Themes: Culture Clash, Military Life, Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance
Main Cast: Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Machiko Kyo, Eddie Albert, Paul Ford
Release Year: 1956
Country: US
Run Time: 123 minutes
Plot
Marlon Brando went out on yet another creative limb when he insisted upon playing sly, philosophical Okinawan interpreter Sakima in the 1956 filmization of John Patrick's Broadway play Teahouse of the August Moon. While he occasionally lapses into "flied lice" stereotyping, for the most part Brando is quite effective and amusing, especially when facing up to the difficult task of speaking directly to the audience. The story is set in Okinawa in the months following V-J Day. Paul Ford (repeating his Broadway role - and replacing Louis Calhern, who died at the start of production) plays an American colonel in charge of the occupation troops. Determined to bring Western civilization to the Okinawans, the colonel assigns captain Glenn Ford to do his bidding. A habitual screw-up, Captain Ford hopes to make good by organizing the Okinawan women into a social club and by building a schoolhouse. But the villagers would rather erect a teahouse, serviced by pretty geisha girls. The ever-resourceful Sakima (Brando) does his manipulative best to curry favor with the Americans while still mollifying his own people. Co-starring in Teahouse of the August Moon is Machiko Kyo, leading lady of such Japanese film classics as Rashomon and Gate of Hell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Marlon Brando was starting to stretch by 1956, after becoming instantly famous for his roles in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. Critical response to his parts in the 1955 musical Guys and Dolls and the 1956 light comedy-drama The Teahouse of the August Moon were all over the map. Brando was already confounding expectations, as he would continue to do for the rest of his career. The Teahouse of the August Moon was adapted by writer John Patrick from his own successful Broadway play. It's a World War II story, in the manner of South Pacific, about American GIs stationed in Okinawa who become enthralled with the local women. Glenn Ford and Eddie Albert also star; the director is Daniel Mann, who would later direct Butterfield 8. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Jun Negami - Mr. Seiko; Henry Morgan - Sgt. Gregovich; Mitsuko Sawamura - Little Girl; Frank Tokunaga - Mr. Omura; Raynum K. Tsukamoto - Mr. Oshira; Louis Calhern; Harry Harvey, Jr.; Nijiko Kiyokawa - Miss Higa Jiga; Roger McGee; Aya Oyama - Daughter on Jeep; Miyoshi Jingu - Old Woman on Jeep
Credit
William Horning - Art Director, Eddie Imazu - Art Director, Daniel Mann - Director, Harold Kress - Editor, Saul Chaplin - Composer (Music Score), Saul Chaplin - Musical Direction/Supervision, William J. Tuttle - Makeup, John Alton - Cinematographer, Jack Cummings - Producer, Hugh Hunt - Set Designer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Warren Newcombe - Special Effects, John Patrick - Screenwriter, Vern J. Sneider - Book Author, John Patrick - Play Author
Misfit Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) is sent to Americanise the village of Tobiki on Okinawa. His commanding officer, Colonel Wainwright Purdy III (Paul Ford), assigns him a wily local, Sakini (Marlon Brando), to act as interpreter.
Fisby tries to implement the military's plans, by encouraging the villagers to build a school in the shape of a pentagon, but they want to build a teahouse instead. Fisby gradually becomes assimilated to the local customs and mores with the help of Sakini and Lotus Blossom, a young geisha (Machiko Kyō).
To revive the economy, he has the Okinawans manufacture small items to sell as souvenirs, but nobody wants to buy them. Then Fisby makes a happy discovery. The villagers brew a potent alcoholic beverage in a matter of days, which finds a ready market in the American army. With the influx of money, the teahouse is built in next to no time.
When Purdy sends psychiatrist Captain McLean (Eddie Albert) to check up on Fisby, the newcomer is quickly won over. In a foreshadowing of Albert's later role on Green Acres,[why?] he proves to be enthusiastic about organic farming. When Purdy doesn't hear from either officer, he shows up in person and surprises Fisby in a bathrobe used as an improvised kimono, and McLean in a yukata, leading a rowdy song at a party in full swing in the teahouse. Purdy orders it destroyed, but in a burst of foresight, the vilagers only dismantle the teahouse instead of destroying it, and in a deus ex machina, the village is chosen by the SCAP as an example of successful democratisation. The teahouse is then reassembled easily.
Production
Playing the role of a Japanese villager from Okinawa was to prove a challenge for Marlon Brando's method acting techniques. He spent two months studying local culture, speech and gestures and for the actual shooting he subjected himself to a daily two hours of make-up.[2]
The role of Colonel Wainwright Purdy III was to have been played by Louis Calhern, but he died in Nara during filming, and was replaced by Paul Ford. [3] Ford had played the part more than a thousand times, having been one of the Broadway originals, and he would play a similarly bumbling, harassed colonel hundreds of times more in Phil Silvers' TV series Bilko.
The film made use of authentic Okinawan and Japanese music, recorded in Kyoto and sung and danced by Japanese artists. Machiko Kyo, (Lotus Blossom), had won acclaim for her dramatic performances in Rashomon and Gate of Hell so this lightly comedic part was a departure for her.[4]
Subsequent events
The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding. A 1971 musical version of the play Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen ran two weeks on Broadway, closing after just 19 performances.
Unfortunately recent restoration of the film has apparently left some edits where memorable lines have been lost. One of the finest exchanges has disappeared: discovering the villagers share their labor and profits equally, Colonel Purdy is sure that is communism in action. Advised by Captain Fisby that this is patterned after the Iowa Farm Cooperative, Purdy wails "Iowa? My God, they are in the Heartland!"
References
^ Sneider, Vern J. (1951). The Teahouse of the August Moon. New York: Putnam. OCLC429098.
^ Tony Thomas ' The Films of Marlon Brando' page 97
