Film Identification

[Mark Roberts]

Ken,

I think it's "Sono kabe o kudake" (1959) by Nakahira Ko.

Best,

M

On Apr 10, 2010, at 9:01 AM, Ken Shima wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I saw a film last year in Tokyo, from sometime in the 60s I believe  
> and I can't for the life of me remember the title. It was a kind of  
> Wrong Man detective story filmed in B&W.
> 	The premise is that a young mechanic in Tokyo finishes his last day  
> of work, uses hard-earned money to buy a new car which he drives to  
> meet his fiance who works as a nurse in a countryside hospital in  
> Tohoku. She is quitting that day in anticipation of his arrival.  
> Speeding north along dirt interstates and mountains he passes  
> through a small town where a young man about his age flags him down  
> for a ride. His passenger only rides to the other side of town and  
> is let off at a bridge. Around the next corner, now alone the  
> protagonist is flagged down at the police box and arrested for a  
> murder committed minutes ago right around where he picked up the  
> passenger thus beginning the wrong man angle.
> 	There are some striking scenes in this film where the detectives,  
> prosecutors, defendant, and the victims all recreate the night of  
> the crime at the scene of the crime, right down to having the  
> victim's wife lay in bed next to a cop playing the role of the  
> murdered husband in order to work out the details of the event.  
> Through this traumatizing process the daughter character cracks and  
> reveals that real events of that night. She had hide her testimony  
> to cover up the fact that she was having an affair and had been  
> watching with her lover from the roof of the house.
> 	After many months in jail and a number of fishy stories, extensive  
> investigation by a detective or maybe friend of the protagonist  
> reveals the murder weapon buried along the riverside and the real  
> murderer caught in some yakuza debt in Tokyo. This sets the  
> protagonist free to curse small town cops and narrow-sighted  
> villagers as he speeds away with his wife and their new car honking  
> in a cloud of dust.
>
> Although I remember the plot pretty well, I can't for the life of me  
> come up with the title of this film. Also, I keep getting it mixed  
> up with Yamamoto Satsuo's "証人の椅子". Any ideas would be a  
> help to my failing memory and greatly appreciated.
>
> Ken Shima