(watched: tue/20220816 via Criterion Channel; directed by Samuel Fuller and starring Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, and Yoshiko Yamaguchi; released 01 July 1955.)

Excellent offering from the annals of post-war films noir (with intriguing Western elements, the train robbery at the start being but one), in the vein of THE THIRD MAN with a Technicolor post-war Tokyo seen through Sam Fuller’s docudrama / journalistic starkness in the place of a B&W post-war Vienna and, unlike Joseph Cotten's Holly Martins, a protagonist who does “get the girl” (convincing chemistry between stars Robert Stack (if you or anyone you know has any information on the cases seen here tonight, please call…) and Yoshiko Yamaguchi) in the concluding cemetery shots but not before he gets bludgeoned by a young DeForest Kelly. Particular highlight is Robert Ryan's menacing villain, Sandy, whose qualifications for that adjective include – but aren’t limited to – murdering any of the gang that gets wounded during a robbery – "You weren't in control Griff (another Fuller Griff), you weren't in control" – whose own loss of control (shooting wildly into a crowd from atop a rooftop carnival) after being cornered during the botched final robbery / Stack-elimination effort is nothing short of terrifying. Currently streaming as part of Criterion's "Noir in Technicolor" series which I'm making my way through with gusto; also recommended (speaking of Joseph Cotten), Henry Hathaway's 1953 film NIAGARA, part of the same series, starring Marylin Monroe as one of the great femmes fatale.