Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I saw this film when it first came out, at the drive-in from the back of my parents' station wagon. I was very small and the ideas behind it were way over my head, but I always remembered it reverently over the years, although I forgot its name. My favorite character was the Deacon, who I thought was just the coolest gunfighter ever. Many, many years later it surfaced on TCM as part of an Asian tribute. I was totally amazed to discover that the Deacon was Mel Torme! He also sang the theme song.Anyway, WLAD is some excellent, heartfelt, moving social commentary hidden in a B-western. It was written and directed by James Clavell and featured acting that's second to none. That's because parts for Asians were almost non-existent at the time, and these Asians made the very most of their rare opportunity. I mean that in the most complimentary fashion possible. There's no hambone over-emoting, just some dignified, highly skilled, restrained performances by all of them.Nobu McCarthy is gorgeous and heartbreaking, and James Shigeta is enormously powerful. These two are Japanese, but they play Chinese immigrants and their performances are quite moving. Benson Fong and Kam Tong play much smaller, but still vital roles. Both the older men are first introduced as being servile, pidgin-English-speaking, scurrying stereotypes around whites. But they're something else entirely around their fellow Chinese. It's a nice touch, and Clavell uses it in the opening scene to great effect.The white cast are all perfect fits for their roles and turn in some fantastic support for the stars. Jack Lord is right on the money for his rigid, stubborn, hot-tempered Linc Bartlett character. Josephine Hutchinson is his mother and Lilyan Chauvin is his French girlfriend. Both are outstanding. The bigoted townspeople are all excellently portrayed as well. This is an obviously low-budget B-western but the actors are all superb. Not a single dud in the bunch.WLAD takes place in 1870 California and Linc is a former Union Army captain. He's in San Francisco on business and he agrees to let Cheng Lu (James Shigeta) ride back with him to his hometown of Jericho. Then he's outraged when he happens upon a slave auction of Chinese girls who are being sold into prostitution. The youngest is 19-yr-old Kim Sung (Nobu McCarthy), and when she's forced to strip in front of the crowd of bidders, Linc is overwhelmed by her humiliation and her shame and her shy nature. So he bids $750 in gold coins for her and then closes the bidding by drawing his gun and pointing it at the auctioneer. Linc then tries to set Kim free, but Cheng Lu explains to him that it's not that simple. She is helpless and can't speak English and has nowhere to go, so she will just end up right back where she started. So Linc takes both Kim and Cheng Lu back to Jericho with him and sets an epic tragedy in motion.I can't recommend this film highly enough. If you watch it, I guarantee you'll be deeply impressed. I saw it on TCM, but it can now be seen for free whenever you want on YouTube on "The Pilar Seurat Channel". If you want something unusual and touching, try it. You'll be glad you did.

This film took me by surprise as a Western which deals with racial problems and people in a local town becoming quite upset with a certain affair that seems to be blooming in their community. Jack Lord, (Linc Bartlett) comes back to his home town with a sidekick named Cheng Lee, (James Shigeta) who is Chinese and as they conduct their business in town Linc notices a large crowd and finds out they are sell Chinese people as slaves. There is a very young Chinese girl about 19 years of age and she is being sold, Linc becomes very upset and claims America has just fought a Civil War against slavery and he buys this young girls freedom and sets her free. However, his Chinese friend Cheng Lee tells him this girl, Kim Sung, (Nobu McCarthy) has no place to go and does not speak English and she considers Linc her master. In this film, Mel Torme, (The Deason) sings and also plays a straight role as a gunslinger who even kills a man in self-defense. There is also a funny game that Linc plays in a local saloon which deals with two cockroaches, one marked white and people bet on which one of the roaches will get out of a circle on the table. The roaches are kept under a glass and then released when the bets are all made. This film shows racial tensions among the people of the town toward Linc and Kim Sung because they all notice a romantic relationship growing between this couple and mixing races in this Western town is looked at with horror. This is a great film for 1960 and you will never be able to figure out just how Linc & Kim Sung will settle this problem. Enjoy

I recently had the opportunity to watch "Walk Like A Dragon" on Turner Classic Movies. It had been some 48 years since I had first seen this little gem that was way ahead of it's time. Back in the day, I was really impressed with singer Mel Torme's acting performance as a deacon turned gunfighter baddie. Some things change over the years while other things do not. Looking back on it now, Torme's performance that I once thought was "top of the line" turned out to be as disappointing as it was amateurish. Perhaps that was the reason he was reduced to just doing various bit parts on television roles thereafter. Having said that, kudos are in order for director/writer James Clavell for his wonderful "cross over" story. The plot involves a young man named Linc that rescues a young Chinese woman Kim Sung (Nobu McCarthy)from being sold as a slave by buying her. During the process of the film, he begins to overcome his own prejudice and begins to see her as a person, and soon falls in love with her. Keep in mind at this point in time the Chinese "coolies" and their women were looked down on, and were considered to be less than human. To complicate matters, a young Chinese man, journeying with Linc, Cheng Lu (James Shigeta) shares the same affections for her, and wants to buy her. Consequently, he hires a gunslinger, the deacon, to teach him how to use a firearm as he plans to kill Linc and take his woman for himself. The gunfighter (Torme) attempts to stop him, but in the process is killed. Now the Chinaman must face off with the man who trained the gunfighter (Linc) to take possession of the woman (Kim Sung). This film deals with a lot of issues regarding "slavery" "freedom", as well as "racism". In a sense, it is just as innovative a film as "Guess Who"s Coming To Dinner" that hit the screen seven years later. Consequently, it covers a lot of lingering issues that are as real today as they were then. Questions such as "How will two people deal with all the prejudice and racism that will surround them in the future?" and "Will it be possible for them to find the acceptance and tolerance that will allow them to live a normal life?" are showcased for the viewer to ponder. It took a brave group of filmmakers to make these two remarkable films as that risked the loss of box office revenue for the sake of principle back then. Heavy stuff to be played out in an Old West setting. To my way of thinking, the film passes my 48 year test while good old Mel Torme's performance does not.

This film is set in Gold Rush California. The protagonist is an exiled Chinese who will stop at nothing to get the girl - he finds it utterly unfitting that his countrywoman is interlocking with a foreign devil (played by Jack Lord). The disgruntled Chinese vows to make himself equal in stature to the ignorant bigoted white men around him; as he puts it, "I will walk high, like a dragon". He apprentices himself to the gun-toting town deacon, who does duty as local clergyman as well as local amateur law enforcer. We know why he enters into this project: of course, he looks forward to a bloodily successful showdown with his caucasian nemesis, whose chief sin is being engaged to the Chinese woman whom he also loves and regards as too good for a white man. When the planned gunfight occurs, however, the pesky white rival is victorious, and the uppity Chinese appears to have little chance of recognizing his ambitions. In the end, however, the fact that he and the girl are of the same nation-in-exile is what prevails: the Jack Lord character loses the girl because blood is thicker than water. And yet, to make a necessary point, the Chinese man has to conclude the film by making a culturally impossible demand of her, which she executes. This suggests irresistibly some kind of symbolic castration - in a sense it takes away his Chinese nationality. He has chosen a life of exile in America, where he has made is fortune among enemies and anti-Chinese bigots, over the possibility of returning to China with his bride.Not that it's easy for her to make the choice. The Lord character saved her from a life in a brothel. But still . . . And while Lord doesn't get the girl, he certainly gets the best line: "Who do you think taught the deacon?"!!