Themes: Unlikely Friendships, Mischievous Children, Fathers and Sons
Main Cast: Jerry Lewis, Marie McDonald, Sessue Hayakawa, Barton MacLane, Suzanne Pleshette
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 98 minutes
Plot
Jerry Lewis, plays a third-rate USO magician named Gilbert Woolley, working the Far East circuit with his pet rabbit Harry. Nearly fired for accidentally humiliating haughty movie star Marie McDonald, Gilbert's career is salvaged by kindly Japanese aristocrat Sessue Hayakawa; it seems that Gilbert is the only person who is able to make Sessue's lonely, orphaned nephew Robert Hirano laugh. An international incident nearly develops when hero-worshipping Hirano tries to follow Gilbert back to the US, whereupon the poor prestidigitator is accused of being a kidnaper. Like most of the Jerry Lewis/Frank Tashlin collaborations, The Geisha Boy is highlighted by several eye-popping sight-gag sequences. The best bits include a ballpark scene featuring several members of the 1958 Los Angeles Dodgers (notably Gil Hodges) and a sledgehammer-subtle "throwaway" concerning Sessue Hayakawa's previous appearance in Bridge on the River Kwai. Less successful are the maudlin scenes between Jerry Lewis and little Robert Hirano, with both performers ladling on pathos with a trowel. Oh, yes: Geisha Boy served as the film debut of Suzanne Pleshette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Nobu McCarthy - Kimi Sikita; Robert Hirano - Mitsuo Watanabe; Ryuzo Demura - Ichiyama; Harry Hare - Himself; The L.A. Dodgers
Credit
Sam Comer - Art Director, Tambi Larsen - Art Director, Hal Pereira - Art Director, Edith Head - Costume Designer, Frank Tashlin - Director, Alma Macrorie - Editor, Walter Scharf - Composer (Music Score), Haskell Boggs - Cinematographer, Jerry Lewis - Producer, Robert R. Benton - Set Designer, Sam Comer - Set Designer, Frank Tashlin - Screenwriter, Rudy Makoul - Short Story Author
The Great Wooley (Jerry Lewis) is a magician who is entertaining GIs in Japan. Upon their arrival, he causes a series of unfortunate mishaps for the headliner, actress Lola Livingston (Marie McDonald), including tearing her dress, knocking her down a flight of stairs, and rolling her up in the red carpet. An orphan, Mitsuo Watanabe (Robert Hirano) witnesses the spectacle and laughs for the first time since his parents died. When his aunt Kimi Sikita (Nobu McCarthy) brings the boy to Wooley to thank him, he and the boy become close, which irritates the aunt's boyfriend, a Japanese baseball player, as well as a stewardess (Suzanne Pleshette) who has fallen for Wooley.
Wooley continues to perform his act to large audiences in Japan, and not wanting to disappoint the boy by letting him find out that he is an unknown performer in the U.S., he tries to sneak away when it is time for him to return to America. The boy follows him, and Wooley must pretend that he no longer cares for the boy, which makes him cry. However, he still follows him to America by stowing away on the plane. Once in America, they are reunited and Wooley becomes a successful performer in America.
Paramount Pictures
At one point in the film, the boy and Wooley look at a mountain in the distance. The arc of stars as seen in the logo for Paramount Pictures (producers of the film) appears. Wooley turns away as if shocked.
Sessue Hayakawa, playing the orphan's grandfather, reenacts a scene that he performed in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). His workers are building a small bridge that greatly resembles the one in that film and whistling the familiar Colonel Bogey March. When Lewis stares in wonder at Hayakawa and the bridge he is building in his backyard, Hayakawa acknowledges that others have mistaken him for "the actor" and then says, "I was building bridges long before he was." This is followed by a brief clip of Alec Guiness from the film.
The Los Angeles Dodgers
The key players of the 1958 Los Angeles Dodgers are a seen in an exhibition game against a Japanese professional team. Lewis names the players as he watches the games and is upset when the Japanese fans won't cheer his favorite team.
