The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)

Directed by Daniel Mann. Starring Glenn Ford, Marlon Brando, Eddie Albert, Machiko Kyô, Paul Ford, Jun Negami, Nijiko Kiyokawa.

Jaws may drop less than a minute into this low-key mockery of Americanization based on John Patrick’s same-named novel and play, as the audience is greeted by a fourth-wall-breaking Marlon Brando in a yellowface portrayal that rivals Breakfast at Tiffany’s Mickey Rooney in bad taste (historical perspective and all that, sure, sure, but this isn’t aiming for tasteless, raucous comedy, which makes it all the more confounding). And while Rooney’s broad stereotype is onscreen for less than ten minutes in Breakfast, Brando is a co-lead here, playing a local villager assigned as interpreter for an American Army captain (Glenn Ford) in post-war Okinawa, who has been given orders to build a schoolhouse even though the townsfolk want a teahouse instead. Kyô is more appropriately cast in another major role, but her character is also a stereotype, a geisha literally named “Lotus Blossom”…because “Suzie Wong” was already taken? If you can get past the wince-inducing aspects (a big “if”), it’s a not-bad interracial romance and superficial culture-clash study rolled in one; longish but well-produced and sometimes amusing. Recreating his stage role, Paul Ford took over for Louis Calhern early in production after the actor passed away; Harry Morgan has a minor role.

51/100