The little tea house

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Movie
German title The little tea house
Original title The Teahouse of the August Moon
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1956
length 123 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Daniel Mann
script John Patrick
Vern J. Sneider , based on the play by John Patrick based on the novel by Vern Sneider
production Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Producer: Jack Cummings
music June Hershey
Don Swander
camera John Alton
cut Harold F. Kress
occupation

The Little Tea House is an American comedy film directed by Daniel Mann from 1956. Captain Fisby, played by Glenn Ford , is sent to the Japanese island of Okinawa to build a school in a small village. Instead, a tea house is being built. The other leading roles are occupied by Marlon Brando , Paul Ford , Machiko Kyō and Eddie Albert .

action

The action takes place in the rural Japanese region of Okinawa , the time after the Japanese surrender in World War II . The country is by American troops occupied ; a local, Sakini, serves as an interpreter for the occupiers. Turning directly to the audience, Sakini philosophizes with friendly irony about the fact that the island has already seen many invaders who have brought their respective cultural "achievements". The American occupiers also overestimate the value of what their culture has to offer the Japanese; conversely, they deliberately overlook the richness, beauty, and expediency of the institutions of Japanese culture.

The local commandant, Colonel Purdy, a lover of nonsensical regulations, welcomes a new officer, Captain Fisby, whose transfer appears to be the result of nonsensical military administrative acts. Fisby was a humanities professor in civil life, and Purdy, naively enthusiastic about the idea of ​​bringing the blessings of democracy to the Japanese, decides to send him to the village of Tobiki, where Fisby is establishing a local government, a women's league for democratic action to found and build a school. Sakini, whom Purdy is happy to get rid of, accompanies Fisby.

Even the first Japanese Fisby comes into contact with during his trip to Tobiki prove to be extremely resolute, and Fisby, who tries hard but is the opposite of assertive, quickly discovers that he has to obey the foreign rules of the game . After his arrival in Tobiki, his attempt to give a rehearsed “democracy speech” ends with the village community teaching him a lesson in Japanese culture. As Fisby is easy to control, generously distributes items and promises the residents deliveries of rice, he is welcomed in a friendly manner and even receives a geisha , Lotos Blossom , as a welcome gift .

The extent to which Fisby is overwhelmed with the task of bringing democracy to Tobiki is shown when the women's league he set up demands that equality be serious and that all women in the village get things that only the geisha have until then namely, lipsticks and perfume; They also want geisha training. When the men now make their own claims - also with reference to their equality - the building material that was intended for the new schoolhouse is used for the construction of a tea house . Fisby is finally fully acclimatized, wears a bathrobe instead of his uniform and enjoys the little everyday pleasures of the host country.

In Purdy, who speaks regularly on the phone with Fisby, the suspicion grows that he is not doing his job properly, and he sends Captain McLean as inspector. McLean, who is supposed to examine Fisby for his mental state, forgets his assignment after his arrival in Tobiki and immediately takes over an agricultural development project there. After a first project for the economic development of the place, which Fisby had initiated on its own, fails, a distillery for sweet potato schnapps is set up, which sells its products with the American army with great success.

On the evening of the inauguration of the tea house, Purdy appears in Tobiki to see that things are going well there himself. When he learns about the tea house and the distillery, he puts Fisby under arrest. Lotos Blossom asks Fisby to stay with her and marry her; when Fisby refuses, she consoles herself with another suitor. Fisby, who has gained such deep insights into Japanese culture, has to admit at this point that he does not know whether he belongs to the side of the conquerors or whether he was conquered himself.

Tobiki is surprisingly declared a model village by the American government, which is supposed to showcase the reconstruction measures of the occupying power. Purdy, who has already destroyed parts of the distillery and had the tea house dismantled, is now in dire need of his superiors. However, the Japanese hid the distillation facilities in good time, and the Japanese-style teahouse can also be rebuilt within a short time.

Production and reception

Filming for The Little Tea House began on April 16, 1956 at various locations in Japan , including Kyoto and Nara . Stormy weather forced the studio to then in June 1956 with the production on the backlot of MGM by Culver City dodge where the shooting were also completed. The world premiere of the film took place on November 20, 1956 in Los Angeles . On November 29, 1956, he started in the Japanese capital Tokyo . The German premiere was on August 28, 1957.

The announced star of this film was Marlon Brando, not Glenn Ford. Brando had won an Oscar for his role in the 1954 film Die Faust im Nacken and had made two more financially successful films after that, so he was still at the height of his fame. In this film he was seen in a comic role for the first time in his film career. He played the Japanese interpreter and house boy Sakini. Brando insisted on playing this role because he was interested in the political dimension of the subject and the criticism of American occupation policy in Japan. Dore Schary , director of film production, assumed that Brando wanted to take on the role of Captain Fisby, which was actually supposed to be played by Gene Kelly , but then went to Glenn Ford.

John Patrick's musical The Teahouse of the August Moon , the stage adaptation of a novel by Vern Sneider , ran successfully on Broadway from 1953 to 1956, a triumph the MGM wanted to build on. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, the play also received the New York Film Critics Circle Award . Since Brando was a crowd puller, the film was produced in the expensive Cinemascope format.

The role of Colonel Purdy was initially occupied by Louis Calhern , who died unexpectedly while filming in Japan. His scenes were filmed with Paul Ford. Ford had already played the role on stage.

There should have been arguments between Brando and Glenn Ford during the shooting, which probably contributed to the fact that Ford's fee was rather modest compared to the fee paid to Brando.

Marlon Brando was barely recognizable in the film. He was heavily made up, wore glued-back eyelids to simulate almond-shaped eyes, had jet black hair and patchy teeth, and was cast against his type. Although Brando enjoyed playing in an exaggerated mask all his life, he later stated in his memoir that he was wrongly cast in the role. He is said to have said to Edith von Cleve that “it was a shame” and that he hoped “that at least a touch of the piece's magic would come across from the screen”.

The film and its crew were nominated for several Golden Globes , among other things , but the criticism reacted cautiously and the box office income also fell short of the producers' expectations. The film also took part in the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1957 , but was not included in the award.

On December 3, 2012, the film was also released in German on DVD, published by Crest Movies. The playing time is 123 minutes.

Awards

Nominations for the Golden Globe
  • Marlon Brando (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Musical or Comedy)
  • Daniel Mann (Best Motion Picture - Comedy and Musical)
  • Eddie Albert (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture)
  • Daniel Mann "Promoting International Understanding"

criticism

"An amusing comedy with which the Americans make fun of their overly complacent democratization efforts in the Far East." - Lexicon of International Films

Bosley Crowther said in the New York Times that Brando looked “synthetic, too artificial and deliberately nice. His Sakini ”is“ less of a charming crook than a calculated clown ”.

The film magazine Cinema gave the film the highest rating of five thumbs up and drew the conclusion: "An ironic look at America's sense of mission."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Teahouse of the Moon - Notes at TCM Turner Classic Movies
  2. ↑ a b c d e Marlon Brando. His films - his life. Heyne Film Library No. 32/145 by David Shipman, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1990, pp. 126-130, 133
  3. ↑ The Teahouse of the August Moon - Script information at TCM Turner Classic Movies
  4. ↑ The Teahouse of the August Moon Trivia at TCM Turner Classiv Movies
  5. ^ Lexicon of International Films. Rowohlt, Reinbek, 1995, ISBN 3499163578 , p. 3073f.
  6. ↑ Das kleine Teehaus at Cinema.de , accessed on December 15, 2012