SYNOPSICS
A Majority of One (1961) is a English,Japanese,Yiddish,German movie. Mervyn LeRoy has directed this movie. Rosalind Russell,Alec Guinness,Ray Danton,Madlyn Rhue are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1961. A Majority of One (1961) is considered one of the best Comedy,Family,Drama,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Widowed Bertha Jacoby has led a relatively sheltered, monocultural existence in the same predominantly Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood for most of her adult life, and as such has fairly traditional Jewish values. She is taken aback not only when her son-in-law Jerry Black announces that he and Bertha's daughter Alice Black are moving to Tokyo on Jerry's next diplomatic corps assignment, but that they want her to move there with them so that she won't be all alone. Despite her anti-Japanese sentiments, David, her only son, having been killed in World War II in the Pacific Theater, Bertha reluctantly agrees. They will fly from New York City to San Francisco, and sail from there. Against the odds, Bertha befriends on board the ship Koichi Asano, a wealthy widowed Japanese businessman with whom Jerry and the American contingent will be entering into sensitive negotiations. Jerry and Alice are wary of Bertha and Mr. Asano's friendship, not only because of the cultural differences, but because...
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A Majority of One (1961) Reviews
Gentle and enjoyable
This is a gentle little film that may have it's faults with the hindsight of 40 years, but is enjoyable, especially I feel to those that remember the post WW11 days. Alec Guinness plays the part beautifully, with his usual master of the character, Rosalind Russel plays a good stereotyped Jewish Mother .... the other characters just fill in between the lines. The only character that I find fault with is 'Eddy' the No. 1 boy of the family in Tokyo. He is obnoxious and completely out of character with a real 'House Boy' of the times that was lucky enough to get a 'cushy number' working for an American Diplomat. In these days of virtual reality with sex, blood and car chases being the three main criteria of movie making, this movie is like going to a stage production from the 50's...... gentle and enjoyable.
Great Love Stories
One of the great love stories of all time. If it is possible to fall in love with a movie I fell the first time I saw it. I did not have recorder at the time. I thought it might be a time filler when I saw the listing. I like Rosalind Russell and Alec Guinness so I tuned it in. I wish I had a recorder at that time. It is wonderful movie. It starts with two elderly bigoted, hurt and angry people who go through trials and tribulations with her family and still get together in the end. They are hurt because of family losses during World War II. It is a quiet romantic comedy that comes off beautifully. If you like love stories, then this movie is a must.
Eastern Parkway Meets The Far East
Unlike a few of her female contemporary film stars from the Thirties, Rosalind Russell managed to avoid the perils of being cast in horror films because it was the only roles she was offered. I think only Katharine Hepburn exercised better discretion in her parts even if for Russell they weren't always completely successful with audiences and critics. Case in point is A Majority Of One. The play by Leonard Spiegelgass ran for 559 performances in the 1959-1960 season, it was a popular hit as well with Jewish audiences. Mainly because the play was done by THE Jewish American mother from radio and television, Gertrude Berg. As a small kid I do recall the lives and loves of Molly Goldberg and her family were almost a rite on the nights it was broadcast for my Jewish relatives. Berg was a natural for the part of the Jewish widow from 776 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Anyway this tall prominent lay Catholic from Connecticut does give it a good try and she succeeds in many ways. Today's audiences in seeing this film don't have the memory of Gertrude Berg as Molly Goldberg to fall back on, so Russell's performance is more likely to be judged on its own merits. It's not a bad one. The other casting however was and remains more controversial. Alec Guinness is one of those actors who can play just about any racial or ethnic type and has. He succeeded his fellow countryman Cedric Hardwicke who played the role of the Japanese industrialist on Broadway. Doesn't mean he should have though. If A Majority of One were made even 20 years later and if players were frozen in time, Jack Warner might have given serious consideration to casting a real Japanese in Sessue Hayakawa as the Japanese widower industrialist. That would have really been something, but at that time the film would have bombed at the box office. Interesting too because the subject of the film is overcoming our prejudices. Rosalind Russell's son was killed in the Pacific Theater in World War II. She's a widow and when her son-in-law Ray Danton who is a career foreign service officer her daughter, Madelyn Rhue and Danton think she ought to go to Japan where he's been assigned his next post. They fly to the Pacific and take a sea voyage to Japan where Russell meets Alec Guinness, a widower who's daughter was killed at Hiroshima. Despite his strict Buddhist faith and her Orthodox Jewish background, love can bloom in the strangest places and is good the second time around. Russell admired Guinness's cerebral technique and total concentration on character when she worked with him. In a recent biography of Alec Guinness, nothing was mentioned about him and Russell, but he felt he was not given any kind of direction from Mervyn LeRoy. Both Russell and Guinness were heavy into Catholicism so I'm betting they got along. Two members of the original Broadway cast made it to Hollywood, Mae Questal as Russell's neighbor and Marc Marno as their Japanese servant when they set up home in Japan. Questal has an interesting scene with Ray Danton when she announces she just doesn't like her new Puerto Rican neighbors. Danton rather self-righteously upbraids her for her prejudice, but then comes face to face with his own after making a fool of himself with Guinness during business and then facing the prospect he might have an oriental stepfather-in-law. A Majority of One is a good film, in many ways better enjoyed now than when it first came out. But it misses greatness due to the timidity of the times in Hollywood.
What a wonderful film!
For the first time I have seen the film A MAJORITY OF ONE. I also have been reading some of the reviews here on IMDb. So many of them harp on the fact that Alec Guinness was cast as the Japanese businessman who falls in love with Rosalind Russell's lonely Jewish widow. For that matter, some take exception to the casting of the Catholic Miss Russell as Mrs. Jacoby. It's called acting, people! Mr. Guinness and Miss Russell certainly convinced me that they were these people - an elderly lonely Jewish widow and an equally elderly lonely Japanese widower who meet and, although from very different cultures, find a common ground. This was a beautifully performed and profoundly moving story. I don't know how I've managed to never see it before. It left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. I will certainly be adding this film to my collection.
Russell and Guiness: Two Professionals!
Warner Bros. cast movie stars Rosalind Russell, and Alec Guiness in this movie based on the hit Broadway play directed by long time veteran Mervyn Le Roy with very fine Warner Bros production values. Rosalind Russell an Irish Catholic Yankee was cast as a Brooklyn Jewish Matron, the part played by Gertrude Berg on Broadway. There is a lot of mileage between Roz Russell and Gertrude Berg! English star ( and also Catholic) Alec Guiness was assigned to play the Japanese male lead. Ms. Russell had a lot of talent and is one of the most glaring examples of a great actress who never won an Oscar. Alec Guiness right off his great Oscar win in The Bridge On The River Kwai playing the English officer tormented by his Japanese captors is elegant and intelligent in his performance in this film. Due to the deft professionalism and talent do these two very fine Stars pull off their characterization's. Gary Vinson and Sharon Hugueny both WB stars are listed in the credits but I only saw them briefly. Warners contract star Ray Danton is fine in this film.