Glenn Ford found himself back on familiar territory with the comedy Cry for Happy (1961), which is set in post-war Japan, the same setting as his earlier hit The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956). In this film he plays the head of a four-man Navy photography unit who find themselves billeted in an off-limits geisha house they believe to be unoccupied. They are at first delighted to find four of the young women still living there, but soon disappointed to learn that the true nature of a geisha's duties are much more refined than the American perception of the occupation. The sailors and their new female friends soon become embroiled in a hoax in which they have to pretend to be running an orphanage out of the geisha house. Needless to say, romance blossoms in the course of the hoax which becomes a successful reality.

Ford wasn't the only one revisiting the postwar Japanese theme and setting in Cry for Happy. Miiko Taka and Miyoshi Umeki, who played two of the geisha's, had their first big international successes with the drama Sayonara (1957), which also starred Marlon Brando, Ford's co-star in Teahouse. Umeki won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award® for her role in the earlier film.

This was Ford's sixth teaming with director George Marshall and their fifth picture together in the short span of three years. Marshall had also directed Ford in one of his earliest films, Texas (1941). The two worked together again a few years later on another military-themed comedy (with a Civil War background), Advance to the Rear (1964); in fact, Ford played a service member four times under Marshall's direction. Marshall also directed an episode of Ford's TV series Cade's County in 1972.

Viewers may recognize the name of the cinematographer, Burnett Guffey, although Cry for Happy is certainly not one of the great pictures for which he will be remembered. That distinction goes to such films as his Academy Award® winners From Here to Eternity (1953) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967), as well as his collaborations with such directing legends as Max Ophuls, Robert Rossen, Nicholas Ray, and Fritz Lang.

Hawaiian-born actor James Shigeta, who plays American Navy man Suzuki, was for a time the top Asian-American actor in Hollywood and quite likely the most successful one of all time. The year prior to Cry for Happy he won the Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe Award, based on his work in his first two movies, Samuel Fuller's The Crimson Kimono (1959) and James Clavell's Walk Like a Dragon (1960). After this, he went on to starring roles in Bridge to the Sun (1961) and the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song (1961), followed by a busy career in film and television that continues to this day.

Cry for Happy was shot partially on location in Japan and also aboard the USS Los Angeles docked in Long Beach, California.

Director: George Marshall
Producer: William Goetz
Screenplay: Irving Brecher, based on the novel by George Campbell
Cinematography: Burnett Guffey
Editing: Chester W. Schaeffer
Art Direction: Walter Holscher
Original Music: George Duning
Cast: Glenn Ford (Andy Cyphers), Donald O'Connor (Murray Prince), James Shigeta (Suzuki), Miyoshi Umeki (Harue), Miiko Taka (Chiyoko).
C-110m. Letterboxed.

by Rob Nixon