I saw this film when it first came out, at the drive-in from the back of my parents' station wagon. I was very small and the ideas behind it were way over my head, but I always remembered it reverently over the years, although I forgot its name. My favorite character was the Deacon, who I thought was just the coolest gunfighter ever. Many, many years later it surfaced on TCM as part of an Asian tribute. I was totally amazed to discover that the Deacon was Mel Torme! He also sang the theme song.Anyway, WLAD is some excellent, heartfelt, moving social commentary hidden in a B-western. It was written and directed by James Clavell and featured acting that's second to none. That's because parts for Asians were almost non-existent at the time, and these Asians made the very most of their rare opportunity. I mean that in the most complimentary fashion possible. There's no hambone over-emoting, just some dignified, highly skilled, restrained performances by all of them.Nobu McCarthy is gorgeous and heartbreaking, and James Shigeta is enormously powerful. These two are Japanese, but they play Chinese immigrants and their performances are quite moving. Benson Fong and Kam Tong play much smaller, but still vital roles. Both the older men are first introduced as being servile, pidgin-English-speaking, scurrying stereotypes around whites. But they're something else entirely around their fellow Chinese. It's a nice touch, and Clavell uses it in the opening scene to great effect.The white cast are all perfect fits for their roles and turn in some fantastic support for the stars. Jack Lord is right on the money for his rigid, stubborn, hot-tempered Linc Bartlett character. Josephine Hutchinson is his mother and Lilyan Chauvin is his French girlfriend. Both are outstanding. The bigoted townspeople are all excellently portrayed as well. This is an obviously low-budget B-western but the actors are all superb. Not a single dud in the bunch.WLAD takes place in 1870 California and Linc is a former Union Army captain. He's in San Francisco on business and he agrees to let Cheng Lu (James Shigeta) ride back with him to his hometown of Jericho. Then he's outraged when he happens upon a slave auction of Chinese girls who are being sold into prostitution. The youngest is 19-yr-old Kim Sung (Nobu McCarthy), and when she's forced to strip in front of the crowd of bidders, Linc is overwhelmed by her humiliation and her shame and her shy nature. So he bids $750 in gold coins for her and then closes the bidding by drawing his gun and pointing it at the auctioneer. Linc then tries to set Kim free, but Cheng Lu explains to him that it's not that simple. She is helpless and can't speak English and has nowhere to go, so she will just end up right back where she started. So Linc takes both Kim and Cheng Lu back to Jericho with him and sets an epic tragedy in motion.I can't recommend this film highly enough. If you watch it, I guarantee you'll be deeply impressed. I saw it on TCM, but it can now be seen for free whenever you want on YouTube on "The Pilar Seurat Channel". If you want something unusual and touching, try it. You'll be glad you did.

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.

This film took me by surprise as a Western which deals with racial problems and people in a local town becoming quite upset with a certain affair that seems to be blooming in their community. Jack Lord, (Linc Bartlett) comes back to his home town with a sidekick named Cheng Lee, (James Shigeta) who is Chinese and as they conduct their business in town Linc notices a large crowd and finds out they are sell Chinese people as slaves. There is a very young Chinese girl about 19 years of age and she is being sold, Linc becomes very upset and claims America has just fought a Civil War against slavery and he buys this young girls freedom and sets her free. However, his Chinese friend Cheng Lee tells him this girl, Kim Sung, (Nobu McCarthy) has no place to go and does not speak English and she considers Linc her master. In this film, Mel Torme, (The Deason) sings and also plays a straight role as a gunslinger who even kills a man in self-defense. There is also a funny game that Linc plays in a local saloon which deals with two cockroaches, one marked white and people bet on which one of the roaches will get out of a circle on the table. The roaches are kept under a glass and then released when the bets are all made. This film shows racial tensions among the people of the town toward Linc and Kim Sung because they all notice a romantic relationship growing between this couple and mixing races in this Western town is looked at with horror. This is a great film for 1960 and you will never be able to figure out just how Linc & Kim Sung will settle this problem. Enjoy

I am a great fan of Jack Lord, and on my quest to find all his movies, I came upon this one...Its a superbly done movie, with a great plot! Its strange to see Jack Lord in any other role than in Hawaii 5-0.... I just loved it! Well done, James Clavell!