6.8 /10 1 Votes
| 6.8/10 IMDb Initial release 27 December 1961 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Rosalind RussellAlec GuinnessRay DantonMadlyn RhueMae QuestelMarc MarnoGary VinsonSharon HuguenyFrank WilcoxFrancis De SalesYuki ShimodaHarriet MacGibbon Featured songs Oh My Darling, Clementine, I Only Have Eyes for You, It's a Great Feeling Awards Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Cast Similar Rosalind Russell movies, World War II movies, Movies about love | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Majority of One is a 1961 American comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Rosalind Russell and Alec Guinness. It was adapted from the play of the same name by Leonard Spigelgass, which was a Broadway hit in the 1959-60 season, starring Gertrude Berg and Cedric Hardwicke.
Contents
Plot
Bertha Jacoby (Rosalind Russell), a Jewish widow, is convinced by her daughter Alice Black (Madlyn Rhue) to move from Brooklyn, New York to Tokyo, in order for Bertha to be closer to her along with her husband, Jerry Black (Ray Danton), now stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Her feelings about the Japanese with regards to her son's death in World War II start to change on board the ship to Tokyo, where she meets Koichi Asano, a Japanese Buddhist businessman (Alec Guinness), who also lost a spouse and two children in the War. The two share a bond over lives, their families, and their faiths, which develops into a romance. When she announces to her family of Asano's courtship, her daughter and son-in-law object to the idea of an interracial marriage. The movie ends with the two enjoying a Sabbath dinner.
Cast
Production
Guinness went to Japan days prior to production started to study the culture, the people and their customs. He went under heavy makeup to play the role. Russell had misgivings about the role due to her believing that Berg deserved the part (though studio head Jack Warner refused due to doubts over Berg's viability), but she decided to portray the role after hearing that she could co-star with Guinness. The two called each other and agreed mutually to do it. Both actors were Catholic, different from what they portrayed in the film.
Reception
A. H. Weiler, film critic for the New York Times, called the film a "truly heartwarming and entertaining affair," and opined that it was a "truthful, satisfying work largely because the combination of funny and apt dialogue and the dedicated cast give it dignity," largely due to Russell's convincing performance as a "self-sufficient Brooklyn dowager," although he thought that "Mr. Guinness still appears to be closer to London than to Tokyo."
A review in the trade magazine Variety declared, "Leonard Spigelgass’ brew of schmaltz and sukiyaki is an outstanding film. . . . Russell’s Yiddish hex-cent, though at times it sounds like what it is – a Christian imitating a Jew – is close enough to the genuine article. Guinness becomes Japanese through physical suggestion and masterful elocution."
However, in his 2015 autobiography, George Takei, a Japanese-American actor who later found fame playing Mr. Sulu in the original Star Trek television series, recalls that while playing a minor role in A Majority of One, he was "shocked" at the "grotesquely offensive" latex make-up applied to Guinness's eyes, and by the "incomprehensible gibberish" of his Japanese lines, producing a disappointing and "disastrous" performance.
In February 2016, Andrea Passafiume, reviewing the film for Turner Classic Movies, wrote: "A Majority of One is a true hidden gem with warmth, humor and a message of tolerance and compassion that remains just as relevant today as it was in 1961."