The Teahouse of the August Moon

tried it again recently on tcm; so bad couldn't stay but dipped in again later and still terrible: story of recent post-war GIs goofed by locals is hackneyed; so is script; it tries to be funny but isn't really, and then loses it trying to show the perils of occupation- and how human the Japanese really are; yeah, if you want to forget the little tidbits like officers practicing beheadings of GI prisoners at the stern of a ship; great funny stuff for the movie? oh, not quite; and movie-wise it is almost a stage play filmed, incredibly static, phony backdrops, just dreadful; so lets say you tuned in just for brando- normally a good enough reason; holy cow- between the makeup, done as much as they could native Japanese, the put on accent, afraid it's akin to jolsen in blackface

I've seen this several times and it loses nothing with re-viewing, as long as you don't overdo it, I guess. Basically it's a story of Glen Ford going native, seduced by Marlon Brando, Machiko Kyo, a horde of Okinawan villagers, with Eddie Albert as a closet hydroponicist who gets sucked in along the way. It has its weaker moments when it becomes a little cute, the way sitcoms are cute, and the ending is a feel-good addendum that tries to graft a happy ending onto an unhappy situation. The ending is less organic than Eddie Albert's vegetables. Marlon Brando -- well, he's not Japanese. He's too tall and too hefty, and the role was really beneath him. The guy at the time was a fantastic dramatic actor, not a comedian. Paul Ford as Colonel Purdy is fine. No one has expressed disbelief better while on the phone. Albert doesn't have to do much. But Glen Ford couldn't be improved upon as Captain Fisbe, the abject schlemiel who always flunks every test of wits that's thrown in his direction. I couldn't stop laughing at some of the scenes -- Kyo wrestling with Ford while she struggles to remove his clothing, and Colonel Purdy on the phone, asking him, "What are you doing about physical education?", as Ford flops gracelessly on the floor. Ford doing a fine imitation of having a manic episode when Albert visits him -- "This is my cricket cage," and then adding quickly, so as not to be misunderstood, "I haven't got my cricket yet." The script is full of yoks. Colonel Purdy demanding an explanation from Ford of exactly what he's been teaching the villagers. "Well, Colonel, you know, from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs, share and share alike --" Purdy: "That's COMMUNISM!" Alas it falls apart after the show at the opening of the teahouse. But that's nothing much, a wasted ten minutes. It's worth seeing, not only for the many successful gags but for Glen Ford's superb performance as well.

I love Marlon Brando and I love comedy movies. The comedy in this movie has not aged well at all, in fact I would call it "tiring" in most scenes. The constant antics of the villagers actually get irritating as early as when the Captain is trying to get his jeep packed so he can leave the base. It didn't get better from there. Brando does a nice job playing the Japanese interpreter however; but since he's Brando that's to be expected. It was also interesting seeing a young Harry Morgan playing a military man decades before he did so on MASH. I'd avoid this one. I picked it up for $3 from Big Lots and I feel like I vastly overpaid. What a disappointment.

This is a creepy and unfunny movie. Marlon Brando is at his hammy worst. Paul Ford barely bothers to make facial expressions. Glenn Ford is game, and Eddie Albert does what he can. But mostly I spent the movie cringing at the horrible script and Brando's repulsive yellow-face performance. I wonder what this movie looked like back in the 1950's when it was made. It was shortly after the end of World War II. Perhaps it was intended as a way to humanize the Japanese (by having a non-Japanese give a clichéd and hackneyed performance in bad makeup). Maybe this movie wasn't as creepy back then. I'm at a loss as to why anyone would consider it to be tolerable now.

Marlon Brando has never been as ridiculous as in this one.Casting him as a Japanese translating his "compatriots" into pidgin English was a bad idea gone wrong.One wonders why the Japanese chose him for their interpret whereas the tribe's old man spoke better Shakespeare 's language than he did.Glenn Ford is ill-at -ease in the comic genre and his fighting with the geisha who tries to take off his clothes is sinister slapstick comedy.The direction is as static as it can be ,and it 's really filmed stage production.The screenplay in not that much original and finds some of its inspiration in Billy Wilder's "A foreign affair"(1947),the Japanese replacing the German.Daniel Mann is no match for Wilder as far as directing and writing are concerned and the she-goat easily steals the show.

Adaptation of John Patrick's play about American soldier trying to teach Democracy to the Japanese in 1946 Okinawa. One-joke material about cultural assimilation isn't exactly politically-correct when seen today, but were these stale, frantic jokes ever amusing? Marlon Brando's performance as an Oriental interpreter has to be seen to be believed; he's lively, yes, but there's a concerted effort to make him appear clownish (this couldn't have been Brando winging it--director Daniel Mann must assume part of the blame). This silly story never gains any momentum, and the slapstick hijinks are broad but stilted (they have a mechanical feel which, again, should be attributed to the direction). Glenn Ford, Paul Ford and Eddie Albert are solid as always, but they get swallowed up in this unfunny facade. *1/2 from ****

What can I say about this film, except that it was an enormous disappointment. The comedy was mostly clumsy and nearly humorless, which made the whole thing extremely exhausting to watch. Even the cast couldn't save the film. Don't waste your time on this.

Casting Marlon Brando in this film as Sakini, a Japanese interpreter for American troops in post WW-II Japan is considered by many critics and film historians alike as one of the worst casting errors ever made in a film history. In my opinion, though, Marlon Brando is the one responsible for turning this quite an average film into a hillarious comedy. Yes, they really did it. With a little bit of make up and great effort from actor's part to learn Japanese mannerism and language in order to get an accent in his speech we have here Marlon Brando in his most unimaginable role. The rest of the cast is also quite good, namely Paul Ford as Colonel Waiwright Purdy III, a somehow cliche figure of stubborn, narrow minded US military officer and Glenn Ford by his side as Captain Fisby, for whom Brando's character Sakini ends up working as an interpreter and, of cause, unforgettable Machiko Kyo, as a spirited geisha, whom lovers of Japanese cinema must remember from Akira Kurosawa's films. Directed by Daniel Mann (Butterfield 8, Come Back, Little Sheba) and based on John Patrick's stage play that was a big hit on Broadway at it's time, The Teahouse of the August Moon is slow in parts and in terms of some aspects of the story considerably aged and outdated but still funny and entertaining movie. 8/10

I just had the chance to see this charming movie again in widescreen format in what evidently is a new or restored print on Turner Classic Movies, and I'm realizing that I love the flick more and more each time I see it. The wonderful cast - Glenn Ford, Paul Ford (ironic - no relation!), Eddie Albert, Marlon Brando and Harry Morgan - do a fine job of playing out the movie's humorous meditation on culture clash, and the ability of a strong but flexible people to maintain their Eastern ways in the face of Western "aid". Brando, in particular, is surprising; this is about as far from Stanley Kowalksi or Terry Malloy as you can get, and one would not think him able to do much with a humorous, cross-racial characterization, yet the brilliant and convincing manner in which he pulls it off reminds us of the great thespian talent he once possessed and which he tended to squander as his life progressed. I believe this film had its origins in a very successful stage play; we can thank the forces involved for committing this funny, charming, and ultimately heart-warming story to celluloid. Best line: "I've come to a state of gracious acceptance somewhere between my ambitions and my limitations."

Obviously, nowadays it makes us cringe that Marlon Brando plays a Japanese person, but "The Teahouse of the August Moon" is still a laugh riot. After WWII has ended, Capt. Fisby (Glenn Ford) is hired to spread democracy to an Okinawa village and build a school. But the townsfolk want a teahouse, and to convince him they even give him a present: a hot, over-enthusiastic geisha named Lotus Blossom (Machiko Kyo). When Fisby's superiors learn what's been going on, they naturally aren't pleased. "TTOTAM" remains a comedy classic, especially with some of the dialogue between Fisby and his superiors ("I want to make sure that everything's distributed equally." "That's communism!"). How people come up with these wacky situations remains a mystery to me, but they did it with hilarious results. And above all, this movie shows us the problems with trying to spread democracy too quickly (Bush & Co. could learn something from this, given the mess that we've made in Iraq).