hayakawa) who offers to finance a small freight airline which will carry food delicacies, such as frozen frogs into Japan for export abroad. When Barrett declines the offer, Shimara reveals that Trina had made propaganda broadcasts during the war for the Japanese. Trina explains that she had been coerced into making the broadcasts because the Japanese had taken her daughter from her. She tells Barrett that the seven year old Anya (Lora Lee Michael) is really his daughter.

In order to be allowed to remain in the country, Barrett decides to accept Shimara's offer and hires two American crewmen, Danny (Jerome Courtland) and Idaho (Gordon Jones) to fly the airplane. Several shipments of frozen frogs later, Barrett suspects that Shimara is about to smuggle Japanese war criminals into the country. To ensure that Barrett carries out the mission, Shimara kidnaps Anya and..............................

This was Bogart's second film made by his Santana production company for release by Columbia following the end of his Warner Bros. contract in 1948. Bogey gives his usual excellent performance although his ju-jitzu match (courtesy of stunt men) with Ito, is a little hard to imagine. Sessue Hayakawa had been around films since the early silents, but is probably best remembered for his role as the camp commandant in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957). Alexander Knox who usually played sophisticated villains, is wasted here as Landis.

Entertaining, but not among Bogie's best.

Postwar Melodrama not that bad

[bob_gilmore1 · 7/10 · 17 November 2006]

Several years ago I stumbled upon a 35 cent biography of Humphrey Bogart written shortly after his death. In it he comments on many of his films, including Tokyo Joe. "Utterly worthless picture" he noted. Many critics agree as they dismiss this piece of hokum about what happens when a former soldier returns to what was his "home town" before the war. Thing have changed. It is not the paradise it once was to him and it is certainly no "Rick's" Instead of "As Time Goes By" we hear "These Foolish Things," a better song but not nearly as famous.

Tokyo Joe was made not long after Bogey had left Warner Brothers and it has more than a whiff of a "message picture" that strikes to find some meaning in postwar Tokyo. But like "House Of Bamboo" this film works not only as melodrama but as historical artifact of a period that is now forgotten. We don't think of the Japanese as a defeated power. Ever since the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry started blowing away American competition we have thought of the Japanese as a superpower economically, not as a crippled defeated country. This film captures a mood that is rarely expressed in movies and it captures it with rather high production values. The rest of the cast isn't much but they play it straight and thus Tokyo Joe stands up even better after the initial viewing. The DVD transfer is very good and it remains a worthy addition to the Bogart canon.

Bogart in Japan

[blanche-2 · 19 August 2011]

"Tokyo Joe" from 1949 was the first film that was allowed to film in post-war Japan. Produced by Bogart's Santana Productions, it's just fair.

Bogart plays Joe Barrett, who returns to Japan after the war to start a business. While there, he discovers that his wife Trina (Florence Marly) is still alive. However, when he finds her, he discovers that she has divorced him and remarried a man named Mark Landis (Alexander Knox). Joe is determined to get her back and needs to extend his visa; he is approached by Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa) who wants him to front an airline freight company for him. He would be importing frozen frogs. However, there is some additional freight, and for that, Kimura blackmails Joe by telling him what Trina was involved in during the war, which he will make public if Joe doesn't work with him.

This film bears a passing resemblance to Casablanca, and Bogart is clearly going through a transition which would lead to some of his greatest films and performances in the '50s. Rick of Casablanca is clearly pretty tired out. Being a small company, Santana Productions did not make big films or hire actors equal to Bogart, so the effect here is mediocre.

Florence Marly as Trina is a disaster - cold, very haughty looking, without much acting ability. It's impossible to see why Joe fell for her in the first place. She is no Ilse Lund, and she has no chemistry with Bogart. Her intentions are very unclear as well - as an actress, it doesn't look like she made any decisions about the character. Alexander Knox and Sessue Hayakawa are very good. Bogart, for my money, is always terrific.

Definitely worth seeing for the Japanese location and for Bogart. It's not horrendous, but considering that Bogart starred in so many classic films, it's not that good.

In the Tokyo underworld

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 22 July 2020]

Did like the idea for the story, not an original concept but an intriguing one. Tokyo is a lovely location and an inspired and interesting one for this kind of film. The main reason for seeing the film was for me Humphrey Bogart, one of the best actors at that time (especially in the hard-edged kind of roles that require intensity) and it's most evident in one of the finest and most iconic screen performances there's ever been as Rick Blaine in the timeless 'Casablanca'.

'Tokyo Joe' is not one of Bogart's best though. If anything it's somewhere in the weaker end. Bogart himself is one of the best things about it actually and the main reason for anybody to see it, and some of the supporting cast are good. The problems were the female lead, the script, some of the story and direction, all of which heavily flawed. All of that will be elaborated upon soon. 'Tokyo Joe' is a long way from a bad film, but considering how interesting the story sounded and how good an actor Bogart was it could have been a lot more.

Good things are quite a lot. The best thing about it is Bogart, who brings his usual authority and hard-boiled intensity to a role that suits him perfectly. Also good are an appealing Alexander Knox and especially a sinister Sessue Hayakawa (Kimura is one formidable threat). Lora Lee Michel is cute without being overly so and her chemistry with Bogart is touching.

It is a stylishly and atmospherically photographed film too, the production values in general had an authentic grit. The first half an hour was very intriguing but it was the last twenty minutes and the climax where the film hit its stride and became exciting and had the edge that was missing in the middle. There is some intriguing scripting early on and when the film comes alive finally. Suitably ominous music from George Anthell as well.

Florence Marly however brings things down significantly, her performance isn't just bland and uncharismatic. At its worst, it was pretty inept. There is no chemistry between her and Bogart, which always looked awkward and distant, and her character is pretty sketchy. The rest of the supporting cast other than those already mentioned are fairly forgettable in come and go roles. The direction had its moments towards the end, but is generally undistinguished and doesn't bring out enough of the tension needed for such a story.

While not without its moments, the script could have been tighter on the whole with it tending to be bogged down by talk of the waffling kind. It could have done with more edge and purpose. The story starts off well and ends even better but what happens in between is rather derivative, with no real surprises, and at times drawn out when the story is especially thin. Some of the rear projection is obvious in a somewhat phony way.

Overall, decent but could have been a lot more. 5.5/10 (was very conflicted on what rating to give between the two)

Surprisingly good little post-war drama

[funkyfry · 7/10 · 5 November 2002]

Satisfying Bogart vehicle has our hero as a veteran seeking to return to his prewar life in Tokyo as part-owner of a jazz bar ("Tokyo Joe's") and also as the husband of his former diva (Marley). Inconveniently, she's already divorced him and married a lawyer in the provisional government (Knox). In order to remain the country, Bogey starts an air freight service with some shady Yakuza types who eventually blackmail him into importing war criminals. The bait is his daughter, who he's just met.

Very sentimental, with Bogart's performance dead on the mark and showing some sides of his persona which had not been explored before. Produced by Bogart's company, Santana Productions.

A dispirited star melodrama

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 6/10 · 7 April 2005]

Bogart is a former nightclub owner who returns to postwar Japan to pick up his life with a wife (Florence Marly) he had deserted, only to find that she had remarried and was the mother of his seven-year-old daughter…

In the ensuing complications, Bogart is placed in a position where he must smuggle some Japanese war criminals back into Japan or his daughter will be killed…

Bogart is much less convincing than in his "Across the Pacific" days, where he was also required to deal with villainous Japanese…

For an actor who had belabored the point that he had been forced to do too many bad films because he had no control over the properties, it is disappointing to see him making extremely bad films now that he did have full control...

Waste, wast, waste!

[jacksflicks · 6/10 · 28 May 2009]

This could have been a great movie. Post World War II location movies have an intriguing atmosphere. Post-war Japan offered a terrific setting, but the obvious backlot location, with cheesy process shots trying to pass for a Japanese location, ruins the effect.

Alexander Knox is great, sardonic but principled, and Sessue Hayakawa is deliciously malign. Florence Marly is a poor substitute for Lisbeth Scott -- or couldn't Bogey get his own wife Lauren Bacall to work for scale? Bogey himself looks a little shopworn. Even the love child is fat-faced and unappealing.

Compromise pervades the film, from the cardboard sets to the hack director. Because it was cheap, exterior shots were minimal, and so the action scenes, which could have made for a more exciting story, give way to lots of talky interior stuff.

As the studio system weakened, star-owned production companies, like Bogart's, Burt Lancaster's and Alan Ladd's, were in vogue. Stars can't resist the chance to star in a movie where they don't have to take direction, so they often hire weak directors, usually with dismal results. This is one of them.

Bogie as the post-war anti-hero.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 7 November 2009]

I wonder if Humphrey Bogart ever traveled to Japan. Sure, the film is set there and much of it was filmed there, but in practically ever scene you see Bogart, it either was filmed in a studio or he appears to be acting in front of a projected image. So, it seems that they shot the backgrounds with one film unit and superimposed Bogie onto the backgrounds repeatedly. It is pretty noticeable and makes the film seem a tad cheap.

The film finds Bogart coming to Japan just after the war. He claims he is there to try to reopen a business he'd left behind when the war broke out--a bar. But, it's obvious that the US military (who is in charge of Japan at this point in history) is keeping Bogart ('Joe') under surveillance. When Joe finally does make his way to the closed bar, he meets with his old Japanese partner (Teru Shimada--who you may remember as a villain from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) for a stupid reunion scene (you just have to see it to know what I mean). It soon becomes apparent that Joe and his old friends were not so much bar owners but running their own black market business--and Bogie is there to start it up once again--along with a new partner (Sessue Hayakawa).

There is a side plot as well. Before the war, Joe was involved with a Russian lady who lived in Japan (Florence Marly) and thought she'd been killed in the war. However, when he finds her after all these years he finds that she's married and with a child...HIS child! What to do, what to do? This film finds Bogart in a more sedate role. Later in his career, he often was less of the action hero or tough guy. While he is a bit seedy here, the is not the sort to shoot or beat up people in TOKYO JOE--and many who want that super-manly Bogie may be disappointed. He made several films like this, such as SIROCCO and LEFT HAND OF GOD--all decent films but with a much more sedate sort of anti-hero. Now considering the actor's age, this sort of transition wasn't that bad an idea though they are far from his best films.

Down and out in Japan

[HarryLags · 7/10 · 15 February 2017]

Bogart is a former nightclub owner who returns to postwar Japan to pick up his life with a wife (Florence Marly) he had deserted, only to find that she had remarried and was the mother of his seven-year-old daughter...

In the ensuing complications, Bogart is placed in a position where he must smuggle some Japanese war criminals back into Japan or his daughter will be killed... Then the rest is resistance and heroism, courage and back-fighting. Humphrey Bogart cuts the character quite convincingly and gives us an interesting thriller.

Conclusion - Humphrey Bogart is excellent in this film, but it has no other characters of note. This keeps Tokyo Joe from being a classic, in my opinion. However, it's still enjoyable and worth watching... Rated this 7/10

Picking Up The Pieces In Tokyo

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 11 November 2006]

Picture Bogart's Richard Blaine character renamed Joe Barrett for this film. Instead of Casablanca, he's got a place in Tokyo just like Rick's named Tokyo Joe's. World War II interrupts things and he gets out of Japan and goes in the Army Air Corps where he spends a good deal of time bombing a lot of Japanese real estate. Including Tokyo which because of the wooden buildings pre World War II was particularly vulnerable to Curtis LeMay's incendiaries. It's a miracle, but his place survived intact and he'd like to resettle in Tokyo and pick up where he left off.

Bogey gets an even better piece of news. His Ingrid Bergman who he married before the war and thought dead is alive. He goes to her and finds out she divorced him for reasons the plot really doesn't go into and is now married to a high civilian official with the American occupying authority, read MacArthur. That would be Alexander Knox in the Paul Henreid part and Ingrid, in this case Florence Marly has a daughter now.

Still Bogey who would now like to make money as a civilian flier as well is being used at cross purposes by the American Army Intelligence and by some Japanese led by Sessue Hayakawa who haven't adjusted to losing the war.

Tokyo Joe follows in plot lines laid out by Casablanca, but it sure treads softly in those giant footsteps. It was nice to see Sessue Hayakawa appear for the first time in an American film since silent days. He became a star in the early silent era in Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat and left for Japan with the coming of sound where he stayed a popular film star right through World War II.

Hayakawa came here for Tokyo Joe. Other than establishing newsreel shots, this whole production was done on Columbia's back lot. Humphrey Bogart gives it the old Casablanca try, but he must have been wondering why he left Warner Brothers he was certainly doing a lot of the same stuff over at his home studio.

An underrated but excellent film

[capn_nick · 8/10 · 28 April 2007]

Humphrey Bogart's lesser watched films are so often passed by because the standard for Bogart films is so incredibly high. Is this film as great as "To Have and Have Not"? No it isn't. On the other hand I guarantee you it is more sophisticated and interesting to watch than 90% of the films that came out last year.

People often seem to over look the unique virtues of this film as an interesting film in history. Coming so shortly on the heels of World War 2 one would expect to find a certain amount of racism towards the Japanese and yet (unlike slightly later films like Sayonara) it is almost devoid of any remarks of that kind.

Humphrey Bogart is a superb actor as always as is the rest of the cast. The plot is well written and the direction style suited well to the film. Over all I highly recommend that anyone who wants a sharp and fun movie check this one out just don't expect it to be the classic that "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" or that one of the many other "classic" films he made was. It is nonetheless worth watching and, to my mind at least, quite a bit better than the cookie cutter system they use for suspense films now.

Casablanca: Japanese Style - Tokyo Joe

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 21 April 2022]

Tokyo Joe has Casablanca influences in several of the characters and scenes. Bogart must have figured that if he could achieve great success with Casablanca, why not repeat the formula for Tokyo Joe? He was partially correct, but the film is obviously not as compelling as Casablanca. Florence Marly (who is curiously a look-a-like for real life wife, Lauren Bacall) is just not up to the emotional depth of Ingrid Bergman. Bogey is fine in his role; and Alexander Knox is good as the noble husband of his old flame. Sound familiar? It should; it's pretty much the same triangle you had in Casablanca. The old flame now married to a noble guy who is at risk. And Bogey has to do the patriotic thing. Not quite scene for scene, but close enough. For the most part, the formula still works again, despite the relatively sterile Marly. Be sure to catch this Bogart film; he does a fine job.

A curiosity

[norbert-plan-618-715813 · 5/10 · 7 March 2022]

Humphrey Bogart returns to Japan after the Second World War to the bar he once ran. There he meets his remarried wife. He also meets Japanese mafiosi who try to take advantage of his piloting skills to bring back war criminals to Japan.

Archival material shot in Japan with a stand-in for Humphrey Bogard makes us believe that it was shot in Japan. And the stunts with his character are badly dubbed: we can see the stuntman and that it is not Humphrey Bogard who shoots and does the judo shots. These technical defects indicate either a lack of precision of the director, or a lack of means of the production (the film is produced by the company of Humphrey Bogard). Probably both.

In the end, the film has some qualities: like this story about the immediate post-war period in Japan, a subject rarely discussed. Where Humphrey Bogart the American fraternized with a Japanese and communicates with him by doing judo holds. This is uncommon in American films. The lover, Florence Marly, a French actress, is a bit bland, even if she has a beautiful physique.

The film is not stunning, but remains a curiosity.

Although Not Being a Bad Movie, Certainly the Worst of Humphrey Bogart

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 18 January 2005]

Minor Spoilers

In a post-war Tokyo, with Japan totally dominated by the USA occupation forces, the American Joseph 'Joe' Barrett (Humphrey Bogart) lands in the Haneda Airforce Base, trying to return to his small business in the nightclub, cabaret, restaurant and casino Tokyo Joe. His former Japanese partner and friend Ito (Teru Shimada) has administrated and kept the place working during the war. When they meet each other, Ito tells him that Joe's wife Trina Pechinkov Landis (Florence Marly), supposed dead, is still alive. Joe goes to her address, and finds that Trina is married with the American Mark Landis (Alexander Knox), and she had a daughter with Joe called Anya (Lora Lee Michel). Joe decides to stay in Tokyo, trying to retrieve the love of Trina, but due to the difficulties in obtaining a visa, he opens a small transportation business, buying an old plane, hiring three pilots and accepting to transport the load of a powerful man, Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa). However, he finds that the reason of being of the transportation was to smuggle stowaways. Further, Kimura has Trina in his hands, since she broadcasted for the Imperial Japanese government in the war to protect her daughter. Meanwhile, Kimura kidnaps Anya, to squeeze Joe. Pressed by the military forces, who wants him to leave the country, and by Kimura, Joe tries to save Anya from the hands of Kimura. Although not being a bad movie, "Tokyo Joe" is certainly the worst film of Humphrey Bogart that I have ever watched. One interesting point in this movie is the situation of Japan in those times, and the progress of this admirable people in some decades, being one of the most powerful nations of the world since the end of the last century. Anyway, I am a great fan of Humphrey Bogart, my favorite actor ever, and it was worthwhile for me to know this movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Tóquio Joe" (" Tokyo Joe")

The good, the bad, and the amateurish.

[Irie212 · 6/10 · 7 August 2009]

Two charismatic actors (Bogart and Hayakawa), two exceptional performances (Teru Shimada and Alexander Knox), and two powerful scenes redeem this otherwise disappointing film.

First, the disappointments: director Heisler and leading lady Marly. Both clearly earned their downward-spiraling careers, each ending up cranking out small-screen stuff like "77 Sunset Strip." Equally disappointing is the on-location filming-- not that it's bad. It memorably exposes the destruction of Tokyo (half the city was bombed to rubble by us); unfortunately, the vintage footage is put in amateurish hands, resulting in painfully obvious use of rear projection when Bogart himself is in the frame, or painfully obvious use of a double wearing a trench coat and fedora.

The two powerful scenes occur in the final half hour, and they are noteworthy if only because they remind modern audiences that brutal scenes do not need to be bloody scenes:

First, we're in a cargo plane en route back to Japan, and though there is no explicit violence, the danger is palpable because the audience knows that the war criminals on board are capable of absolutely anything.

Second, a rare portrayal of seppuku, filmed in a way that relies entirely on the actor's expressions to convey the barbarity of what he is doing to himself — and he succeeds so well that you simultaneously can't take your eyes off his face, and can't stand to watch.

Both scenes have far more do with Japanese characters than with Americans, and that is the real strength of this film: The Japanese are not treated as clichés of cruelty-- or of comedy, as they are in the artlessly racist "Lost in Translation" (2003). In "Tokyo Joe," the Japanese are every bit as complex as the Americans, if not more so. Their characters are the losers of the war, after all, the people learning to live, as one of them says, "in shame."

A pretty good movie

[homer_simpson91 · 6/10 · 21 November 2001]

Definitely one of the lesser Humphrey Bogart movies, this one has a strong beginning and end, but the middle gets pretty boring and causes the movie to drag. I really enjoyed the scenes with Bogart and Lora Lee Michel, who plays his daughter. Bogart's performance is, as always, very good, but the story didn't really interest me until the last 20 minutes or so of the movie. I would only recommend TOKYO JOE to fans of Bogart, such as myself.

6/10

Bogart in Post War Japan

[gpeevers · 7/10 · 12 June 2009]

A lesser film from Bogart to be sure and my rating is likely a little high because as a Bogart fan it's a treat to see a film from him I haven't seen before.

Set in post-WWII Tokyo our protagonist Joe (Humphrey Bogart) is both a nightclub owner in Tokyo who left just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but also a war hero who has just returned to see what has become of his club and his friend Ito who he left in charge. He is stunned to learn that the wife he left behind and who had been reported as dead is both alive and remarried with a young daughter. In order to extend his stay in Japan and try and convince his wife to return to him Joe becomes involved in a shady business venture with Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa). This as a result puts Joe in the middle between the Japanese underworld and the American authorities.

Although I enjoyed seeing Bogart on screen again it's neither a great part nor a particularly strong performance although he as usual has a powerful presence in his scenes and that's enough for me. The other performer of note is Sessue Hayakawa (Bridge on the River Kwai), who isn't really given a lot to do but does very effectively project his characters menace.

The film's formula is somewhat derivative of other Bogart films and his roles in those films, the most obvious parallels can be found with Casablanca. To begin with both characters are night club owners in exotic locales, both present a cynical front but are heroic and both are separated from the woman they once loved.

Although filmed at least partially in Japan we don't see a lot of the country, we are presented with some interesting Japanese culture which includes a few brief martial arts scenes as well as the Japanese language. This may not seem very usual today, but the film was made very shortly after the war.

The co-operation of the American authorities likely contributed to their favorable portrayal. The portrayal of the Japanese is mixed.

A Lesser Bogey That Still Offers Much

[ferbs54 · 7/10 · 6 December 2007]

Humphrey Bogart has been my favorite screen actor for over three decades now, so "Tokyo Joe"--one of the few Bogeys that I'd never seen--was a film that I anxiously put at the top of my list of DVDs to rent. Well, as I suspected, this is a decidedly lesser Bogey picture, but one that still offers much to even the casual viewer. In this one, Bogey portrays Joe Barrett, ex-owner of a nightclub on the Ginza. After WW2, he returns to Tokyo, and becomes involved in smuggling to save his ex-wife (who he thought had died) as well as his 6-year-old daughter (who he never knew existed). Bogey is well suited to this character, who at first looks after only himself but who soon sacrifices much for the sake of those near to him. The film features a compact, sensible story and is well acted by all. Czech actress Florence Marly, who plays Bogart's ex-wife, is quite attractive and acts impeccably; it's a shame she didn't appear in more American films. Sessue Hayakawa (unmustachioed, for a change) makes for a formidable villain, and it's fun to see Whit Bissell and Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont appear in scenes with the great Bogart. Teru Shimada (so memorable as Mr. Osato in my favorite Bond film, "You Only Live Twice") is fine as Bogart's partner, and little Lora Lee Michael and Bogey share some cute, sweet scenes together. And, like "As Time Goes By" did for "Casablanca" and "Too Marvelous For Words" did for "Dark Passage," here, "These Foolish Things" runs through the picture like a sweet, sad perfume. Thus, "Tokyo Joe," minor Bogey that it is, is still preferable to some other lesser Bogart films, such as "Battle Circus" and "Chain Lightning." And it is, needless to say, required viewing for all Bogey completists.

Protagonist who was a Tad Chauvinist

[view_and_review · 6/10 · 16 June 2022]

This is Bogart film number six for me. Three times he was the antagonist and three times he was the protagonist. Even when he's the protagonist he also tends to be a chauvinist. In "Tokyo Joe" he wasn't alone with his chauvinism, he shared it with another character. Here's some dialog:

Joe Barrett (Humphrey Bogart): "Just one thing. I'm taking her back."

Mark Landis (Alexander Knox): "Trina, if you don't mind I'd like to talk to Mr. Barrett alone."

Trina Landis (Florence Marly): "But I have a right to hear anything that's said."

Mark: "Trina. Please do as I say."

(Trina exits.)

Mark: "Aren't you missing the point? Trina is happy now as things are with me."

Joe: "That's a lotta detail. The most important thing hasn't even been mentioned."

Mark: "What's that?"

Joe: "She belongs to me and she knows it."

They go on discussing Trina's fate in her absence as though she was property.

Let me back up though. Joe Barrett was back in Japan to restart his casino business called Tokyo Joe. He found that things were a lot different in post-war Japan. He thought Trina was dead until he was informed by his ex-business partner, Ito (Teru Shimada), that she was very much alive. That led Joe to go to her new residence where he found she'd remarried, which led to the conversation above.

Joe now wanted to stay in Japan to win his woman back, but he was there on a 60 day visa. If he could land some work, he'd be able to stay a lot longer, but there was a lot of red tape to go through in order to do that. When he got through the red tape he found himself hooked up with a big time criminal named Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa). Joe was in a tight spot with the U. S. military on one side and Baron Kimura on the other.

Don't Play it Again Joe...

[Xstal · 5/10 · 4 October 2023]

The land of the rising sun's where you return, after a war that scorched the earth and made it burn (and some), reunited with past love, taking to the skies above, an opportunity will cause you some concern; as you're put into a rather tricky place, with the army on one side you turn to face, an underworld of menace, it's a typical noir premise, as you embark, to find a child, it's a short chase; all in all this will not leave you overwhelmed, although Bogey as the star supports the helm, but the story doesn't engage, characters are of the dark age, and it's one that's really tough to recommend.

Danger and intrigue in post-war Japan

[sol-kay · 8/10 · 13 January 2005]

(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.

"I gave up being an officer and a gentleman when I turned in my little brown suit."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 15 September 2004]

Joe Barrett (Humphrey Bogart), Passport #276322, is back in Tokyo seven years after the war, fluent in Japanese and rousing suspicion in all the official channels. He soon learns that the wife he presumed dead is still alive, having survived Oyama prison camp where she was forced to broadcast propaganda messages for the Japanese war effort in order to save her newborn child. Attempting to reconcile with Trina (Florence Marly), Barrett meets her family, husband Mark Landis, and the daughter he never knew - Anya, now seven years old.

In Japan on a sixty day visa, Barrett attempts to build some business connections that will allow him more time in the country, only to fall in with Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa), a ruthless anti-American. Kimura blackmails Barrett over his former lover's past, and kidnaps the young girl to insure that he transport three war criminals from Korea back to Japan to revive the Black Dragon Underground. By this time however, the U.S. Military has uncovered Kimura's plan, and engages Barrett in carrying out the mission so they can contain the threat.

The name of the film "Tokyo Joe" borrows from the night club business Barrett formed with his own sweat and money, and had to abandon right after the war. It's a well done action and adventure piece that has Bogey showing his judo skills. For more Bogart battle action, I also suggest "Action in the North Atlantic", "Sahara" and "Battle Circus".

Tokyo Joe

[henry8-3 · 5/10 · 1 April 2023]

Returning to Tokyo some years after the war to reclaim his business, Bogart discovers that his wife is still alive - she has though remarried and has a child. Bogart, now running an airfreight business is then blackmailed by a Japanese gangster who can prove that his ex wife worked for the Japanese in the War. He is not keen but soon discovers why his ex wife did this and that the child is in fact his, leaving him in a difficult position because the gangster wants to use Bogart's planes for some firming criminal activity - or else.

Whilst this does prove in the last half hour or so to be quite an exciting thriller when it goes into more typical Bogey territory, what goes before this is a rather messy concoction. Thus is all clearly influenced by 'Casablanca', but the rights and wrongs around who Bogart's ex wife should be with and indeed Bogart's sometimes strangely unsympathetic character don't seem to fit comfortably with the story. Worth a look, but nowhere near the quality of day a Casablanca.

Bogart goes abroad

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 1 April 2023]

TOKYO JOE is a postwar drama/thriller from Hollywood that allows the viewer to witness life in Japan shortly after the devastating events that ended WW2. It starts Humphrey Bogart in typical form playing a businessman who heads off to Japan to reconnect with an old colleague. While there he gets involved in the criminal scene. This is a film you watch not so much for the plot, but for the backdrop and political situation. Bogart is okay but the Japanese actors are above him in terms of talent. What's particularly amusing here are a couple of judo fights in which both participants are heavily doubled. Overall, though, a different kind of Hollywood noir.