A Majority of One

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.

This is a gentle little film that may have it's faults with the hindsight of 40 years, but is enjoyable, especially I feel to those that remember the post WW11 days.

Alec Guinness plays the part beautifully, with his usual master of the character, Rosalind Russel plays a good stereotyped Jewish Mother .... the other characters just fill in between the lines. The only character that I find fault with is 'Eddy' the No. 1 boy of the family in Tokyo. He is obnoxious and completely out of character with a real 'House Boy' of the times that was lucky enough to get a 'cushy number' working for an American Diplomat.

In these days of virtual reality with sex, blood and car chases being the three main criteria of movie making, this movie is like going to a stage production from the 50's...... gentle and enjoyable.

What the world needs now and always is tolerance among people of different faiths. This sweet, charming film is a fine example of this principle. Rent it, buy it, see it. You won't be disappointed.

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.

Warner Bros. cast movie stars Rosalind Russell, and Alec Guiness in this movie based on the hit Broadway play directed by long time veteran Mervyn Le Roy with very fine Warner Bros production values.

Rosalind Russell an Irish Catholic Yankee was cast as a Brooklyn Jewish Matron, the part played by Gertrude Berg on Broadway. There is a lot of mileage between Roz Russell and Gertrude Berg! English star ( and also Catholic) Alec Guiness was assigned to play the Japanese male lead. Ms. Russell had a lot of talent and is one of the most glaring examples of a great actress who never won an Oscar. Alec Guiness right off his great Oscar win in The Bridge On The River Kwai playing the English officer tormented by his Japanese captors is elegant and intelligent in his performance in this film. Due to the deft professionalism and talent do these two very fine Stars pull off their characterization's.

Gary Vinson and Sharon Hugueny both WB stars are listed in the credits but I only saw them briefly. Warners contract star Ray Danton is fine in this film.