探偵小説から映画への変容――横溝正史『本陣殺人事件』と戦後日本――

Abstract

本発表では、第二次世界大戦後の占領期日本における小説から映画への変容を、具体的な作品を通じて検討する。取り上げるのは横溝正史『本陣殺人事件』(1949)とその映画化作品『三本指の男』(1949)である。当時日本のメディアは連合国軍の検閲下にあり、特に映画は出版物に比べ厳しい基準のもとに置かれていた。連合国軍の時代劇抑制の方針により、著名な時代劇俳優の片岡千恵蔵は現代劇へ転向し、洋風の探偵物『多羅尾伴内』シリーズで好評を博していた。『三本指の男』は伴内の影響が色濃い。それはともに千恵蔵主演であり、さらに探偵金田一耕助が小説の和装から伴内風の洋装へ変化したことにも表れている。一方、小説にはそうした強い制限はなかった。戦中は探偵小説の発表を禁じられ捕物帖で糊口を凌いでいた作家にとり、海外からもたらされた自由は探偵小説の再興の契機であった。映画のなかには、このように小説より強く政治状況を読み取りうる。さらに両メディア間の差異は、戦後日本において各メディアの置かれた状況の反映なのである。

This paper discusses how fictional stories were adapted as films in occupied Japan after World War II. The paper focuses on Death at an Old Mansion [Honjin-satsujin-jiken, 1949], the detective story by Seishi Yokomizo, and The Man with the Three-fingered Hand [Sanbon-yubi-no-otoko,1949], the film based on that story.The Japanese media in those days were subject to censorship by the Allies. Films were censored according to standards that were stricter than those applied to print publications. Due to the policy of the Allies to suppress Japanese period dramas, Chiezou Kataoka, a prominent actor who starred in many period films, survived by acting in films with contemporary stories. He played the part of a detective named Ban’nai Tarao in a series of Western-style films that won great popularity. The Man with the Three-fingered Hand, starring Chiezou Kataoka, shows significant influences of Ban’nai Tarao. This is not only because Chiezou Kataoka starred the leading part, but also because the part he played in The Man with the Three-fingered Hand, a detective named Kousuke Kindaichi, wears a suit like that of Ban’nai Tarao, and not the kimono that he wears in the original story.After the war, the publication of detective stories was not subject to constraints as strong as those imposed on films. During the war, writers were not allowed to publish contemporary detective stories and had to eke out a living by writing Torimonocho, crime novels in the Edo Period. The freedom of writing that was allowed by the Allies in the postwar period gave writers an opportunity to revive detective stories in Japan.The political climate of postwar Japan, therefore, affected films more deeply than literatures. Such a difference between them indicates the different circumstances that surrounded these two types of media after World War II.