Themes: Filmmaking, Assumed Identities, Actor's Life
Main Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Yves Montand, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Cummings, Yoko Tani
Release Year: 1962
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
Plot
In this romantic comedy, a popular actress disguises herself as a Japanese geisha to land a part in a film directed by her husband. Shirley MacLaine stars as Lucy Dell, a comic actress married to equally successful director Paul Robaix (Yves Montand). Though Paul has found success creating comic vehicles for Lucy, he wants to expand his range by making a lavish adaptation of Madame Butterfly on location in Japan, using a local actress as the star. Lucy feels she can play the part just as well as any Japanese woman, and, with the help of the film's producer (Edward G. Robinson), she hatches a plot to prove it. She poses as Yoko Mori, an innocent young geisha on her way to joining a convent, and her husband is immediately determined to cast her. Of course, the masquerade proves more difficult than imagined, and things become especially complicated when Lucy's Hollywood playboy co-star (Robert Cummings) falls in love with her demure Yoko persona. Opting for mild, character-driven humor over farce, My Geisha provides a few knowing jibes at Hollywood and comfortable performances from MacLaine and Montand, but the film's treatment of Japanese culture will likely seem dated to modern audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
My Geisha would be very easy to dismiss were it not for Shirley Maclaine's captivating star performance. Certainly, the plot is so ludicrous that it would take a screenwriter with enormous insight and sensitivity (and, hopefully, an unerring ability to craft witty and incisive dialogue) to lift the film anywhere above average. Suffice it to say that, while Norman Krasna does supply a few one-liners and does manage to give the film a somewhat surprisingly serious side, he does not otherwise overcome the limitations of the plot. A really strong director would also have helped, but Jack Cardiff's work in terms of storytelling, pacing, and melding the comic and the serious into a unified whole are merely average. However, credit does go to Cardiff for the film's lovely travelogue look, and for letting Edith Head have her way in designing the gorgeous costumes. But it's Maclaine that is the film's saving grace, using her pixieish charm, oddly appealing looks, and quirky combination of winsomeness and ambition to give the film abundant life. She's funny even when handed lines that ought to fall flat, can break your heart when required, and only has to let those weirdly enthralling eyes get a hint of moisture to have you ready to follow her anywhere. True, there's absolutely no spark between her and Yves Montand, who seems uncomfortable throughout, but most viewers won't care. She's much more than My Geisha deserves, and without her, there would be little reason to watch. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Tatsuo Saito - Kenichi Takata; Alex Gerry - Leonard Lewis; Ichi Hayakawa - Kaida; George Furness - Butler George; Marion Furness - Bob's Girl Friend; Satoko Kuni - Maid; Tamae Kyokawa - Amatsu Hisako; Taugendo Maki - Shiga
Credit
Arthur Lonergan - Art Director, Hal Pereira - Art Director, Makoto Kikuchi - Art Director, Edith Head - Costume Designer, Jack Cardiff - Director, Archie Marshek - Editor, Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score), Frank Westmore - Makeup, Wally Westmore - Makeup, Shu Uemura - Makeup, Harry Caplan - Production Manager, Steve Parker - Producer, Harold Lewis - Sound/Sound Designer, Charles Grenzbach - Sound/Sound Designer, Norman Krasna - Screenwriter
Paul Robaix (Montand), a famous director, wants to shoot a film in Japan inspired by Madama Butterfly. His wife, an actress named Lucy Dell (MacLaine), has been the leading lady in all of his greatest films, and she is more famous than he. He feels that she overshadows him and he would like to achieve success independent of her. By choosing to film Madame Butterfly, he can select a different leading lady without hurting her feelings, because she, as a blue eyed, red headed woman, would not be suitable to play a Japanese woman. As a surprise, she visits him in Japan while he's searching for a leading lady. To surprise him further, she disguises herself as a geisha at a dinner party, planning to unveil her identity during the meal.
But she is delighted to discover that everyone at the dinnerparty, including her husband, believes her to be a Japanese woman. When she learns that the studio has decided to only give her husband enough funds to film the movie in black and white because there are no big stars in the film, she decides that she will audition for the role of Butterfly, without telling her husband, but that the studio will know and therefore give him the budget he needs to make the film he wants.
She gets the part and is wonderful. He starts having feelings for her alter ego, Yoko, and wishes his wife could be more like her. She worries that he could cheat on her, even with herself...
When viewing the film's negatives, with the colors reversed, he figures out her duplicity and, thinking she is doing it to steal credit from him so that once again he will not get the artistic praise he craves, he becomes furious. To retaliate, he decides to proposition Yoko. Greatly distressed, she flees, and decides to divorce him when the film is over.
Their "reunion" before the premiere is cold, Paul believing she will betray him and Lucy believing that Paul was going to sleep with Yoko. Her original plan was, at the end of the premiere, to reveal Yoko's true identity, which will astound Hollywood and practically guarantee her an Oscar. Instead, thinking of the lessons she learned from playing a geisha, she takes off her geisha makeup, appears as herself, tells everyone that Yoko went into a convent and will no longer be performing, and keeps her identity secret. She and her husband reconcile when he informs Lucy that he knew she was Yoko.
