Product: A Majority of One [VHS] (1994)
Rating: 5.0
A Majority of the One Percent
I was watching the bizarre makeup jobs in the current Cloud Atlas, in the segment set in Korea, and Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess are made up in what amounts to "yellowface" when suddenly I remembered watching A Majority of One long ago and thinking, why on earth did they put Alec Guinness in the part of the Japanese millionaire? Back then, the answer was that people thought Alec Guinness was such a great actor he could play anything! Even 20 years later, Guinness was being cast as a native of India in David Lean's film of Passage to India, and it didn't really work there for him. Maybe times had changed, but even in the 60s there must have been an eyebrow or two raised up seeing Guinness acting like Peter Lorre with gray stripes painted under his eyes, and looking down at the floor instead of looking at Rosalind Russell's face.Basically the acting is so stylized that many will not buy it, but after awhile, I just let the pleasures of the story sink in and before I knew it, my liberal tear glands had been stimulated and I was all abawl and nosedeep in Kleenexes. Watching this movie must have made Rodgers and Hammerstein wonder why they had even bothered with the sturm und drang of South Pacific, because here was South Pacific, except perfected. They must have felt like two John the Baptists preaching the coming glory of A Majority of One. In fact it's not surprising that Hammerstein died not too long after the release of the Majority of One movie--his work on earth complete. Maybe South Pacific does better in the scenery department, though those tragic red and yellow and blue filters are still recalled with horror by every musical fan. But at least the actors seemed like they were outside, somewhere, in South Pacific. I daresay that stage sets were used both for Brooklyn, Pan An cabin interiors, and all of Japan--which amounts to two plain looking streets and as dockside steamer lounge. The rest of the budget for the movie must have been spent in hiring box office titans Russell and Guinness. I'd like to say a few words concerning the performances of Madlyn Rhue and Ray Danton as Russell's daughter and son-in-law. They are wonderfully Mad Men in their ways of dressing, speaking, and sexing it up. Danton is particular swaggers through his ambassadorial role as though he thinks he';s playing the lead in a biopic about Hugh Hefner. The young actor who plays Eddie, the vicious Japanese houseboy, is worthy of a Quentin Tarantino cameo himself. He is extraordinary in his part, a shot of sheer adrenaline in a very dainty and refined picture.As many have noted, Rosalind Russell is supposed to play a Jewish widow in this movie, and she is famous for trying to relate Jewish holidays and customs to Japanese ones, as though to underline the point that it's a small world after all. I have no idea of how to say You're welcome in Japanese, but I expect that if ever put to the test, I would say, Don't Touch My Mustache, since Russell advises her charges to do just that, not once, but three times in the picture. If you liked Hiroshima Mon Amour, A Majority of One might upset you with its somewhat casual attitude towards the markets opened up by the atom bomb, but there you go, you can't please everyone. After awhile you do notice how the movie is one big commercial for capitalism, the trade conference stuff is so boring until you realize that the whole point is that America and Japan can get along because both countries have an appreciation for getting wealthy. Would Guinness have gotten to first base with Russell had he not been a plutocrat? Hard to say.