"The Rainbow Man" .... horror/mystery movie from 1949 review, part two

 

Release Date: July 18, 1949  Length: 80 minutes  Director: Ushihara Kyohiko

Subs by Mashhamid, based on the 1947 detective novel by Kikuo Kakuta 

It also had some uncredited special effects done by Eiji Tsuburaya

This film also went by the title of Niji Otoko, Niji for rainbow and Otoko for man.

 **** I never have a problem but wonder if others do which is of the quality of movies prior to 1952. For the first five or so years after the war while the stories and acting were all top notch the film used for movies was often Army surplus film as times were tough and budgets for most films were extremely low. No viewer has ever complained about the quality of screenshots and I'm used to them being this way which has never bothered me and in a way prefer things that aren't perfect.

 Wow, talk about a vintage car and bet for even 1949 it was considered to be ancient! So this is the first of at least four movie reviews and perhaps there may be more, all of the films will be before 1975 and all will have two parts as I bet it makes reading easier. Don't know why but have a hard time alternating between posts for dramas and movies, tend to stick with one for a while and wish I could go back and forth. As most know I absolutely savor these older films and can never get enough of them, rarely do I give a grade for any because that's not the reason I view them and usually enjoy these movies. This was an eighty minute movie yet I took more screenshots than any other movie I have reviewed, more than two hour films! So much took place, jot down notes while watching something and wrote down so much info it may be hard to decipher my writing!!!! Of course this was a black and white film but on three occasions there was a colored 'Rainbow' such as the screenshot below.

Main Cast: Bit of a large cast as far as main characters go but there were very few others and though just an eighty minute film all had a decent amount of screen time. Often I know several from a cast but not for this film outside of the top two characters which isn't a bad thing as getting to know others makes me aware of many other films I have never heard of. The main theme of this movie, besides the deaths, is that the Maya family has had a curse on them for centuries, the curse is of a RAINBOW!!!! It does sound odd and when a family member sees one it supposedly is an omen of impending tragedy, usually their death! When someone sees a Rainbow it's just them seeing it and no one else, all will explained in the two posts.

Teruko Akatsuki as Mimi Torigai.... Teruko was very popular in the 1950's, more on her below In the film Mimi was a social affairs reporter for the Showa Gazette and always seemed to get the scoop first over her rivals such as the next character. Mimi had gone to school with Yurie and the pair had been close which is why Yurie begged Mimi to help her out as she had been accused of murder, not once but twice! Mimi was the main character and was billed that way but didn't seem she had as much screen time as most other lead characters do in their films.

Keiju Kobayashi as Ryosuke Akashi.... That's him on the right above with Mimi, though rivals with different newspapers think the pair were about to be romantically involved at the end of the film! Ryosuke was a reporter for the New Oriental newspaper and to me seemed to be better at his job than Mimi yet it's her who usually gets a scoop first. The police also think Ryosuke is better at his job as he's often called in by them to give his evaluation of a case. Below is from the end of the movie when Ryosuke thought his whiskey had been poisoned!

Den Ohinaga as Inspector Okada.... Wasn't top billed but had as much screen time as everyone else and this may have been the most important character in the film. The first murder took place in the small village of Tateshina which is in Nagano prefect. That's over a hundred miles NW of Tokyo where Okada was stationed but he was assigned the case and perhaps back then it was common for large cities to take on the more important cases. We didn't see him often but Okada had a trusted assistant who was a detective named Shimizu and did refer to him often.

 Sumiko Wakasugi as Yurie Obata.... The main figure in this movie as what took place revolved around Yurie who was accused of first killing one man then a few days later a woman though she was innocent both times. In the second half of the film it was discovered Yurie was pregnant though she did lose the baby when she fell down some stairs. Who the father was then wasn't quite clear, it could have been her future husband Suga who all thought died in a fire though it wasn't him who burnt to death, the mystery will be explained in the review.

Junnosuke Miyazaki as Toyohiko Maya and also Hachiro Suga.... When I first saw Toyohiko thought the beard was a fake or possibly newly grown which was the case. With the beard Hachiro below could pass as Toyohiko as both looked similar plus Toyohiko had been out of the Maya household for five years so of course his looks would change. The real Toyohiko had been found dead in the family villa that had been burnt to the ground but first Toyohiko was stabbed to death. However because Toyohiko appeared hack home and because the body was badly charred all thought it was Hachiro who had died. The detective Okada caught on to Hachiro impersonating as Toyohiko near the end and he almost got away with his crimes, why he did the killings will be in the two posts.... bet much of that was ultra confusing!!!! Yes it was but will be even more confusing at the end of this post....

Kenjiro Uemura as Katsuto Maya....At times looked and acted extremely bizarre but Katsuto was normal.... to an extent! He had gotten hooked on Mescaline and though I'm not sure bet that wasn't too common back in 1949. Katsuto was an artist and would usually do paintings of Rainbows(Niji), he was talented but even more so when taking the drug. Katsuto in a way was also the smartest in the Maya family or at least the most honest, he knew all hated each other and he too had been under suspicion for the two deaths.

Bontaro Miake as Ryuzo Maya..... Father of the Maya clan and a respected physicist. That's him below and what a dour man he was who only seemed to enjoy being in his lab. Where Ryuzo has been working on creating artificial rainbows and the whole family is obsessed with them! About 25 years Ryuzo had won a prestigious prize for research which is the main reason he became wealthy and respected. But it was discovered in the film that he had stolen the research from his partner Yajima and took all of the credit, because of that Yajima ended up killing himself.

Kiyoko Hirai as Shimako Maya.... The second wife of Ryuzo as the first had passed away and Shimako may have been twenty years younger. None of the children were borne by her and not one of them seemed to like Shimako but did any hate her enough to kill? That was a huge question as Shimako did die and what led to her death was seeing a Rainbow which has cursed the Maya family forever and not sure why. The huge estate the Maya family lives in was actually owned by Shimako, did Ryuzo marry Shimako for her money?!

Kumeko Urabe as Kane Nonomura.... The maid at the Maya mansion, there was one other. Though a maid most seemed to trust and rely on Kane who was killed about a third of the way into the movie. She had been calling the police from a phone booth and during that call Kane screamed in fear that she saw a Rainbow even in the rain(!), shortly after she died!!!!

Tamotsu Moriyama as Doctor Hirai....On the left below, not a huge role but did play a key part in two scenes where he told all that Yurie was pregnant and helped the Maya father Ryuzo recover after a chandelier fell on him.... he eventually did die.

 There is a version of this movie on YT but of course it's not subbed and don't think I have ever watched a movie there.... probably never will. Wanted to have a trailer for the film as those help you see what I had viewed but can you believe there were none?! I can and because it wasn't a very known movie can understand to an extent why there's no trailers but most other films from that era do. So in the first part had a trailer for the next film to be reviewed which will be "The Human Vapor" that was released in 1960. Then after that was thinking of doing a pair of movies featuring Setsuko Hara, both are older than this film! Will talk more about her in that next movie's review and she's one of the most well known actresses of all time in Japan, perhaps the most popular ever! Then again may continue on with the sci-fi/horror theme and if so the the second movie from now would be "The Secret of the Telegian" which also came out in 1960 and right below is one of the trailers.

 

 

 As said in all of these reviews don't give grades for older movies or dramas and view them because I'm such a fan of these older things, mainly movies. Give some reasons why I enjoyed what I viewed and also some negatives but the positives always outweigh those. As far as this movie goes the only two negatives is that it may have been a bit too influenced by Western movies and that was often the case for films made prior to 1952 because Japan was still occupied and did have some stricter censorship codes. It was also a bit easy to figure out who the killer of three people were and I guessed that about twenty seconds after the character was introduced but that wasn't a huge negative.... a minor one was also for the semi rushed ending. The story was interesting, especially for the first half and all of the characters were likable, my fave was the above man who was detective Okada. So will give this film a solid recommendation but not a very high one, it was more of a mystery/suspense story than a horror one but there was some intrigue along with some creepy scenes towards the end so all in all will say I enjoyed watching this. A good question to ask yourself after viewing something is if you would watch it again and for this film would say yes, one big reason is that so much was cram packed into eighty minutes and was unclear about a few things.

 Sure you've read the above post so no need to rehash much of what has taken place. Yurie had been accused of murdering her boyfriend Hachiro at the villa lab of the physicist Ryuzo Maya, the accusing detective Okada doesn't have a strong case but who else was there? One person to me who was suspicious was the younger Maya family son Toyohiko who two days ago had returned home after leaving five years ago, why return now???? There was also a second murder who was of the main Maya housekeeper Kane, she was killed at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo though most of the movie's action took place at a huge estate located in the village of Tateshina which was a hundred miles NW of Tokyo. The estate is owned by the second wife of Ryuzo Maya who was Shimako and it's not a spoiler as this second half of the review will open up with her being the third victim of the movie! The Maya family thinks they're cursed by Rainbows, before one dies they will scream out 'It's a Rainbow(man)' and it appears they're the only ones that can see it. The whole family over the centuries has been consumed with Rainbows as the elder son Katsuto often does paintings of them plus the father/physicist Ryuzo has been working on creating artificial rainbows in his lab and there is that family curse! Longish intro and may not have needed to explain so much as you would know what has taken place but it does help me as I did take a half day break after writing the above post and it jogs my memory

 Not sure what minute mark we were at in the film when part one ended but do know the next ten or so minutes may have been the best in the movie. That's Shimako in the top screenshot above, as you can see she screamed out 'It's the Rainbow Man' and she said that a few times, no time was mentioned but thinking it was between 10-11:00 pm and everyone came dashing to her bedroom. That second screenshot was a bit cool as it was unexpected and it was a color rainbow which I guess is what Shimako saw but looks nothing like a man. Five people had run to Shimako's room, her husband Ryuzo along with her two stepsons Katsuto and Toyohiko plus the two reporters Mimi and Akashi. But there was someone already there who is in the third screenshot, it's Shimako's niece Yurie and if you look at her right hand she was holding a knife! And it just happened that lying in her bed was Shimako who had been stabbed to death, does that mean Yurie has now killed her second person with the first being her boyfriend Hachiro? Naturally all of the evidence was pointing at Yurie as she was caught holding that smoking gun though her best friend Mimi once again believed Yurie was innocent. As was the case for Hachiro's stabbing Yurie could not remember one thing and it seemed she was in some sort of trance like state. Rushing back to the estate shortly after from Tokyo was the detective Okada along with his trusted aide Shimizu.

 Okada is a very competent detective and though all the evidence pointed again towards Yurie being the killer it seemed he had some doubts. Okada did question all and still wasn't totally convinced Yurie had killed a second person or even her boyfriend Hachiro as her trance like state had made him wonder about things such as was Yurie drugged? One key detail Okada discovered was that Shimako had screamed out 'It's the Rainbow Man' just before she was stabbed to death. That was similar to what the housekeeper Kane had said to Okada over the phone the day before when she was stabbed to death in Tokyo, Okada felt it would be like that incident and no killer would be found.... yet! Yurie wasn't arrested by Okada for as mentioned he still had some doubts about things, he returned to Tokyo but should have stayed at the estate for about four hours later the Maya father Ryuzo above also had screamed out 'It's the Rainbow!'. But he wasn't stabbed like the other three and Ryuzo had just passed out near a hallway window, it's where he saw this Rainbow. The others quickly came to Ryuzo's aid and perhaps there wasn't enough time to kill the man but that attempt would happen soon. Ryuzo was brought to the main hall and laid on a couch to recover, all then left the room. Within a few minutes you can see what happened next for in the second to last screenshot someone had cut the wires holding up a chandelier and it came crashing down upon Ryuzo who was soon taken away to a hospital.

 The intensity did continue for a while though will admit this was the part of the movie that left me unclear about a few things. Ryuzo was badly hurt but will survive so this attempt to kill a fourth person had failed twice, was this an actual curse where a Spirit was doing the killing or was it a real person, if the latter Okada needs to find them quickly! He had to make his third trip in two days to the estate in Tateshina and the list of suspects is actually growing while the amount of people living at the Maya estate keeps shrinking! ****All along I've had the strong impression that the murderer was Toyohiko and think right around now is when Okada also began to think he was he culprit but won't act on that until the next segment. In that top screenshot the reporter Mimi had told Okada prior to Shimako's stabbing she had been prowling around the estate and was trying to find clues to prove the innocence of her friend Yurie. Mimi had seen Toyohiko going to bed so odds are he had nothing to do with Shimako's death, she also had noticed Katsuto working on a very eerie painting of a Rainbow and he's overly obsessed with them. The father according to Mimi was drinking wine by himself but she had no clue on what he did just before Shimako began to scream about seeing a Rainbow. EDIT: After finishing wondered now that Shimako was dead would the estate be inherited by Yurie if Ryuzo also passed away, that possible scenario was never brought up the the detective Okada.

 Haven't discussed the Oriental News reporter Akashi that much but he too was staying at the Maya estate. They don't show it but he is close with Mimi and she wanted him there for protection, the previous day he had a chat with the physicist Ryuzo and told some of the details to the detective Okada who also happened to find an old diary belonging to Ryuzo. Between that diary and Akashi's conversation they were able to deduce that 21 years ago(1928) Ryuzo had stolen the research of his partner Yajima and passed it off as his own. That research had made Ryuzo a very noted physicist plus helped him earn a PHD but naturally infuriated his partner to no end! With no options soon a down and out Yajima killed himself and it remained a secret until 1949. But somehow the housekeeper Kane learned of Ryuzo's evil ways(read his diary?) and had tried to blackmail him, was it him who killed Kane at the Tokyo train station? No for Kane wasn't calling the detective Okada about that and instead another man had it in for her.... who and why is in the next segment. In the bottom screenshots above Katsuto had become a suspect in the killings, he's a loner and never had any alibis for where was for the two of the killings and the attempt on his father. Katsuto hated his stepmother Shimako but not enough to kill her, Katsuto wasn't a suspect for too long as he didn't appear to have the ability to kill someone and it almost seemed he too was like Yurie and was often in a drug like trance. Speaking of Yurie that's her in the above bottom screenshot, she too saw a Rainbow though no one else could and that led to an exciting climax.

 Will probably need three paragraphs for this final segment and that's not a bad thing as it meant so much took place. What did is in the above screenshots and the first nine below, this all took place in the last fifteen or so minutes. Yurie had gone crazy upon seeing a Rainbow, not just one at a window but they were all over the second floor of the huge mansion. Not even Yurie's best friend Mimi could calm her down and as you can see in the top screenshot above Yurie fell over a bannister to the below floor. At the house had been the village doctor Hirai who had been tending to Ryuzo who was lucky not to have been the fourth victim. Hirai also took care of Yurie who wasn't too badly hurt but in a surprise told Mimi her friend was pregnant and the only other person to have known that was Ryuzo. At first that's what all had thought but also knowing of the secret was Toyohiko, until now his impersonation of someone had been perfect but he was about to make a pair of mistakes, I caught them and had wondered if the astute detective Okada had also? That he did and the biggest boner of Toyohiko was in the third screenshot above, along with Okada and his assistant Shimizu had been examining the bannister which Yurie had fallen through.

 It did look a bit weak and Toyohiko wondered why as he thought it had been repaired for he fell through it too three yeas ago. That three years ago was such a blunder, twice the older Maya brother Katsuto had said Toyohiko left the household five years ago and had returned two days ago but by now it's been four days. Okada didn't say, a word at that time about Toyohiko's error but did later on when he was arresting him! But first there was more work for Okada to do as none of the three killings have been solved, even if Toyohiko is guilty where's the prove to convict him? In a bit of an Agatha Christie setting Okada gathered all in the huge estate main room room to discuss what has taken place but before much had been done the reporter Akashi screamed out that he had seen a Rainbow! Of course he was terrified the Rainbow Man was about to attack but upon smelling his whiskey flask that he had just taken a swig out of Akashi realized it had been poisoned, that's worse than any curse! But Katsuto spoke up and told Akashi he wouldn't die and what he had ingested was Mescaline. That's a drug that could not have been common back in 1949 and especially in Japan but somehow Katsuto had purchased much of it and the drug increased his painting talents so he kept using it. But recently some had been stolen and odds are high it was by the killer of Hachiro, Kane and Shimako along with the attempted murder of Ryuzo. Hmmmm, what was also odd is that the Mescaline was stolen right after the arrival of Toyohiko who had to be the person who slipped it into Akashi's flask and has now moved up on Okada's list to be suspect #1.

 Final paragraph and when Toyohiko knew he would soon be accused he claimed to have just seen a Rainbow and tore away to his own room. During these final five minutes is when we also learned that the housekeeper Kane had been trying to blackmail the physicist Ryuzo because of the research he stole 21 years ago, as you can see below Okada had just learned of that. He also knew that there was no way Toyohiko had seen a Rainbow and was just trying to buy time, with his aide Shimuzu and the others he confronted Toyohiko in his room and accused him of the three murders!!!! Toyohiko was able to escape briefly and it appeared he would make Yurie victim #4 but in the nick of time Okada appeared and there was no escape for Toyohiko who was cuffed and dragged away. However this man was not Toyohiko but instead the boyfriend of Yurie Hachiro Suga and all of this was done for.... love?!?! In a way yes for Hachiro thought the pregnant Yurie would not marry him as he was just a lowly assistant and student but was he way off base with those thoughts. Toyohiko had also cared for Yurie until he left five years ago so Hachiro thought by impersonating as the now returned Toyohiko he would get to marry Yurie and did all of that sound confusing? It should have as the ending was wrapped up in about two minutes, the three killings were done by Hachiro because they had discovered his true identity so he needed to kill all of them but of course Hachiro had to realize he would have been caught sooner or later. Whew, so much took place in just eighty minutes and while the review was a bit longish than usual still had to leave a few things out but nothing major. My final thoughts and such about the film were in the intro section and thanks for reading both of these posts, there was no way to make them shorter. But on the other hand a longer review means a movie was worth watching and did enjoy this film but think another ten minutes would have helped as the ending was a bit rushed and the extra time may have cleared up a few of my minor mysteries.