- The Teahouse of the August Moon (film)
Infobox Film
name = The Teahouse of the August Moon
image_size =
caption = original film poster
director =Daniel Mann
producer =Jack Cummings
writer = Vern J. Sneider (novel)John Patrick (play, screenplay)
starring =Marlon Brando Glenn Ford Machiko Kyō Paul Ford
music =Saul Chaplin June Hershey Kikuko Kanai Don Swander Kikuro Kanai
cinematography = John Alton
editing = Harold F. Kress
distributor =Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = December 1956
runtime = 123 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id = 1:48805
imdb_id = 0049830"The Teahouse of the August Moon" is a 1956 motion picture
comedy satirizing the U.S. occupation of Japan following the end ofWorld War II . It starredGlenn Ford andMarlon Brando .John Patrick adapted the screenplay from his own Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Broadway play of1953 . The play was, in turn, adapted from a 1951 novel by Vern J. Sneider. [cite book | last=Sneider | first=Vern J. | coauthors= | title=The Teahouse of the August Moon | location=New York | publisher=Putnam | year=1951 | oclc=429098]Plot summary
Misfit Captain Fisby (
Glenn Ford ) is sent to Americanise the village of Tobiki onOkinawa . His commanding officer, Colonel Wainwright Purdy III (Paul Ford ), assigns him a wily local, Sakini (Marlon Brando), to act as interpreter.Fisby tries to implement the military's plans, by encouraging the villagers to build a school in the shape of a pentagon, but they want to build a teahouse instead. Fisby gradually becomes assimilated to the local customs and mores with the help of Sakini and Lotus Blossom, a young
geisha (Machiko Kyō ).To revive the economy, he has the Okinawans manufacture small items to sell as souvenirs, but nobody wants to buy them. Then Fisby makes a happy discovery. The villagers brew a potent alcoholic beverage in a matter of days, which finds a ready market in the American army. With the influx of money, the teahouse is built in next to no time.
When Purdy sends psychiatrist Captain McLean (
Eddie Albert ) to check up on Fisby, the newcomer is quickly won over. In a foreshadowing of Albert's later role on "Green Acres ", he proves to be enthusiastic aboutorganic farming . When Purdy doesn't hear from either officer, he shows up in person and surprises Fisby in a bathrobe as an improvisedkimono , and McLean in ayukata , leading a rowdy song at a party in full swing in the teahouse. Despite Purdy's anger, in a "deus ex machina ", the village is chosen by the SCAP as an example of successful democratisation.Production
Playing the role of a Japanese villager from
Okinawa was to prove a challenge forMarlon Brando 'smethod acting techniques. He spent two months studying local culture, speech and gestures. Fact|date=October 2007The role of Colonel Wainwright Purdy III was to have been played by
Louis Calhern , but he died in Nara during filming, and was replaced by Paul Ford. Fact|date=October 2007ubsequent events
The film was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for "Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding". A 1971 musical version of the play "Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen " ran two weeks on Broadway, closing after just 19 performances.Unfortunately recent restoration of the film has apparently left some edits where memorable lines have been lost. One of the finest exchanges has disappeared: discovering the villagers share their labor and profits equally, Colonel Purdy is sure that is communism in action. Advised by Captain Fisby that this is patterned after the Iowa Farm Cooperative, Purdy wails "Iowa? My God, they are in the Heartland!"
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