This second string Allied Artists film stars one of my favorite leading ladies, Joan Bennett, but even she can't salvage the well meaning but dated script where misogyny is king, at least for 80 minutes. Filmed to look like an extended episode of a TV anthology series, this is disappointing almost from the start as U.S. naval officer Gary Merrill sends for wife Bennett and daughter Judy Nugent to join him in Japan where the women are presented as giggly, submissive, quietly gossipy and downright stupid. Bennett, a sophisticated housewife and mother, sets out to change that, as she teaches the servants and Japanese officer's wives about the value of asserting themselves and independence and the right to have a mind of their own. In other words, she basically makes a fool out of herself, humiliates her husband and thanks to one of the officer's wives (Shirley Yamaguchi), has her husband threatened with being transferred. It turns out that Merrill's senior officer (Maurice Manson) is a closeted hen-pecked husband, with a Wagnerian wife (Carol Veazie) who never stops talking, claims to be doing what is right by her husband, and obviously wears the officer's stripes in the family, that is until Bennett's actions cause him to stand up to her, creating more mayhem.
To be honest, I found this amusing in so many ways: all wrong. If the feminist movement has shown the free world anything, it is that there is a right way and a wrong way for women to assert their independence and equal rights. This does a complete disservice to the Japanese and American relations of the time, strained still only a decade after the atom bomb destroyed the three cities, yet presented here as comical disdain as the Japanese seemingly go out of their way to do everything wrong when given instructions by Bennett in helping her get her home in order. They are either being presented as complete morons in the usage of modern cleaning equipment as well as something old called electricity, blowing out the circuit even with the simplest of household chores. A dinner party Bennett throws is interrupted by the maintenance men putting in a shower and simply telling her to have a good time when told they need to stop because they are interfering in her preparations. When dinner is served, the minimal dining space is made completely useless by household staff serving everything but an apple stuffed pig from a luau, even bringing out a completely roasted turkey in addition to all the starters and main courses brought out before.
In a sense, this could be three episodes of a very bad 50's sitcom of how a normal every day housewife tries to keep everything as all American as she can overseas but ends up messing with local tradition and infuriating the local men. Imagine that as a story arch with Lucy and Desi's Ricky on their popular sitcom. A cutesy scene has a shy Japanese servant girl whispering into Bennett's ears things to tell the servant boy who is whispering responses into Merrill's ear. The only thing obvious about this is that the shy servant boy seems open to the fact that women are not to be treated like breakable dolls even though they almost seem to be. The part of the film that seems to be fighting for the equality of women comes off so misogynistic that when the outcome reveals just the opposite, it's like nothing has been learned, attempted to be resolved, and that things will basically continue as they are. In short, this film, in spite of the pedigree leads of Bennett and Merrill, is a complete mess.
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