Stopover Tokyo (1957)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Previous reviews have accurately pointed out the weaknesses of this film which has been attractively photographed in Japanese locations. Alas, one aspect of the photography only adds to the film's torpor. Too often, dialog is carried out by two characters, one of them on the left side of the CinemaScope screen and the other on the right. The lack of close-ups and a minimum of editing tend to make these scenes stiff and lifeless.However, there is an extended sequence in a steam-room in which Robert Wagner and Ken Scott are seen with white towels wrapped around their waists. As "beefcake" goes, it's not all that much, but, hey, you take your pleasures wherever you can find 'em.

It could have been good. An attractive cast .Great location photography. Exotic setting . BUT somehow this film is dull dull dull. I'm not sure of the reason. The dialogue is so tedious and stiffly delivered that individual scenes seem to take a century. Then there's the grotesque over acting of, the usually reliable, Edmund O'Brien, who is here reduced to a terrible Bogart impersonation. Like a vampire . Like a Bela Lugosi, jowly vampire, he sucks the life out of every scene he's in. Joan Collins, a beautiful woman, is photographed to look like Queen Elizabeth the second, and Robert Wagner can't project beyond his wavy hair.

Based on of all things a Mr. Moto story, Stopover Tokyo has US Intelligence Agent Robert Wagner foiling a plot to assassinate the American High Commissioner at a ceremony devoted to eternal peace. Along the way Wagner gets a chance to romance Joan Collins working as a ticket agent for British Airlines. Definitely mixing business with pleasure.Another agent Ken Scott has staked his claim on Collins before Wagner got there and that does cause some friction between them. Nevertheless Wagner and Scott do get the job done.Leading the opposition is Edmond O'Brien who has the guise of an American businessman, but is secretly a Communist spy. The 'High Commissioner is Larry Keating and his wife is Sarah Selby who is more concerned for her husband's safety than he is.We did not have a High Commissioner in Japan at that time, we had an Ambassador as our occupation was formally over. We did have a High Commissioner for the Ryukyu Islands chief among them being Okinawa which was our's by UN Mandate. They were not returned to Japan until the Seventies.Stopover Tokyo's biggest asset is the location cinematography done in Japan, particularly in Kyoto the ancestral home of the Emperors. Kyoto was untouched by American bombing and is one of the few places that retains a traditional Japanese look from before World War II. As the city is sacred in Shinto religion the Japanese located no war industries in or near it and we obliged by not bombing same.For all of that Stopover Tokyo is a routine action/adventure Cold War story. It might have helped if 20th Century Fox had gotten Peter Lorre to do Mr. Moto in the film.

Stop Over Tokyo! Very Nice Movie! The Photography is unforgettable! Kohko is great!