Black Line (1960)
Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.
Featured Crew
| Teruo Ishii | Director |
| Hideo Kashima | Editor |
| Mitsugi Okura | Executive Producer |
| Kichitarō Shibata | Assistant Director |
| Hisao Negishi | Sound Recordist |
| Akira Yaguchi | Lighting Technician |
| Chumei Watanabe | Original Music Composer |
| Jugyo Yoshida | Director of Photography |
| Keiji Miyazawa | Art Direction |
| Teruo Ishii | Screenplay |
