The Teahouse of the August Moon is a 1956 motion picture comedy satirizing the U.S. occupation of Japan following the end of World War II. It starred Glenn Ford and Marlon Brando. John Patrick adapted the screenplay from his own Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Broadway play of 1953. The play was, in turn, adapted from a 1951 novel by Vern J. Sneider.

Plot summary

Misfit Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) is sent to Americanise the village of Tobiki on Okinawa. 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 about organic farming. When Purdy doesn't hear from either officer, he shows up in person and surprises Fisby in a bathrobe as an improvised kimono, and McLean in a yukata, 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 for Marlon Brando's method acting techniques. He spent two months studying local culture, speech and gestures.

The 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.

Subsequent 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!"

References

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