A Majority of One

Alec Guinness acts as an elderly, influential Japanese businessman in this romance / comedy / drama set in the background of the aftermath of World War II .

When you see this film, you will, not for a minute, imagine that Mr. Koichi Asano (played by Alec Guinness ) is anything other than Japanese - so complete is the effort put in by this great actor.

Superb acting from both Alec Guinness and Rosalind Russell and a unique background of Japanese culture make this a very memorable movie.

A 'must' for all Alec Guinness fans !

For the first time I have seen the film A MAJORITY OF ONE. I also have been reading some of the reviews here on IMDb. So many of them harp on the fact that Alec Guinness was cast as the Japanese businessman who falls in love with Rosalind Russell's lonely Jewish widow. For that matter, some take exception to the casting of the Catholic Miss Russell as Mrs. Jacoby.

It's called acting, people! Mr. Guinness and Miss Russell certainly convinced me that they were these people - an elderly lonely Jewish widow and an equally elderly lonely Japanese widower who meet and, although from very different cultures, find a common ground.

This was a beautifully performed and profoundly moving story. I don't know how I've managed to never see it before. It left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. I will certainly be adding this film to my collection.

Looking at the film afresh as a mature adult, I'm now amazed I never realized that however excellent an actor Alec Guiness was, he simply looked ludicrous as an ersatz Japanese man. He appeared to have some sort of tightening device around his eyes so that they always looked closed! I guess that passed for generic Asian looks in those days. Too bad at the time James Shigeta was too young for the part; I kept visualizing him as an older man. That quibble aside, it is truly a heartwarming tale and well-performed by the wonderful Rosalind Russell and Mr. Guiness. Nice to see a regular-guy performance by Ran Danton, too, as the son-in-law. I'd always associated him with "Legs" Diamond and other unsavory characters he usually seemed to play. All in all, entertaining and drives home some important points about tolerance and family relations.

Of course the producers needed some names to carry this, and after all, Guinness could play anything, right? Here we have Sir Alec in a variation on his standard Refined Exotic Man, very similar to his Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia and Brahmin Professor Godbole from A Passage to India. On Broadway Mr. Asano was played by Cedric Hardwicke, so this was simply continuing established --and highly outdated-- practice.

At least the onstage Mrs. Jacoby was portrayed by Gertrude Berg, creator and star of TV's The Goldbergs (1949-1957), and the kind of little round Jewish mama one would visualize in the role. Roz does her best, but it's not just that she's doing Jew-Face to Guinness' Yellowface-- she comes across as gawky and vulgar rather than sweet and endearingly quaint.

As has been presented in innumerable interracial romances intended for white audiences, the potential shock is taken out by the knowledge that hey, after all, those actors are both white. Acting is pretending! Nowadays, however, audiences are more sophisticated and like a bit more realism.

Now, who would we cast in a new production of A Majority of One?

One of the great love stories of all time. If it is possible to fall in love with a movie I fell the first time I saw it. I did not have recorder at the time. I thought it might be a time filler when I saw the listing. I like Rosalind Russell and Alec Guinness so I tuned it in. I wish I had a recorder at that time.

It is wonderful movie. It starts with two elderly bigoted, hurt and angry people who go through trials and tribulations with her family and still get together in the end. They are hurt because of family losses during World War II.

It is a quiet romantic comedy that comes off beautifully.

If you like love stories, then this movie is a must.