Geisha Girl

Steve Forrest and Archer MacDonald are being rotated out of Korea back to the States, with a stopover in Tokyo. Forrest tries to date up airline rep Martha Hyer, then he and MacDonald set out to see the sights. However, being privates, everything is off limits. So they find a black market store where they can buy civilian clothes.

This seemed a good set-up for a cultural clash comedy, and for a while it seemed that it would go that way, with a lot of location shooting in Tokyo, a kabuki show, some interesting night-club spots. Perhaps, I thought, they would run afoul of the authorities and spend time on the run, while Forrest courted Miss Hyer. But no. It seems that in the pocket of one of the set of clothes they bought was a bottle of explosive pills powerful enough to blow up an island. And the local police chief called in a stage magician with a super-evil eye to help track down the baddies trying to get their hands on the pills. So what could have been a decent, if standard comedy turned into a Bowery Boys movie.

Mind you, it was a lot better than the typical Bowery Boys fare. The gags are well executed, the performances are good, and Miss Hyer, who was married to the writer and co-director at the time, gives a snappy performance. It's watchable, even if the humor seems to border on the hysterical. However, it won't go on my list of movies that demand rewatching.