Madame Butterfly

John Luther Long wrote the short story that Belasco turned into a successful stage play, and Puccini an opera he tinkered ith for three years and five versions. Long described himself near the end of his life as "a sentimentalist and a feminist." He based the tale on one his sister, a missionary in Japan, had told him. There's no doubt it qualifies as sentimental and feminist!

Like most of Sylvia Sidney's roles in this period, the audience waits for the moment when she breaks down in inconsolable tears over the unworthy B.F. Pinkerton. Gary Cooper had been proposed to play the role. Cooper was too important, and Cary Grant was young, very good-looking, and wouldn't cost the production much in the part; given how much set designer Wiard Ihnen and costume designer Travis Banton were spending, it was a good choice. Grant isn't called to be on screen for that long, and isn't called on to do much in the way of acting; Berton Churchill as the American consulate, offers a far more nuanced performance in about four minutes of screen time.

It's clear why this movie disappeared for decades. With suicide, bigamy and miscegenation in the mix, there was no way to re-release it under the Production Code. Alas, if it's not one thing, it's another; nowadays, its use of yellowface renders it equally problematic. Nonetheless, looking at it through the character's broken English, it's another of Miss Sidney's fine performances in a heartbreaking story, one that convinces me that sentimentality and feminism is a good thing.... at least by late 19th century standards. And the visuals are superb.

MADAME BUTTERFLY (Paramount, 1932), directed by Marion Gering, stars Sylvia Sidney in one of her most atypical movie roles of her career, as well as memorable, that of a Japanese maiden. Those familiar with the Giacomo Puccini opera of that same name, will take notice that this screen adaptation is not an operatic reproduction but just simply a straightforward dramatic story in itself.

As for the plot, Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Cary Grant) and Lieutenant Barton (Charlie Ruggles) are two American Navy officers on shore in Japan. At a gathering, Pinkerton meets Cho-Cho San (Sylvia Sidney), a beautiful Japanese maiden who is about to become a Geisha. She disgraces her family by accepting Pinkerton's love to become his bride. Although she takes her marriage vows seriously, theirs are not truly bound with love. After the "honeymoon" is over, Pinkerton returns to the states with the fleet, with Cho-Cho San, whom Pinkerton has nicknamed "Butterfly," remaining in Japan where she keeps his home until he returns. Three years pass. During that time, Cho-Cho San, has given birth to a son she names "Trouble" (Philip Horomate). She is still confident that someday her husband will return to her. But what has happened to Pinkerton during that time? Did he go down with his ship? No quite. He has married his fiancé, an American girl named Adelaide (Sheila Terry), whom he intends on taking with him to Japan.

Sylvia Sidney, who by this time has been playing tragic American heroines in such Depression dramas as AN American TRAGEDY and STREET SCENE (both 1931), resumes playing this sort of role, but this time as a Japanese girl. She gives a believable performance, particularly with her round doll face features. Cary Grant, still relatively new to films and on a fast rise to leading man status, is acceptable as Pinkerton, giving one of his more noted performances during his early years as a screen actor, which began the very year of the release of MADAME BUTTERFLY. Charlie Ruggles provides some humorous moments as Barton.

The supporting cast includes: Helen Jerome-Eddy and Grandma San; Edmund Breese as Cho-Cho's grandfather; Sandor Kallay as Goro; with Irving Pichel as Yomadori; Berton Churchill as Sharpless; and Louise Carter as Suzuki.

Rarely seen in recent years, MADAME BUTTERFLY used to have frequent revivals during the mid afternoon or after midnight hours on commercial television way back in the 1960s and 70s, and with Cary Grant who had reached super star status in motion pictures lasting more than 20 years (retiring in 1966), his name alone would guarantee viewer-ship whenever shown.

While MADAME BUTTERFLY is an acceptable version based on David Belasco's play, the plot, however, can be a trifle slow at times during its 85 minutes of screen time, but Sylvia Sidney's performance, the presence of Cary Grant, as well as the reproduction of Japanese settings, make this curio worth watching, it it could ever be found or revived again. (***)

A straightforward, non-musical adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's immortal opera, this early version of the classic story is based solely on David Belasco's original play. In other words, there is no actual opera present (although some of Puccini's magnificent score is used as underscore) and the film plays out completely as straight drama. The screenplay does not make any considerable attempt to disguise its stage-bound origins, although the Russian-born director Marion Gering (who helmed many pictures for star Sylvia Sidney) does a competent job of approximating the look and feeling of war-era Japan. This was decades before on-location filming became a standard practice, and the film's art design and set decoration manages to perform the difficult task of disguising the Paramount lot as such another distinct country within comparatively meager resources.

The luminous Sylvia Sydney takes a significant gamble in attempting to play the young Japanese girl Cho-Cho San (in fact, such casting would undoubtedly be seen as politically incorrect today), however, the Bronx-born actress is more than up to the challenge and delivers quite a totally convincing performance. The character of Cho-Cho is so incredibly passive and naïve that she often comes dangerously close to becoming an artificial caricature, yet Sydney portrays the role with such genuine pathos and non-cloying sweetness that she comes across as tragic rather than foolish. Her accent also always sounds credible, and she even manages to believably look Japanese with the assist of limited stage makeup. I was terribly impressed wither her overall performance.

A young Cary Grant ably plays the object of Cho-Cho's tragic love, and he looks breathtakingly handsome in his Navy uniform. The bulk of the movie consists of Sydney and Grant playing off one another, although Charles Ruggles is likable as Grant's fellow Lieutenant. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Shelia Terry's "other woman" character is portrayed as being sympathetic and understanding, when she would have surely been written and acted as a one-dimensional monster by most filmmakers of the era. None of the characters in the "Japanese" supporting cast (nearly all of whom are American-born actors playing Japanese) are fleshed out enough to stand out, although Edmund Breese is convincing as Cho-Cho's stereotypically disapproving grandfather.

If the film has a primary shortcoming, it is that the entire premise feels a little flat when performed as a straight drama. Although it is well-written and reasonably paced, the drama simply does not soar to the appropriate level of intensity without the accompanying swell of the opera. There is still much to recommend, however, in this very touching picture, primarily the terrific performance of Sydney, which is worth watching totally on its own merit. I really do wish this film would be properly released on home video, as it deserves to be seen.

it is a shame that movies like this one don't get much attention!.. Cary Grand is playing a role of an American Lieutenant who marries a Japanese woman who wanted to be a geisha. it's a tragic romantic story, about loyalty and how some cultures don't understand other cultures. it's a classic movie.. short and no unnecessary scenes. all the scenes are related to the plot. i liked it a lot, enjoyed watching it, and Cary Grant was so young!. it made me learn something about the Japanese culture: how they are very loyal, accept other cultures, and maybe adopt them as well. how they are honorable, and live to be good people and be honored till the end. the plot is well developed, and the action of the movie happens fast.

Heaven knows what possessed Paramount to cast Sylvia Sydney in this in the first place, unless it was a desire to find a novel context for her to suffer in. Given that they did, it's actually been done with taste and elegance, Puccini is used quite well as incidental music on the soundtrack, and Miss Sidney is as moving as she always is (we can imagine only too well what a western woman wronged so grievously would have done with the dagger she reaches purposefully for at the conclusion).

Those outraged at the casting of a Jewish/American actress as a geisha should also take note of the fact that All-American cad Pinkerton is played by a Bristolian.