''Cry for Happy'' is a 1961 American
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry ...
and starring
Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as ...
and
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule.
His best ...
. It is a service comedy set in Japan and largely filmed there. The title song is sung during the opening credits by Miyoshi Umeki, who has a major role in the movie.
Plot
During the Korean War, Andy Cyphers (
Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as ...
), a Navy photographer and his three-man team occupy a Tokyo
geisha house, though it is off-limits and four girls are living there.
At first, the men misunderstand the geishas' occupation. Later, romance develops. Complications ensue when a tongue-in-cheek remark made to the press by Cyphers saying he was fighting in the Korean War to help Japanese orphans gets publicity in the United States, and the Navy starts to look into the situation. The sailors and the geishas decide to quickly convert the geisha house into a temporary orphanage with local children agreeing to pose as orphans in exchange for ice cream. Surprisingly, the ruse is successful and thousands of Americans donate money, leading to Cyphers establishing a legitimate orphanage. A double wedding is held between two of the sailors and two of the geishas, while the other two men consider following suit.
Cast
*
Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as ...
as CPO Andy Cyphers
*
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor (August 28, 1925 – September 27, 2003) was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule.
His best ...
as Murray Prince
*
Miiko Taka
(born Miiko Shikata July 24, 1925 – January 2023) was an American actress, popular for her film and TV roles from the late 1950s until the early 1980s. Her best known role was as an elegant Japanese dancer starring opposite Marlon Brando in th ...
as Chiyoko
*
James Shigeta
James Saburo Shigeta ( ja, 繁田 三郎) (June 17, 1929 – July 28, 2014) was an American actor of Japanese descent. He was noted for his roles in ''The Crimson Kimono'' (1959), '' Walk Like a Dragon'' (1960), ''Flower Drum Song'' (1961), ...
as Suzuki
*
Miyoshi Umeki
was a Japanese-American singer and actress.Bernstein, Adam ''The Washington Post''. 5 September 2007. Umeki was a Tony Award- and Golden Globe-nominated actress and the first East Asian-American woman to win an Academy Award for acting.
Life
Bo ...
as Harue
*
Michi Kobi
Michi Kobi (2 November 1924 – 1 March 2016), born Machiko Kobinata Okamoto, was an American actress.
Life
Kobi was born 2 November 1924 in Sacramento, California as Machiko Kobinata Okamoto. Her father, Rikikazu Okamoto, came to America at age ...
as Hanakichi
*
Howard St. John
Howard St. John (October 9, 1905 – March 13, 1974) was a Chicago-born character actor who specialized in unsympathetic roles. His work spanned Broadway, film and television. Among his best-remembered roles are the bombastic General Bullmoose i ...
as Vice Adm. Admiral B. Bennett
*
Joe Flynn as MacIntosh
* Chet Douglas as Lank
*
Tsuruko Kobayashi as Koyuki
*
Harriet E. MacGibbon as Mrs. Bennett
*
Robert Kino as Mr. Endo
*
Bob Okazaki
Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to:
Places
*Mount Bob, New York, United States
* Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica
People, fictional characters, and named animals
*Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
*Bob (surname ...
as Izumi
*
Harlan Warde
Harlan Warde (born Harlan Ward Lufkin; November 6, 1917 – March 13, 1980) was a character actor active in television and movies.
Career
Warde showed up in supporting roles as detectives, doctors, and ministers. Warde made five guest appearan ...
as Chaplain
*
Nancy Kovack
Nancy Kovack (born March 11, 1935) is a retired American film and television actress.
Early years
Kovack is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael A. Kovack of Flint, Michigan. Her father was the manager of a General Motors plant. She enrolled a ...
as Camile Cameron
*
Ted Knight
Ted Knight (born Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka; December 7, 1923August 26, 1986) was an American actor well known for playing the comedic roles of Ted Baxter in ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', Henry Rush in ''Too Close for Comfort'', and Judge Elihu ...
as Lt. Glick
*
Bill Quinn
William Tyrell Quinn (1912 – April 29, 1994) was an American film actor.
Quinn was born in 1912 in New York. He performed with his older brothers in a children's act in vaudeville.
Quinn began working on radio around 1934. He starred as a de ...
as Alan Lyman
* Ciyo Nakasone as Keiko
Reception
Reviews from critics were mixed to negative; one commonly noted aspect of the film was the bawdiness of the humor which pushed the limits of what was permitted on the screen at the time.
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote that "a great deal of nonsense" took place in the film—"nonsense of the sort that betokens a desperate scriptwriter at work ... Don't be surprised, indeed, at anything that happens in this knockabout film, derived from a novel by George Campbell, which must have been better, at least. And don't be disappointed, since you have been solemnly warned." ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called the film a "disappointment," with humor that was "uneven and largely low, exaggerated or obvious, and the stars have little to sink their thespic teeth into." ''
Harrison's Reports
''Harrison's Reports'' was a New York City-based motion picture trade journal published weekly from 1919 to 1962. The typical issue was four letter-size pages sent to subscribers under a second-class mail permit. Its founder, editor and publisher ...
'' rated the film, "Good," with "some of the raciest lines we've heard yet in the new 'adult' wave of American films. This approach to burlesque comedy is going to bring new cries from censors and those demanding that pictures here be classified."
Roger Angell
Roger Angell (September 19, 1920 – May 20, 2022) was an American essayist known for his writing on sports, especially baseball. The only writer ever elected into both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Baseball Writers' Associa ...
of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' called the film an "irritating work, which made me want to cry, all right, but not for happy." Charles Stinson of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' called the film "a moderately amusing effort — even if you've seen all its gags three dozen times before, which you certainly have." Stinson added that the one thing which distinguished ''Cry for Happy'' from the many other service comedies was Irving Brecher's dialogue, which was "professionally trim and bright but he could not resist lacing it with some of the stiffest shots of double-entendre heard on screen in a long time. Half a dozen lines are more than risque and at least one is far too raw even for a service comedy. This is enough to mark this film off the family list." ''
The Monthly Film Bulletin
''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'' wrote, "Any film which expends most of its energies on a protracted joke about how far you can go with a geisha could hardly fail to be as charmless and witless as this."
See also
*
List of American films of 1961
A list of American films released in 1961.
__TOC__
Top-grossing films (U.S.)
A–B
C–I
J–R
S–Z
See also
* 1961 in the United States
External links
1961 filmsat the Internet Movie Database
*List of 1961 box office number-one fi ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{George Marshall
1961 films
Columbia Pictures films
Films directed by George Marshall
1961 comedy films
Korean War films
Films about geisha
American comedy films
Films based on American novels
Films with screenplays by Irving Brecher
Films set in Japan
Films scored by George Duning
Japan in non-Japanese culture
1960s English-language films
1960s American films