Walk Like a Dragon

"Walk like a dragon" was made just after Fuller's "the red kimono", both feature the same actor (James Shigeta) and both ending are,in their way,similar.

"Walk like a dragon " ,masquerading as a western , looks like Larry Pearce 's "one potatoe two potatoe " and even Logan 's "sayonara" ; Jack Lord (who proves that he was able to play more interesting parts than a Hawaiian cop ) portrays the noble hero, whose firm beliefs in American values lead him to fall prey to his town's gossips and to lose his work (freight line) ; to him , " nobody can be sold or bought" -(one gathers that the action takes place after the Civil War); the slave market scene takes place in the fog , at night, as though they were ashamed of their dirty deeds .Link's ma ,after being ashamed of that heathen creature , eventually stands by her son, probably inspired by the Holy Scripts.

Cheng Lu is a more complex character : his values are still his native country's and he cannot understand his opponent ,so learns to shoot with a little help of the local deacon (perhaps the weakest link of the movie) to defeat his rival and to "walk like a dragon"

Gorgeous Kim Sung learns the English language( perhaps a little too quickly ,no pidgin English after a very short time )AND seems to embrace the American way of life but atavism is not far away.

An interesting work, but not for western buffs;it's really something else.

I saw this movie in about 1966 on "Saturday Night At The Movies" and have never forgotten it. A lot of people are probably not aware that before Jack Lord struck gold with Hawaii Five 0 that he had a pretty good resume as an actor is westerns. As I said, I have not seen this movie since 1966 and have not been able to locate it on the available sources. I hope I find it soon and maybe someone can help me. Rest In Peace Mr. Lord, Mr. Torme', and Mr. Shigeta.

This is one unusual western where the subject of racial prejudice takes a front row seat as the topic dealt with. But this was prejudice western style as it deals with the influx of immigrants from the Orient.

Jack Lord, recent veteran of the Civil War is in San Francisco to pick up mining equipment when he reminds himself of what the Civil War was about and buys Nobu McCarthy at a Chinese slave auction. Women were really on a low rank on the scale in that patriarchal culture that the Chinese took with them to America. He frees her, but as James Shigeta points out she's free to go nowhere. Shigeta he's giving a lift back to his home where Shigeta's uncle Benson Fong runs the Chinese laundry.

Of course it ends up with Lord and Shigeta both falling for McCarthy. As for McCarthy is it love she feels for Lord or just overwhelming gratitude to be taken from a life probably spent in some Chinese brothel in San Francisco.

Lord isn't exactly free from anti-Oriental prejudice nor is his mother Josephine Hutchinson, but both come to accept McCarthy. Hutchinson gives a warning to McCarthy similar to what Sidney Poitier got from his movie father Roy Glenn in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. There are some similarities in those films though I suspect the budget for Walk Like A Dragon might have been part of Kate Hepburn's salary in the other film.

One thing I could not abide though was the casting of Mel Torme as the scripture quoting gunfighter named Deacon. Like Tony Martin in Quincannon, Frontier Scout, Torme looked out of place. In the saloon he looked like he was waiting for a song cue from the piano.

The really heavy handed approach and the lack of production values kept Walk Like A Dragon from a better rating. It is though a sincere effort to explore a topic not very often talked about, especially in westerns.

The movie is very typical of westerns with the exception of the role played by Mel Torme. Also it was different with a chinese man becoming a gunfighter. Very unusual for that time era. Jack Lord plays the usual hero. Protect the girl - fall for the girl - lose the girl.

(revised '21) Multi-talented Australian writer/producer/director James Clavell, for his second Hollywood feature, picked an interesting (and brave) racially-themed historical situation. He then selected a fascinating hand-picked international cast to bring his story to life. His characters are rich and varied and well defined, mixing a multinational group of people brought together in the developing days of the 1870s American West.

It's been said Mr. Clavell had difficulty deciding on the right way to finish, so shot two alternate endings, and at one stage both ran simultaneously in two Cinemas. Seems the ending presented on TCM was regarded as the strongest and was adopted for the subsequent world market release. Award-winning veteran cinematographer Loyal Griggs (Shane) provides the fine B/W photography with Paul Dunlap's evocative music score blending perfectly. It's a thoughtful look at a young nation in its formative years and deals with sensitive racial interactions as Chinese immigrants are introduced into its early development.

This makes for an unusual up-close examination of the many facets of racial prejudice, and in Clavell's hands results in this better than average, medium-budget western - which benefits greatly from sincere performances by its interesting cast. Singer Mel Torme plays a saloon 'peace-keeper' and sings the title song, adding further curious appeal to a generally little-known but pleasing, off-beat production. James Clavell's real-life is as fascinating as his writings.

A Note on Characters: While looking at Clavell's interesting array of character choices, look also at the town sheriff; Rodolfo Acosta a Mexican, keeping the law in a predominantly white Californian town (reminiscent of Anthony Quinn in "The Man From Del Rio") ~ Lilyan Chauvin as Lili the French Saloon keeper and lady friend of Jack Lord's character, Linc Bartlett (a descendant of this character also features in Clavel's latter novel; 'Noble House') ~ Charles Irwin as Angus, the Scottish Forman of Linc's freight line, then there's Michael Pate an Australian, as Will, the towns Reverend. Mr Clavell certainly had a penchant for unusual international characters all holding down curious positions in odd places, this certainly added unique flavour to his 'original' approach to writing.