Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

MartinHafer I am not sure how this film would be received by the Japanese. The idea of an American actress posing as a geisha would seem utterly silly to them, I would assume. However, despite seeming insane to me, this really worked...and was a lovely film.Shirley MacLaine played a famous actress married to a director (Yves Montand). He is about to make a movie version of "Madame Butterfly" and resists her request for him to cast her in the movie. So, to prove to him she could do it, she secretly follows him to Japan to find the perfect actress. Posing as a geisha, MacLaine is able to convince him to cast her in the role--and he has no idea she is his wife. This is all very clever and cute--and MacLaine makes the best of this role. Perhaps she isn't perfect but I can't think of another American actress of the time doing better. She is, oddly, quite credible.The film, however, takes a big jump later in the movie. Instead of a light film, a darker side of all this comes to light. I could easily say more but think you really need to see it for yourself. I loved how the story eventually became a parallel to "Madame Butterfly"--and ended marvelously (nearly making me cry). I think some feminists today might blanch at this ending, but I really understood MacLaine's sacrifice and thought this was a perfect way to wrap up the film.Exceptionally complex and enjoyable. The writing was amazing and acting quite good. This seemingly slight movie really took me by surprise and has an amazing depth to it. Well worth seeing and, at times, fun and at others quite touching. See this film.By the way, if you do see this film, pay attention to the attempted seduction scene involving Bob Cummings. When seen today, this certainly appears like an attempted rape and is quite creepy.

ButaNiShinju Not a great film by any means---the dialogue tends to the wooden, and the plot to the improbable---but, somehow, it is fun to watch. As the movie goes on, Montand and MacLaine seem to warm to their roles, and some of Montand's introspective musings about love, career, and marriage, in the unwitting presence of his wife, are genuinely touching. MacLaine looks quite stunning made up as a geisha, and the location scenes of Japan in 1961 (Kyoto, Tokyo, Miyajima, Hakone) are alone worth the price of admission. Japanese culture is treated with fond respect, not simply with amusement or exotic interest. The speech by the ancient geisha "master" about the idealization of womanhood strays a bit into embarrassing hyperbole, but this is the exception, not the rule, in the film.

dlgart What on the surface appears to be an improbable plot line becomes increasingly plausible due to the combination of great make up work, spectacular costuming, (Edith Head) and a truly amazing performance by Shirley Maclaine. Crisp, sharp focus, color cinematography, interesting locations and set design, combine with a genuine fondness for Japanese culture resulting in an admirable early 60's comedy/drama.

the_old_roman Shirley MacLaine wastes her many talent in this throwaway movie. She has no chemistry at all with flat-as-a-pancake husband Yves Montand. The plot is ridiculous. Shirley plays a Lucille-Ball-type comedienne who wants her director-husband to take her seriously as an actress. So naturally, when he decides to go to Tokyo to film an authentic version of Madame Butterfly starring a real Geisha girl, she flies there and poses as one, and gets the job. Robert Cummings is too old to play Montand's "guy-type-guy" friend, but does what he can with a thankless role. Edward G. Robinson sleepwalks through his role which is okay because it's meaningless anyway. Unless you want a flavor for how Hollywood depicted Japan in 1962, this is one to avoid.