Multi talented Australian writer/director James Clavel, for his second Hollywood feature, picked an interesting historical situation and 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 west. It's been said Mr. Clavel had difficulty deciding on the right way to finish, so shot two alternate endings and at one stage both ran simultaneously in two Cinemas. The ending presented on TCM was regarded as the strongest and was adopted for the subsequent world market release. Award Winner Loyal Griggs (Shane) provides the fine B/W photography with Paul Dunlap's lovely music score blending perfectly. It's a thoughtful look at a young nation in its formative years and makes for a better than average mild budget western.

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.

I recently had the opportunity to watch "Walk Like A Dragon" on Turner Classic Movies. It had been some 48 years since I had first seen this little gem that was way ahead of it's time. Back in the day, I was really impressed with singer Mel Torme's acting performance as a deacon turned gunfighter baddie. Some things change over the years while other things do not. Looking back on it now, Torme's performance that I once thought was "top of the line" turned out to be as disappointing as it was amateurish. Perhaps that was the reason he was reduced to just doing various bit parts on television roles thereafter. Having said that, kudos are in order for director/writer James Clavell for his wonderful "cross over" story. The plot involves a young man named Linc that rescues a young Chinese woman Kim Sung (Nobu McCarthy)from being sold as a slave by buying her. During the process of the film, he begins to overcome his own prejudice and begins to see her as a person, and soon falls in love with her. Keep in mind at this point in time the Chinese "coolies" and their women were looked down on, and were considered to be less than human. To complicate matters, a young Chinese man, journeying with Linc, Cheng Lu (James Shigeta) shares the same affections for her, and wants to buy her. Consequently, he hires a gunslinger, the deacon, to teach him how to use a firearm as he plans to kill Linc and take his woman for himself. The gunfighter (Torme) attempts to stop him, but in the process is killed. Now the Chinaman must face off with the man who trained the gunfighter (Linc) to take possession of the woman (Kim Sung). This film deals with a lot of issues regarding "slavery" "freedom", as well as "racism". In a sense, it is just as innovative a film as "Guess Who"s Coming To Dinner" that hit the screen seven years later. Consequently, it covers a lot of lingering issues that are as real today as they were then. Questions such as "How will two people deal with all the prejudice and racism that will surround them in the future?" and "Will it be possible for them to find the acceptance and tolerance that will allow them to live a normal life?" are showcased for the viewer to ponder. It took a brave group of filmmakers to make these two remarkable films as that risked the loss of box office revenue for the sake of principle back then. Heavy stuff to be played out in an Old West setting. To my way of thinking, the film passes my 48 year test while good old Mel Torme's performance does not.

This film is set in Gold Rush California. The protagonist is an exiled Chinese who will stop at nothing to get the girl - he finds it utterly unfitting that his countrywoman is interlocking with a foreign devil (played by Jack Lord). The disgruntled Chinese vows to make himself equal in stature to the ignorant bigoted white men around him; as he puts it, "I will walk high, like a dragon". He apprentices himself to the gun-toting town deacon, who does duty as local clergyman as well as local amateur law enforcer. We know why he enters into this project: of course, he looks forward to a bloodily successful showdown with his caucasian nemesis, whose chief sin is being engaged to the Chinese woman whom he also loves and regards as too good for a white man. When the planned gunfight occurs, however, the pesky white rival is victorious, and the uppity Chinese appears to have little chance of recognizing his ambitions. In the end, however, the fact that he and the girl are of the same nation-in-exile is what prevails: the Jack Lord character loses the girl because blood is thicker than water. And yet, to make a necessary point, the Chinese man has to conclude the film by making a culturally impossible demand of her, which she executes. This suggests irresistibly some kind of symbolic castration - in a sense it takes away his Chinese nationality. He has chosen a life of exile in America, where he has made is fortune among enemies and anti-Chinese bigots, over the possibility of returning to China with his bride.Not that it's easy for her to make the choice. The Lord character saved her from a life in a brothel. But still . . . And while Lord doesn't get the girl, he certainly gets the best line: "Who do you think taught the deacon?"!!