Sayonara is a 1957 American romantic drama film directed by Joshua Logan, and starring Marlon Brando, Patricia Owens, James Garner, Martha Scott, Miyoshi Umeki, Red Buttons, Miiko Taka and Ricardo Montalbán. It tells the story of an American Air Force pilot during the Korean War who falls in love with a famous Japanese dancer. The screenplay was adapted by Paul Osborn from James A. Michener's 1954 novel of the same name.
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to South Africa at an early age, before later settling in the United Kingdom after World War II. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Harvey appeared in stage, film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.
Burke's Law is an American detective series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1966. The show starred Gene Barry as millionaire captain of Los Angeles Police homicide division Amos Burke, who is chauffeured around to solve crimes in his 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II complete with an early car phone.
Miyoshi Umeki was a Japanese-American singer and actress. Umeki was nominated for the Tony Award and Golden Globe Award and was the first East Asia-born woman to win an Academy Award for acting.
Nancy Kwan Ka-shen is a Chinese-American actress. In addition to her personality and looks, her career benefited from Hollywood's casting of more Asian roles in the 1960s, especially in comedies. She was considered an Eastern sex symbol in the 1960s.
France Nuyen is a French-American actress, model, and psychological counselor. She is known to film audiences for playing romantic leads in South Pacific (1958), Satan Never Sleeps (1962), and A Girl Named Tamiko, and for playing Ying-Ying St. Clair in The Joy Luck Club (1993). She also originated the title role in the Broadway play The World of Suzie Wong, based on the novel of the same name. She is a Theatre World Award winner and Golden Globe Award nominee.
Martha Hyer was an American actress who played Gwen French in Some Came Running (1958), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her autobiography, Finding My Way: A Hollywood Memoir, was published in 1990.
James Saburo Shigeta was an American actor and singer of Japanese descent. He was noted for his roles in The Crimson Kimono (1959), Walk Like a Dragon (1960), Flower Drum Song (1961), Bridge to the Sun (1961), Die Hard (1988), and Mulan (1998). In 1960, he won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, along with three other actors.
A Countess from Hong Kong is a 1967 British romantic comedy film scored, written, and directed by Charlie Chaplin, and the final film directed, written, produced and scored by him. Based on the life of a former Russian aristocrat, as he calls her in his 1922 book My Trip Abroad. She was a Russian singer and dancer who "was a stateless person marooned in France without a passport." The film starred Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren, and revolved around an American diplomat who falls in love with a stowaway on a cruise. Sydney Chaplin, Tippi Hedren, Patrick Cargill and Margaret Rutherford co-star in major supporting roles; Chaplin also made a cameo, marking his final screen appearance.
"That Old Feeling" is a popular song about nostalgia written by Sammy Fain, with lyrics by Lew Brown. It was published in 1937.
The Delicate Delinquent is an American VistaVision comedy film starring Jerry Lewis, released on June 6, 1957, by Paramount Pictures. It was the first film to star Lewis without his longtime partner Dean Martin and marked Lewis' debut as a producer and screenwriter.
The Naked Edge is a 1961 thriller film starring Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr. The film was a British-American co-production distributed by United Artists, directed by Michael Anderson and produced by George Glass and Walter Seltzer, with Marlon Brando Sr. as executive producer. The screenplay was written by Joseph Stefano, the musical score was composed by William Alwyn, the cinematography was handled by Erwin Hillier and Tony White, and the production designer was Carmen Dillon.
The World of Suzie Wong is a 1960 British-American romantic drama film directed by Richard Quine and starring William Holden and Nancy Kwan. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the 1958 stage play by Paul Osborn, which was based on the 1957 novel of the same title by Richard Mason.
The Last Time I Saw Archie is a 1961 comedy film set in the waning days of World War II. Robert Mitchum stars as Arch Hall Sr., a lazy, scheming American in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, an aviation school for pilots too old to fly aircraft but not too old to fly military gliders and liaison aircraft. Jack Webb produced, directed and costarred.
Walk on the Wild Side is a 1962 American drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starring Laurence Harvey, Capucine, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter and Barbara Stanwyck. It was adapted from the 1956 novel A Walk on the Wild Side by American author Nelson Algren. The film was scripted by John Fante.
Paris Holiday is a 1958 American comedy film starring Bob Hope, which was directed by Gerd Oswald, and written by Edmund Beloin and Dean Riesner from a story by Hope. The film also features French comedian Fernandel, Anita Ekberg and Martha Hyer, and a rare appearance by writer/director Preston Sturges. The film was shot in Technirama and Technicolor in Paris and in the French village of Gambais.
Cry for Happy is a 1961 American CinemaScope comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Glenn Ford and Donald O'Connor. 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.
The Horizontal Lieutenant is a 1962 American romantic comedy war film, based on the 1961 novel The Bottletop Affair by Gordon Cotler who was a Japanese interpreter for US Army Intelligence during World War II. It is a military comedy about an unfortunate army intelligence lieutenant who finds himself isolated on a remote island army outpost during World War II. It stars Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss and was directed by Richard Thorpe.
Geisha Girl is a 1952 American adventure film directed and produced by George Breakston and C. Ray Stahl, and starring Steve Forrest, Martha Hyer, Tetsu Nakamura, Heihachirō Ōkawa, and Dekao Yokoo. The full film was shot in Tokyo, Japan. The plot was, in fact, created so as to educate American viewers of such Japanese traditions as a Kabuki theater presentation, a Buddhist religious ceremony, and a geisha house. Despite these features, the Japanese people were presented as stock characters or buffoons. Martha Hyer did not play the main role in the film, yet got the top billing.
