Ray Browne

[Posted at The Blackboard on April 12.]

My friend and former San Francisco room-mate Ray Browne passed away last week of AIDS-related illness, and whenever I think of Ray, I think of this story that I posted to another (much inferior!) noir web-group a while back:

"I think that House of Bamboo is excellent.

I have a funny story about it. The first time I saw the film, I watched it on television in San Francisco. My droll room-mate Ray Browne came in during the movie.

'What's that?' he asked.

'A movie called House of Bamboo,' I answered.

Ray poured himself a Coke in the kitchen while I continued watching the film in the living room. It was during one of the scenes when Robert Ryan or Robert Stack is yelling and someone else is yelling back. A Sam Fuller film, after all, offers lots of raw emotion.

Ray emerged from the kitchen. 'I sense tension in the House of Bamboo,' he said."