YOJIMBO (1961) B/W widescreen 110m dir: Akira Kurosawa

w/Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu, Isuzu Yamada, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Kyu Sazanka, Daisuke Kato, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kamatari Fujiwara, Takashi Shimura

The great Japanese actor Mifune is magnificent in the title role of a wandering samurai. Yojimbo swaggers into a town that is in the midst of a fighting feud between two corrupt factions. He hires himself out to both sides and proceeds to help them destroy most of the town. Directed with style and authority by Kurosawa.

From The Movie Guide: "Kurosawa's entertaining direction, Kazuo Miyagawa's beautiful widescreen photography, and Mifune's eccentric acting combined to make YOJIMBO such a box-office success that Toho Studios asked the director to make another film along similar lines. The result was SANJURO, which again starred Mifune as an unorthodox samurai. Loosely remade in 1964 as A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS."