by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Many of the production personnel responsible for the Japanese classic Rashomon also worked on Bizyo to Tozoka. Released in the U.S. as Beauty and the Thieves, the film was adapted from an 11th-century Kabuki drama. Actress Machiko Kyo plays the leader of a female outlaw gang who rob from the rich and keep it all. A detective sent to stop the lady bandit falls in love with her and joins the gang, as does his younger brother. The thieves fall out when the femme fatale falls in love with the brother, leaving the moonstruck detective in the lurch. Those unfamiliar with the conventions of the Kabuki tended to laugh in the wrong places when Bizyo to Tozoka was released in the U.S.
