Yojimbo

Akira Kurosawa named the 1942 picture The Glass Key as his main source; scholars stay split on how much Hammett’s Red Harvest fed into it: David Desser calls it an inspiration, Donald Richie calls the resemblance coincidental. The name the samurai invents is not idle: asked who he is, he takes it from the mulberry field before him. After Kurosawa complained that actors arrived late, Toshiro Mifune spent the rest of the shoot ready at 6 in the morning in full makeup and costume, a story Mifune told himself. The sword choreography was built by Yoshio Sugino of the Katori Shinto-ryu school with Ryu Kuze, and Kazuo Miyagawa shot it, his second for Kurosawa after Rashomon. Mifune took the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 22nd Venice festival. It was also nominated at the 34th Academy Awards for black and white costume design, credited to Yoshiro Muraki; La Dolce Vita took that category. Sergio Leone’s company made A Fistful of Dollars without securing remake rights; the suit settled out of court before the American release. A good fit if you accept from the start that the hero works to set the town gangs against each other rather than rescue anyone. Not for viewers who find blood and comedy uncomfortable in one scene; Masaru Sato’s jaunty score sharpens that mix.