...as an exploration of coded male romance and Cold War-era racial politics, it's irreplaceable...

The Crimson Kimono is mostly a hard-boiled cop thriller, but also manages to make a defiant anti-racist statement without ever getting on a soapbox.

Harry Sukman's score courts condescension whenever the action shifts to Little Tokyo, but it's the film's only slip.

[font=Century Gothic]In "The Crimson Kimono", a stripper, Sugar Torch, is shot and killed on Main Street in Los Angeles. Since a witness cannot make a postive identifcation of the killer, the two detectives assigned to the case, Charlie Bancroft(Glenn Corbett) and Joe Kojaku(James Shigeta), have little to go on. The only clues they have are a painting in Sugar's dressing room and the knowledge that she was working on a Japanese themed act for Las Vegas. Kojaku talks to an martial arts acquaintance who was set to be featured in the act while Joe talks to a painter friend, Mac(Anna Lee).[/font] [font=Century Gothic]"The Crimson Kimono" gets off to a good start and has memorable characters to spare but eventually the mystery takes a back seat to the personal lives of the lead characters. It does help that both halves of the movie dovetail nicely at the end. The movie is far ahead of its time in its depiction of the Asian-American community in general, and the Japanese-American community specifically. [/font]