La mia geisha

My Geisha is a film that I'm not sure why it is overlooked. Essentially Shirley MacLaine plays two roles in this film. One she's Lucy Dell, a Hollywood Actress not unlike Shirley MacLaine. But with a lot of heavy makeup she's also playing a geisha girl who husband/director Yves Montand picks to star in a film version of Madame Butterfly.

Shirley at that time was married to Steve Parker who lived and worked in Japan and they had one of the weirdest marriages on record. They stayed together almost thirty years, basically because they only saw each other once or twice a year with her living in Hollywood. But this film with Steve Parker producing it for his wife brought them together for a much longer sojourn.

Montand directs his wife's films and she's known as a good comic actress in the profession. He and her perennial leading man Bob Cummings want to do a serious drama, Madame Butterfly, film the Puccini opera with dubbed in singers.

MacLaine and producer Edward G. Robinson go to Japan, Shirley in secret and for a lark she puts on geisha makeup and outfit. Montand and Cummings are so taken with her that Montand hires the geisha that Shirley is pretending to be as the lead in Madame Butterfly.

The masquerade is kept going, but the joke runs into some unforeseen complications for all concerned.

My Geisha glides effortlessly from comedy to drama when the careers and egos of both MacLaine and Montand are on the line. It works out in a highly unusual way. Both Montand and MacLaine do very well by their lead parts with Bob Cummings portraying a wolfish leading man and Edward G. Robinson to dispense wise counsel for all.

It's a very good part for Shirley MacLaine. She summons some hidden depths for the film in portraying the tragic geisha of Madame Butterfly. It's one of her best films.

Not a great film by any means---the dialogue tends to the wooden, and the plot to the improbable---but, somehow, it is fun to watch. As the movie goes on, Montand and MacLaine seem to warm to their roles, and some of Montand's introspective musings about love, career, and marriage, in the unwitting presence of his wife, are genuinely touching. MacLaine looks quite stunning made up as a geisha, and the location scenes of Japan in 1961 (Kyoto, Tokyo, Miyajima, Hakone) are alone worth the price of admission. Japanese culture is treated with fond respect, not simply with amusement or exotic interest. The speech by the ancient geisha "master" about the idealization of womanhood strays a bit into embarrassing hyperbole, but this is the exception, not the rule, in the film.

"my geisha" is charming. suspend belief a bit, and one realises how good an actress shirley maclaine is and how convincingly she becomes a geisha.

the movie is fluff. but the attempt to parallel the plot to the libretto of "madama butterfly" is clever and almost successful. edward g.robinson as sharpless; maclaine as pinkerton, and montand as butterfly... it is a very literate attempt to use the sub-plot as the driver for the main plot.

there are moments when one is reminded of a doris day-rock hudson frolic - expected in a comedy from 1962. but there's also a real "edge" that comes from the characters being a little less than saccharine. as has been pointed out, the cinematography is quite sharp. so there is an air of substance to the production, and quality is evident.

in the end, though, one just should enjoy it.

"My Geisha" never quite manages its transitions smoothly, but they were trying something quite difficult for the period: a comedy with some genuine depth of feeling. They get there in the end, thanks to MacLaine and Montand, but there are a couple of stops along the way. You've read the setup by now, and know that Bob Cummings is playing her leading man, while her husband (Montand) is the Director of his first serious film without his wife's fame to help him succeed. He Has to Do It On His Own. It takes both his wife and his producer much too long to take this seriously, and thereby endanger both marriage and friendship. Because they think he'll come around, or appreciate the joke of her disguise, we do too...until he finally recognizes her. At that point, Montand stops being a supporting player and moves into full partnership. We believe him, and ache for him. We don't believe that "Bob Moore" is his best friend. Cummings' "arrested adolescent" is unfunny and unappealing, and he's given way too much screen time. Edward G Robinson is a pleasure throughout, but a lot of the gags - mixed bathing, sumo wrestling - are fairly condescending and forced in spite of the obvious admiration for Japan and its culture. The scenery is stunning, but there's sadness too in seeing it now. Nobody shoots beautiful films about Japan IN Japan any more; "Last Samurai" was largely shot in New Zealand, "Memoirs of a Geisha" in California. And the undercurrents - the Parker/MacLaine marriage and its eventual dissolution - sometimes haunt the script. Franz Waxman's peppy score keeps preventing us from really believing we're watching a shoot about "Madame Butterfly". When the Puccini music finally arrives, it's marvelous. And when Shirley lip-synchs the aria, she breathes like a singer. Shirley MacLaine went on to prove over and over again that she was more than a kooky comedienne...but at the time this film was made, it was a case of Art imitating Life. It's uneven, but parts of it are definitely worth seeing.

Although I only saw this movie once over ten years ago on late night TV,I was struck by the beautiful scenery and the storyline somehow reminded me of James Mason & Judy Garland "A star is born".Shirley Mclaine is a favorite of mine and she managed to imbue the Japanese persona so purely and one could feel Yves Montand frustration and eagerness to achieve success without his wife.I cannot recall much more of this film but I do know that my best friend Maruschka has watched it so many times that her tape copy is wearing out.It is a classic love story. Very hard to find a copy for it and I would love to see it out on DVD.I would then surprise my friend by buying her a copy (and one for me also).Millie