In the late 1950s, American studios discovered a new style film...those set in post-war Japan. Suddenly, in a period of only a couple years, LOTS of these films came out and they ranged from excellent to embarrassing. The excellent films were so good because they were timeless and chose to have Japanese actors play the Japanese, such as with "Sayonara" and "The Geisha Boy". The embarrassing ones were the ones where the studios unwisely chose to cast American actors as these Japanese and their 'interpretation' is pretty awful. These lacky-type characters were greatly exaggerated Japanese stereotypes. People at the time liked the films but today they just haven't aged very well. Imagine Marlon Brando as an Okinawan in "The Teahouse of the August Moon" and here, in "Joe Butterfly", Burgess Meredith playing an oily black marketeer! Uggh. While I am not the most PC sort of guy, seeing Americans overdoing it is just embarrassing and sad...especially when great Japanese actors could have used the work.
The story begins with the first ships entering Japan to being the occupation in late 1945. For some inexplicable reason, some military higher-up has decided that the Army's "Stars & Stripes"-style magazine will bring out an occupation edition...in three days! Why three days? Who knows. But the problem is Tokyo has been firebombed and there is little left...little room for offices, no equipment and no resources. So the men must either NOT produce the magazine and face the consequences OR work with the local black market to get what they need. That is where Joe Butterfly comes into the story and he's assisted by the similarly inclined Private Woodley (Audie Murphy) to get things done.
Although the casting of Meredith is embarrassing, it didn't apparently hurt his career and you don't usually hear folks talking about how bad it was. But the film does excel with the rest of its casting...a fine group of mostly supporting actors who are very familiar faces. The film features George Nader in the lead along with the likes of Charles McGraw, Keenan Wynn, Fred Clark, Eddie Firestone, John Agar, and Herbert Anderson and all are excellent.
So despite the 'squirm factor' of seeing Meredith overdoing it as Joe, is the film worth seeing? Well, yes. The film is quite entertaining and generally treats the Japanese well (apart from Joe Butterfly). The script is very good and the dialog excels. I just can't score it any higher due to Joe Butterfly.
By the way, although the film did talk about food and housing shortages, the reality was much worse and this is a highly sanitized version of Japan circa 1945. A major percentage of Tokyo was literally leveled by carpet bombing and the destruction is something difficult to repeat in 1957. The best film to show this sort of post-WWII destruction might just be "Germany Year Zero" and I cannot think of any set in Japan that so well capture the post-war horror.
The story begins with the first ships entering Japan to being the occupation in late 1945. For some inexplicable reason, some military higher-up has decided that the Army's "Stars & Stripes"-style magazine will bring out an occupation edition...in three days! Why three days? Who knows. But the problem is Tokyo has been firebombed and there is little left...little room for offices, no equipment and no resources. So the men must either NOT produce the magazine and face the consequences OR work with the local black market to get what they need. That is where Joe Butterfly comes into the story and he's assisted by the similarly inclined Private Woodley (Audie Murphy) to get things done.
Although the casting of Meredith is embarrassing, it didn't apparently hurt his career and you don't usually hear folks talking about how bad it was. But the film does excel with the rest of its casting...a fine group of mostly supporting actors who are very familiar faces. The film features George Nader in the lead along with the likes of Charles McGraw, Keenan Wynn, Fred Clark, Eddie Firestone, John Agar, and Herbert Anderson and all are excellent.
So despite the 'squirm factor' of seeing Meredith overdoing it as Joe, is the film worth seeing? Well, yes. The film is quite entertaining and generally treats the Japanese well (apart from Joe Butterfly). The script is very good and the dialog excels. I just can't score it any higher due to Joe Butterfly.
By the way, although the film did talk about food and housing shortages, the reality was much worse and this is a highly sanitized version of Japan circa 1945. A major percentage of Tokyo was literally leveled by carpet bombing and the destruction is something difficult to repeat in 1957. The best film to show this sort of post-WWII destruction might just be "Germany Year Zero" and I cannot think of any set in Japan that so well capture the post-war horror.