Flower Drum Song (1961)

I had originally watched this movie in the '90s when I lived in Jacksonville, FL. So last night, I showed this on DVD with my mom viewing it with me. She had never seen this before so she managed to enjoy it just as much as I did watching this again. During my original viewing, I had a problem with Wang Ta's going from Linda Low to Mei Li since Linda was teasing him and Mei Li was too reticent for my tastes which meant I would have preferred he have gone with Helen. Part of me still feels that way but I'm now used to the way things eventually worked out so I'm now okay with that. Anyway, like I said, I enjoyed this much better the second time around especially with the great look presented on the DVD. Loved the cast of Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki, Reiko Sato, Benson Fong, Juanita Hall, Victor Sen Yung, Patrick Adiarte (like me and Mom, a Filipino), and especially, Jack Soo! In fact, one of my favorite sequences was his being knocked out twice in the "Sunday" number! I also loved seeing the cowboy and Indian-in black and white-cavorting with the Technicolor players in that one. Oh, and what a great way in presenting multiple Nancy Kwans in the "I Like Being a Girl" number. The Rodgers & Hammerstein score was really good. Really, all I'll say is I highly recommend this film version of Flower Drum Song.

Mail-order bride Miyoshi Umeki (as Mei Li) arrives in San Francisco from Hong Kong, to marry nightclub owner Jack Soo (as Sammy Fong). But, the older man doesn't want to stop seeing sexy star attraction Nancy Kwan (as Linda Low). They decide to unload Ms. Umeki on James Shigeta (as Wang Ta), but he prefers locking lips with Ms. Kwan. This long, ludicrous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical could be compared to "Chop Suey" (herein a song by Juanita Hall). It isn't one of the legendary duo's best."The Other Generation" was reincarnated as "(How Do You Solve a Problem Like) Maria" for "The Sound of Music" (1965). The silly "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (sung here by Betty Jane Baker) is almost a companion to "I Feel Pretty" (from that other 1961 musical). They help make the soundtrack appealing, but Umeki's "A Hundred Million Miracles" is a winner on its own. At least, filmmakers earn points for casting charming originals like Umeki and Mr. Soo, then not pairing them with Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. Baseball playing little brother Patrick Adiarte utters the film's best line, "Don't Take Any Wooden Chopsticks." ***** Flower Drum Song (11/9/61) Henry Koster ~ Miyoshi Umeki, Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Jack Soo

Rodgers & Hammerstein team up with Alfred Newman to produce an overly long old fashioned musical in the early 1960's. In a way, this might be one of the reasons the musical declined in the 1960's though there would be many others from Bye Bye Birdie to Star later on. What happens here is that there had been so many Rodger's & Hammerstein musicals by now that the public had grown tired of them. Then, when you make this one as long as it is, it kind of reminds me of when we had a streak in the 1950's of too many films about ancient Rome & Greece. Enough is enough sometimes.When I discovered this film on TCM, there are some good points. Robert Osborne points out that prior to the 1960's, this movie would not have been made with this cast due to Hollywoods studio system. Nancy Kwan would not have been allowed to be the star as Hollywood would have tried to put someone who was a really well known star in that place.Kwan, coming off a major successful movie role with William Holden the year before deserves top billing here. Quite frankly it would have been sickening to see a Hollywood star actress in this role.What really impressed me about this film are the number of beautiful women in the production numbers. This movie leads the way in what I'd call eye candy as all of them look fantastic. Just looking at them pull off this successful Broadway show is worth the viewing. The costumes are excellent in showing off their beauty too.Women's Liberation caused this film to get shelved & the decline of the musical helped. Between the women & Jack Soo, there are plenty of good points about it that make it worth looking at. The opening artistic credits & then the San Francisco Bay Bridge at the end of them get it off to a good start.

Much is made today of the stereotypical roles African-American actors once played in cinema in Hollywood's golden age. Everything from Hattie McDaniel's Oscar-winning part as the Mammy in "Gone With the Wind" to the banned (and absolutely hilarious) Amos & Andy television series seems to have given offense. But has there ever been a film more offensive to a racial minority –-in this case, the Chinese— than this dreadful Rodgers and Hammerstein travesty? Given the limitations of their roles, Hattie, Ethel Waters, Rochester and all the usual suspects were all brilliant performers, but this cutesy disaster is cursed not only with fortune-cookie dialogue but some of the absolutely worst acting and bad line-readings ever seen and heard in an American film. (What's more, to add insult to injury a number of actors were not even Chinese!) Even the Charlie Chan flicks treat their Asian characters with more dignity and reality than this condescending story set in Hollywood's idea of San Francisco's Chinatown. Why hasn't anyone banned this?