Tokyo Joe

1949
PG
1h 28m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Humphrey Bogart and Florence Marly in Tokyo Joe (1949)

Film Noir Political Drama Political Thriller Spy Crime Drama Thriller

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.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.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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos82

+ 74

More like this

6.2

6.6

7.0

7.5

6.4

6.2

7.2

6.0

6.7

7.2

6.8

5.9

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
This was the first movie allowed to film in post-war Japan. However, it appears that any footage of Joe Barrett (Bogart's character) that appears on location in Tokyo was filmed with a body double. It's more than possible that Bogart filmed only in the U.S. and never went to Japan.

Goofs
Obvious double for Humphrey Bogart in the fight scenes and the street scenes filmed in Japan.

Quotes
Joseph 'Joe' Barrett: Hey, whatever became of the rattrap hotel that used to be next door?
Ito: The B-29's converted it into a parking lot.
Joseph 'Joe' Barrett: Well, it's lucky they stopped when they did, or all Tokyo'd be a parking lot. Next time it'll be the whole world and nothing left to park
Ito: Come upstairs, Joe. They don't understand a word of English - unless they listen.

Connections
Edited into This Is It (2009)

Soundtracks
These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)
(uncredited)
Music by Jack Strachey
Lyrics by Eric Maschwitz (as Holt Marvell) and Harry Link
Sung on a record several times
Sung by Florence Marly at the Tokyo Joe cabaret in flashback
Reprised by an unidentified female at the Tokyo Joe cabaret
Variations in the score throughout the film

User reviews53

Featured review

6/10

Waste, wast, waste!

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.