Posted: Tue., Dec. 31, 1957, 11:00pm PT

The Barbarian and the Geisha

By Variety Staff

20th Century-Fox. Director John Huston; Producer Eugene Frenke; Screenplay Charles Grayson; Camera Charles G. Clarke; Editor Stuart Gilmore; Music Hugo Friedhofer; Art Director Lyle R. Wheeler, Jack Martin Smith

John Wayne Eiko Ando Sam Jaffe So Yamamura Morita Hiroshi Yamato

The Barbarian and the Geisha is an Oriental pageant of primitive beauty based on the 'true' story of the exploits of the first US consul to establish headquarters in Japan. The production is lavish but it is light in other departments.

Once opened to Christian missionaries, then closed, Japan was a Forbidden Kingdom to outsiders in 1856 when US Consul-General Townsend Harris (John Wayne) arrives off the port of Shimoda, where the screenplay, based on Ellis St Joseph's story, begins. Harris is under orders to open the door on the hermetically-sealed country, and, armed only with his own personality and accompanied only by his European translator (Sam Jaffe) he prepares to do so.

After initial harassing and setbacks, Wayne gains the confidence of the local noble (Soh Yamamura) who agrees to take him to the court of the Shogun to plead his case. Meantime, to make Wayne's isolation easier, Yamamura delivers a geisha (Eiko Ando) to the non-Nipponese barbarian.

The Barbarian and the Geisha (originally titled The Townsend Harris Story) is rich in atmosphere and in some stirringly-staged scenes, such as Wayne's arrival by ship at Shimoda, his presentation to the Shogun's court and an archery meet of medieval pomp. It is less exciting in its personal delineations. Huston uses a technique of having the Japanese speak Japanese throughout. The character played by Ando acts as the narrator behind some of this action, but this device is only partially successful.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1958. Running time: 105 MIN.