The Geisha Boy Blu-ray Review
Jerry in Japan.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, February 23, 2012
Probably one of the more politically incorrect characters in Jerry Lewis' arsenal of wacky personas is his buck-toothed Asian
man, who pops up in various guises in several Lewis vehicles. This falls into the same at least somewhat (and perhaps
even highly) objectionable style of portrayal that got Mickey Rooney into so much hot water in
Breakfast at
Tiffany's, but it was part and parcel of what was accepted in the "olden days" of mid-twentieth century entertainment
(and of course, long before that). It may come as something of a surprise, then, how gentle and measured Lewis'
approach to Japanese culture is in
The Geisha Boy, the second of his two 1958 Frank Tashlin collaborations (after
the also recently released
Rock-
A-Bye Baby). As with a lot of the Lewis-Tashlin films, we're offered a sort of schizophrenic approach that lurches
between shtick-filled gags and heartstring pulling moments that feature Jerry's softer, gentler side. Whatever one might
say about Lewis' manic comedic personality (and let's face, just about
everything has been said about Lewis in his
long and legendary career), he almost always showed a sweet, endearing side in a lot of his films, even if that side verged
on the cloying more often than not.
The Geisha Boy follows the already well established formula of having Jerry
creating pandemonium just about everywhere he goes, with interstitials allowing a little "breathing room" which offer Jerry
acting more like a sane human being, in this case mostly with an adorable little Japanese boy who develops an
attachment to Jerry's character of a visiting (third-rate) magician with a USO touring show.
Jerry's sad sack persona is transferred to the low-fi world of touring magicians as he portrays Gilbert Wooley, a down
on
his luck prestidigitator who has signed up for a USO tour because he can't find work stateside. The headliner of the
tour is
glamorous movie star Lola Livingston (Marie McDonald), who takes an instant dislike to Gilbert when the presence of
Gilbert's hidden pet rabbit upsets
her pet dog, leading to the military attaché telling the star she can't bring the
little pup along. Gilbert of course panics, and attempts to keep "Harry the Hare"'s presence secret from everyone,
though
his penchant for asking for carrot salads at every on-flight meal raises the suspicion of a comely Sergeant (Suzanne
Pleshette in her film debut) who acts as liaison between the military and the performers. Harry in fact has a number of
great gags throughout the film, including a very funny slide down a huge banister in Japan in one of the film's more
frenetic set pieces.
Gilbert and Lola continue mixing like oil and water, as might be expected, leading to more quasi-hilarity on the plane,
especially once Harry escapes from his cage and wreaks a good deal of havoc. There is one admittedly funny sequence
here where Harry gets ensconced in Lola's sleeper suite, which is capped with a great sight gag. This segment also
helps to develop the nascent romance between Gilbert and Pleshette's Sergeant Pearson.
Once the film gets to Japan, the simmering tensions between Gilbert and Lola positively erupt on the tarmac which
leads the major plot arc of the entire film. A young Japanese boy is in attendance, having been brought there by his
Aunt, the military's translator. It turns out that the boy, Mitsuo (Robert Hirano), is an orphan who hasn't smiled since
the death of his parents. Seeing the bedlam caused by Gilbert as he more or less destroys Lola's "big entrance"
actually doesn't just make Mitsuo smile, it makes him laugh out loud. The boy's Aunt, touched by this sight, brings the
boy to Gilbert's hotel so that they can both thank him. It turns out that Mitsuo is indulging in a bit of hero worship and
wants Gilbert to be his father. Gilbert, not exactly a likely candidate for hero worship, is touched, but doesn't quite
know how to respond.
The rest of the film lurches somewhat uneasily between huge set pieces with some excellent sight gags and the sort of
cloying sentimentality that seemed to be a Lewis stock in trade. Gilbert and Mitsuo make a sort of father and son odd
couple , especially after Gilbert, convinced that he's an abject failure, decides to sneak out of Japan so that he doesn't
devastate Mitsuo. Mitsuo has ideas of his own, though, and stows away on the flight back to America. That sets up
one of the film's big cameo segments featuring the 1958 Los Angeles Dodgers. On the flip side, the Japanese
sequences feature a rather odd, if undeniably funny, cameo by Sessue Hayakawa as Mitsuo's grandfather. Hayakawa,
then just coming off of his Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for
The Bridge on the River Kwai
plays a man obsessed with. . .well, the Bridge on the River Kwai. It's a patently odd little addition to this otherwise
pretty standard, sweet natured film. (It's a little ironic to consider that Hayakawa lost the Oscar to Red Buttons, who
won for
Sayonara, another film that was set in Japan.)
The Geisha Boy was released during the Christmas holiday season of 1958 and that was probably no mere
coincidence. The film focuses on a "found family" and is the sort of unabashedly nostalgic entertainment that speaks to
hearth and home. While Jerry is typically manic, at least in a couple of key sequences, he's also surprisingly low key in a
lot of the interactions with the little Japanese boy. People tend to remember only the frantic side of Lewis, but the fact
is an objective view of his solo film heyday reveals a rather charming side to his persona that always tended to be
sweet, good hearted and kind, especially to kids (and animals).
The Geisha Boy is a relatively artful blend of
both extremes of the Lewis pantheon. Lewis obviously eschewed W.C. Fields' advice about playing in films with children
and animals, but in this case at least, no one comes out worse for the wear.
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