The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Charles Grayson (writer)
Ellis St. Joseph (story)

Release Date:

30 September 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | Romance

Tagline:

The geisha girl they sent to love and to destroy the barbarian from the west!

Plot:

Townsend Harris is sent by President Pierce to Japan to serve as the first U.S. Consul-General to that country...

Plot Keywords:

Japan | Japanese Woman | Intrigue | Japanese | Samurai

Cast

John Wayne	...	Townsend Harris
Eiko Ando	...	Okichi
Sam Jaffe	...	Henry Heusken
Sô Yamamura	...	Governor Tamura

Also Known As:

The Barbarian (USA) (working title)
The Townsend Harris Story (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15 | UK:U | West Germany:6 (f)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Average Shot Length = ~10.5 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~9.7 seconds.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: At one point, Townsend calls to his Chinese servant Sam; this was not, as some thought, a mistaken reference to an actor's real name.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "SexTV: Geisha/Gilles Neret (#5.11)" (2003)

Totally bizarre casting, but it's still very watchable

In THE BARBARIAN AND THE GEISHA, John Wayne plays Townsend Harris, a real envoy from the United States who was responsible for truly opening up Japan to International relations in the late 1850s. Before him, Commodore Perry basically pushed into Japan with gunboats and forced a treaty upon the Japanese in 1853. Harris, who arrived just a bit later, worked through the details and helped ensure compliance--as many of the Japanese felt no particular inclination to honor the first treaty. All this is true and shown in the film. According to some other sources I found, the romance between Harris and a Japanese Geisha is mostly fiction and this romance is much of the focus of this film (hence, the title).

My first reaction the first time I saw this movie was one of surprise. John Wayne as a diplomat?! When he's being diplomatic in most films, he says please and thank you as he pummels people!!!! So seeing him playing a man who is NOT a man of action and is able to play the diplomatic game seemed very odd indeed. In fact, I can't think of too many actors in 1958 who would have been more unusual for this role. By the way, I've seen photos of Harris and Wayne has practically no resemblance to him at all.

However, despite the story taking a lot of liberties with the truth and the strange casting, the film is still very watchable. The color cinematography is nice, the film shows some nice insights into Japanese customs and culture and the acting isn't bad. All in all, a likable and watchable film despite it's odd casting.

PS--Read through the trivia for this film. You find out a bit more about the real life characters as well as a supposed fight between Wayne and the director (John Huston) where Wayne apparently knocked him out!! Based on what I've read about Huston and the way he got along with actors, this is an incident I tend to believe. And, it's also a nice example of John Wayne "diplomacy".