Geisha Girl

Geisha Girl has a little bit of everything. Archie (Archer MacDonald) and Rocky (Steve Forrest) are two G.I. privates leaving Korea for the US. They board a Northwest Airlines flight and meet pretty stewardess Peggy Burnes (Martha Hyer). Peggy is actually a US secret agent working with the Japanese police to find some exploding pills with the power of an atomic bomb. When they land for a stopover in Tokyo, Rocky and Archie go looking for fun in various black market establishments. At one, which is the hideout of the foreign spies, the MPs raid the place and one of the bad guys slips a bottle with the exploding pills into Archie's pocket. After that, it's a madcap race to see who get those pills. Everyone winds up at the head villain's house where much slapstick ensues. The viewer is treated to entertaining shows put on by Japanese dancers and geisha girls. Quite a bit of Japanese culture is shown during this movie. At one point, Peggy disguises herself as a geisha to get out of the house and down to the police station. Also, the Japanese police enlist the help of Zoro (not Zorro), a hypnotist who can mesmerize people simply by looking into their eyes. Zoro has seemingly great magical powers. It's mostly a comedy, but Geisha Girl has a little bit of everything in it. I rate it 7 stars because of the dance numbers and the realistic glimpse of Japanese culture the viewer gets.

Martha Hyer and. C. Ray Stahl were married during this period and Oriental Evil (1951) and Geisha Girl (952) were both made on location in Japan. In her autobiography, Martha says she and Ray lived in Japan for about a year filming these movies. She comments about how incredibly polite the Japanese people always were.

Geisha Girl is definitely worth a look for the entertaining dance numbers and realistic view of Japan.