How Long Is “Anatahan”?

Anatahan (aka Ana-Ta-Han) represented the apotheosis of filmmaker Josef von Sternberg's lifelong fascination with the Orient. Over a year in the making, the film was the most expensive ever made in Japan up to 1953. Based on fact, the story concerns a group of Japanese marines who refused to believe that their country had been defeated in 1945, and thus spent the next seven years stubbornly manning their posts on a remote Pacific Island. The central character is a woman known as the "Queen Bee," who is marooned on the island along with the marines. As the only female in the vicinity, our heroine is aggressively pursued by every male in sight (von Sternberg capriciously refers to her most ardent suitors as her "drones"). Former Nichiegki Theatre chorus performer Akemi Negishi plays the Queen Bee.