FAQ

Chicago Tribune, Monday, February 12, 1962, s. 3, p. 12, c. 1 [extract]:

Roz, Alec Are Miscast

by Mae Tinee

Because I did not see the play, I had no built-in prejudice about the casting of this sentimental comedy. Yet as I watched the film I couldn't help but wonder why, O why?

With all the talent available, why was the lithe, graceful and obviously Irish Roz Russell cast as an aging Jewish matron, and Alec Guinness, who looks about as Japanese as I do, selected as Mr. Asano? Even their considerable combined talents couldn't overcome such casting, altho both managae to radiate considerable charm.

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Chicago Daily News, Monday, February 5, 1962, p. 22, c. 1 (with photo):

'Majority of One' a Winner

by Sam Lesner

Dialectally speaking, the Oriental and Brooklyn accents in Mervyn LeRoy's highly entertaining screen version of "A Majority of One" are too often "on the wrong syll-A-ble."

But there can be no quarrel with Rosalind Russell's warm-hearted and expansive characterization of the Jewish Brooklyn widow, Mrs. Jacoby, whose wisdom in matters of human relations is the wisdon of the ages.

Miss Russell is eminently more successful in her portrayal of Mrs. Jacoby than is Alec Guinness in his characterization of a very proper Japanese industrialist.

Guinness is said to have made painstaking preparations to play the Japanese gentleman iwth more than a superficial Oriental facade.

But it turned out to be little more than a makeup man's impression of a cultured Japanese who quicily senses the soure of Mrs. Jacoby's prejudice.

And it is in the utterly correct definition of love--the expansion of the human heart to accommodate the other person's point of view--that "A Majority of One" achieves its unique quality as a contemporary drama.

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Chicago Daily News, Wednesday, June 14, 1961, p. 43, c. 1:

HOLLYWOOD CHATTER

by Sheila Graham

Sir Alex Guinnes,who plays the Japanese gentleman in the movie version of "A Majority of One," portrays the character without make-up.

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