Samurai


1h 18m 1945

Brief Synopsis

A young Japanese-American orphan in California is taken in by a priest who is actually a Japanese secret agent and a samurai warrior. Due to the samurai's training, the boy murders his English teacher, kills the American parents who have adopted him, smuggles Japanese secret plans into the country, and eventually becomes the governor of California with plans to infiltrate Japanese spies into the state so they can take over. ...

Film Details

Also Known As
Orders from Tokyo
Release Date
Jan 1945
Premiere Information
New York opening: 24 Aug 1945
Production Company
Cavalcade Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Cavalcade Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 18m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
5,812ft

Synopsis

After the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, which kills over 300,000 persons, American evangelists Mr. and Mrs. John Morrey adopt a Japanese orphan, Kenikitchi, and bring him to their home in San Francisco. As he grows up, Ken becomes Americanized. One day while he is still a boy, he is painting by the seaside, when he is approached by a Japanese priest, who educates him about the doctrine of Bushido, a religion which follows the traditions of Japanese samurai warriors. Unknown to his parents, Ken becomes indoctrinated as a samurai. As a young adult, Ken travels to Europe, where he receives advanced degrees in medicine and art. However, he continues to lead a double life, and never writes his parents about his secret associations with the samurai worldwide. When Ken returns home, he is a changed man, and believes that the Japanese are destined to conquer the world. Ken meets with the priest and informs him of the political turmoil in Europe, and that he believes the Germans will ally themselves with the Japanese. At one of Ken's art exhibitions, he shows the priest how he has concealed maps of vital points in California in his artwork. The priest arranges for Ken to become the curator of a Japanese art exhibition for the Golden Gate Exposition. Ken is sent to Japan to buy artwork, but instead spreads the doctrine of Bushido. In Tokyo, Ken meets with military intelligence chief Namakura, and demonstrates his secret painting method. Ken's activities are watched closely by the Black Dragon Society of Japan, which distrusts anyone with close ties to the United States. In Shanghai, where the Japanese have begun to oppress the Chinese, Ken takes photographs of the populace, and later doctors the photographs so that Chinese missionaries and nurses are seen to be wearing emblems of the Rising Sun, thereby leading the viewer to believe that the Japanese are kind to the Chinese. In 1939, a member of the Black Dragons informs Ken that his former school chum, an English reporter, is printing stories about the Japanese atrocities against the Chinese. Ken murders the reporter, and then meets with Japanese General Sujiyama in Peking, who heads the invading Japanese army. After testing Ken's allegiance by forcing European and Chinese women prisoners to entertain him, Sujiyama commissions Ken to be the next governor of California. Ken is ordered to organize a military force of Japanese residents to prepare for a Japanese invasion of the state, after which he returns home and informs the priest of their orders. When his younger adopted brother Frank discovers Ken's secret while he is away, he takes their parents to Ken's studio and tells them that Ken is a spy. The Morreys are shocked and dismayed, but see the proof in Ken's paintings. While Frank goes to the police, Ken returns to the studio and convinces his parents that he is a double agent working for their country, then stabs his parents to death. Now wanted for murder, Ken goes to the temple after receiving word that the "zero hour" has been set for the invasion of California. Ken becomes hysterical and power hungry with the thought of the invasion, but is subdued after learning that most of his comrades have been arrested. As the samurai doctrine states that a man who fails his mission must take his own life, the priest prepares to commit suicide, and demands that Ken watch so that he will be prepared if he should ever meet the same fate. As the priest dies, police attack the temple, and Paul escapes to the beach. There, he is shot and killed by the police.

Film Details

Also Known As
Orders from Tokyo
Release Date
Jan 1945
Premiere Information
New York opening: 24 Aug 1945
Production Company
Cavalcade Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Cavalcade Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 18m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Film Length
5,812ft

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

The working title of this film was Orders from Tokyo. Although fictional, the film is narrated and presented in the style of a documentary. Onscreen credits include a 1944 copyright statement, but the film is not listed in copyright records. Information in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library provides the following information about the production: After reading an initial script, the PCA wrote to producer Ben Mindenburg on November 10, 1943 that the sequence in which "General [Sujiyama] and Ken indulge in sadism with the Chinese and White girl" was unacceptable, and that it was "imperative that it be omitted or changed....Furthermore, we recommend that you consult the War Department as to a recent directive they have issued prohibiting any scenes of Japanese atrocities and brutality." According to a plot synopsis in the file, the phone call "Ken" receives informing him of the "zero hour," just before he kills his parents, is a decoy by the "Secret Service" to trick Ken into action. This is not clear in the film, however. The synopsis also includes a scene after "Ken" murders his parents in which "Frank" returns to the studio, and "Ken innocently tells Frank that the folks left for home. Frank does not believe Ken...finds both dead. There is a fight between Ken and Frank, with Ken being the victor, as he tries to choke Frank...[who] is left for dead." This scene was not included in the viewed print.
       On June 12, 1944, the PCA wrote the following to Mindenburg after viewing an eight-reel rough cut of the film: "The principal objections to the material received by us were...[a] scene suggesting the rape of a White girl by the leading Japanese villain. It was explained to Mr. Mindenburg that this scene was completely unacceptable....There were numerous scenes, from newsreels, dealing with the bombing of Shanghai, etc., which contained unacceptably gruesome scenes of dead bodies. It was pointed out to Mr. Mindenburg that these should be deleted when the film is reedited." The PCA also viewed "a two-reel Technicolor film of the San Francisco Exposition, with Japanese narration, parts of which [Mindenburg] intends to cut into the picture." While a contemporary credits sheet lists the film's footage as 6,760 ft., the PCA listed the film's length as 5,812 ft., and included the following addendum: "[I]ssued with the understanding that the dialogue in connection with the prison scene, the scene and sounds of attempted rape, and also the scene of actual Hara Kiri, are eliminated from all release prints."
       This film includes what appears to be newsreel footage of the September 1, 1923 earthquake in Tokyo. The The Exhibitor reviewer commented that Samurai is "a very poor, dated film," but suggested using ad lines such as "The True Secret About Jap Fraternization with White Women" and "At Last! The True Story of Jap Activities in America" to promote the film.