Reviews (6)

Please give this movie the DVD treatment!
I know I would give this film an even higher rating if it was ever brought to DVD with a widescreen presentation. There are so many scenes in this film where the actors heads are cut in half(vertically) and so many spectacular shots of Japanese vistas that having this film seen only on VHS(fullscreen) is actually a felony in the history of color filmmaking. That aside, the story is a comedy laced with genuine drama and fantastic character acting from both Shirley MacLaine and Bob Cummings surrounding the filming of "Madame Butterfly" at authentic Japanese locales. Fans of Yves Montand will not be disappointed for he brings a surprising range of emotions from one scene to the next, alternating between witty banter(particularly with Bob Cummings) to gripping heartache near the end of the story. The supporting cast is solid, led by veteran actor Edward G. Robinson in a role that is a far cry from his "Little Caesar" days. One of my few complaints lies in the fact that once in a while a Japanese extra will scowl at Shirley MacLaine when she is portraying her Geisha character with a little too much stereo-type. I certainly don't blame them for cringing once in a while. It would be like a young Japanese man portraying a Redneck Cowboy in front of a crowd of extras from Texas. However, Shirley MacLaine nails this role down pat after a few scenes early in the film where first-time director Jack Cardiff probably should have gone for another take. There are a couple of scenes that look too staged to be believed, while later in the film there are some excellent scenes with fantastic acting from all concerned. Once in a while there is also some voice-over dubbing that doesn't quite match the lip-movement. There are a few other scenes that suggest that Jack Cardiff was once a stage director at one time, such as: instead of having a split-screen effect and editing the actor's voices in later, the whole set is cut in two with a thin partition separating the action on either side as the actors do their scenes on the telephone. It makes for a great live effect that feels kinetic and touching . A while back, say ten years ago, I was in a Shirley MacLaine-fan mode and I rented everything I could find with her in it. I saw "The Apartment" and I thought she was the cutest actress I had ever seen, yet she had more emotional range than I had initially anticipated. I was subsequently thrown for a loop. I rented "My Geisha" in the hopes of seeing more stellar work from her, and in all seriousness I am surprised she was not nominated for the Oscar for this role. She plays two different characters, she is comedic, she cries, she sings, and she is absolutely gorgeous dressed as Geisha Yoko-Mori. As for the comedy in this story, Bob Cummings rules the roost here inducing full-throated chuckling on my part through the use of witty dialogue and his understated, under-rated physical comedy. This film has plenty in it to recommend it whole-heartedly: comedy, romance, wit, glorious photography, oftentimes inspired direction from Jack Cardiff, and four great lead performances mixed with some solid work from the supporting cast. Now if they'd only release this little gem on DVD my collection would reach one step closer to perfection. Take it easy...and don't jump into any volcanoes! Thank you.

It's a great two hours of fun
I never would have noticed this movie if it hadn't been for me catching it on Cinemax. Well the movie was great and i plan on buying the video or dvd of this to watch it over and over again. Shirley McClaine's potrayal of Lucy is so fun to watch and I am slowly getting to rediscover the classic movies. This is certainly among my favourites. She looks so believingly like a Japanese Geisha girl. The movie certainly touches your heart towards the end. Do certainly buy it or rent it. Don't miss it...

An old story, never portrayed better
Paul Robaix (Yves Montand) is a top notch movie maker. The only problem is that every one attributes his success to his actress wife (Shirley MacLaine.) To prove himself, he sets out for Japan to do a remake of 'Madame Butterfly', with out his wife's participation.
Unknown to him, the studio, represented by Edward G Robinson, has condemned him to a black and white film. His wife has cooked up a scheme to extricate her husband from the situation.
Will this plan save face or become the downfall of their career and marriage?

East meets West in a sweet comedy
Shirley MacLaine plays a famous comedy movie star and Yves Montand is her husband and a director. He wants to film Madame Butterfly in Japan with an all-Japanese cast. She plots (with producer Edward G. Robinson) to disguise herself as a Japanese actress and do the film without telling her husband, to prove she can do a serious role, even though Montand wants to prove he can make an important movie without her famous name. She dresses up as a geisha, gets the part, and they start shooting, but then her co-star, Robert Cummings, starts to fall in love with what he thinks is a demure Japanese woman.

The make-up and costumes that transform Shirley are beautiful, but even with contact lenses, she still looks like herself. She is overly-cute and almost annoying, until she redeems herself in the final scene. Yves Montand is very attractive, French accent and all. He is good at playing the sensitive man whose pride is crushed by his tricky wife. Robert Cummings is the comedy relief and keeps things lively as the leading man who chases all his leading ladies. Robinson is properly gruff and cranky, as one supposes rich and powerful produces might be.

The Japanese countryside is beautifully photographed and we hear some of the arias from Madame Butterfly. These poignant scenes combine with the comedy and unexpected effect of Shirley's trick to make a really enjoyable family film.

sweet
I just recently saw this movie and I loved it. It's a sweet romantic comedy, and the cinematography is just beautiful. ... Read more

Description

Ali Baba accidentally discovers the magic cave where Abdul and his band of 40 thieves hide their ill-gotten treasure. He takes enough to buy the beautiful slave girl Morgiane from his master, Cassim, so that he may take her as his wife. However, Kassim and Abdul have plans for Ali on his wedding night... ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Oriental Delights
This movie was a delightful journey to the oasis of those uncomplicated 50s genre films with ingenuous hero and heroine, evil bad guys and the former triumphing over the latter. The main charachters Ali Baba, played by the charming French comic screen actor- Fernandel and Morgiane played by the winsome Samia Gamal are enchanting. Samia was the foremost Egyptian dancer of the 1950s and is simply a real cutie-pie, displaying the artistic true Egyptian roots of classical Oriental Dance in a couple of dance scenes througout the film. The background music features a mix of theatrical orchestra pieces which are perfectly suited to Gamal and her signature graceful, glamourous dance style and some fellahin (country-village style) inspired Egyptian music. The cinematography, story line and good triumphing over evil is just the right mix of light fantasy escapism we all could use right now to bring smiles to our faces and a bit of light laughter to our lives.

Ali Baba And the 40 Theives
I liked this movie because it is a delightful dose of nostalgia which mingles musical comedy, swashbuckling antics, drama and belly dancing. The film was created in 1954 by the brilliant French director Jacques Becker, featuring the most famous and beloved French comic Fernandel and the lovely and incomparable Egyptian dancer Samia Gamal. This was France's response to the big technicolor epic films of that era. Becker filmed in Morocco where he employed thousands of extras to fill the screen in the big action scenes. Samia Gamal, a well known movie star in Cairo and the most famous Oriental dancer of her time could not speak French. However, she plays her part, which is a leading role, through dance and nonverbal communication. Note how she elegantly manipulates the veil which was inspired by the Russian ballerina, Ivanova who brought veil dancing to Oriental (belly) dance in Egypt in the 1940s. The playful Ali Baba tune which Fernandel sings while riding his funny little donkey will be running through your head for days. This is a real "great escape" film for when you want to escape from the real world and be charmed in the comfort of your own home. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Finally, a widescreen version
I bet I've watched this movie 20 times over the last 10 years between my old VHS copy and later Diamond Entertainment DVD version. I can't explain why, but I love this movie. It's the perfect lay in bed and doze-off-to movie. My recommendation: skip the Diamond fullscreen DVD version (which doesn't have any better quality than VHS tape) and go for the Image version. The only advantage the Diamond DVD has is that it's a double feature with "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", an almost decent dozer. I won't go into the plot or details since other reviews have. I can only say that this is an entirely enjoyable movie for classic sci-fi fans.

For Classic Sci Fi Lovers
I bought this film based on vague childhood memories of neat movie about a dark and mysterious planet being visited by an international crew from Earth. I was not disappointed. Although its translation into English adds a hokey air and a few chuckles due to some rather clumsy dialog, special effects (not high tech) and a generally good story line make this an interesting and highly entertaining film. If you're a SciFi buff, this film is a must.

You get what you pay for
NOT as described by Amazon or the jacket - not the 130 minute original but the 78 minute dubbed version shown in the UK. The same poor quality picture (resolution 720 x 480) and sound as the 2000 release but much cheaper.
Based on Lem's 1951 first novel The Astronauts the theme is pacifist - compare with the also 1959 "On the Beach".
The fuzzy images on the DVD do not do justice to the excellent camerawork and (for the time) special effects.
At this price worth getting to compare with US films of the period.

Make Mine Venus!
Polish science fiction novelist Stanislaw Lem (born 1922) must take pride in the fact that his "Solaris" (1962) has now been twice filmed, first by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) and more recently - also less effectively - by an American director whose name escapes me (2003); yet as early as 1960 Lem's first science fiction novel, "The Astronauts" (1952), had already appeared in an adaptation for the silver screen, directed by an East German, Kurt Maetzig. "First Spaceship on Venus" issued, in fact, from a Polish and East German collaboration, with contributions, in the ensemble of players, from three or four "third world" nations. Viewers will recognize Japanese actress Yoko Tani as the sole female crewmember of the space research vessel "Cosmostrator," the titular "First Spaceship" on earth's putative "twin," Venus. This is a mostly superb film, quite magical in its expressionistic special effects. Enticingly for audiences, almost half of the action takes place on Venus amidst sets that do justice to Lem's insistence that alien life will be incomprehensible to humanity. The story, briefly, is this: in 1985 excavations "to irrigate the Gobi Desert" discover extraterrestrial artifacts, one of which, a glassy "spool," contains the last message sent home from a spaceship engaged in reconnoitering the earth. The narration links this fictional incident to the actual 1908 Tunguska meteor impact. The "spool" has sustained damage and yields only a fraction of its contents, but from this bit scientists determine that the visitors originated on Venus, whereupon the "World Space Agency" determines to mount an expedition there. An international crew take command of the "Cosmostrator." The "Cosmostrator" itself demands some attention as one of the most unusual of silver-screen spaceships of the 1950s and 60s: its central silvery cylinder, housing the crew, is surrounded by four similarly hued cylinders of nearly equal dimension housing the engines; the sum of it is a kind of powerful elegance. But the real interest lies in the Venusian scenario itself. Maetzig gives us a shadowy, smoke-and-gas- shrouded landscape full of weird, half-obliterated shapes. One sequence shows the astronauts moving in their "ground cars" through what appears to be a street of melted skyscrapers; there are also huge underground spaces and indecipherable geodesic spheres and cones. The explorers gradually deduce that, on the verge of dousing the earth with radiation preparatory to invading and occupying it, the Venusians destroyed themselves in a fratricidal atomic war. We see the permanently etched shadows of the victims on a blasted wall. In an extremely alien episode, a lake of organic muck chases the terrestrials up the spiral ramp of a half-fused tower, only to retreat mysteriously before catching them fatally at the summit. The visuals elude adequate verbal description. If anyone knew the work of the 1950s and 60s science fiction illustrator Richard Powers, who did paperback covers in a semi-abstract style full of glassy-metallic quasi-biological and quasi-mechanical shapes, that might serve as a good reference. (Samples of Powers' work can be found on-line, should anyone care to go looking.) At the film's finale, in the prototypical Lem-gambit, the Venusians' automated defenses reverse the planet's gravity-field, hurling the "Cosmostrator" back into space, minus two or three unlucky casualties. Despite the Soviet-era utopian bravura, the mission has accomplished but little - the explorers are, in effect, defeated. Between the human and the non-human no genuine communication seems possible, especially where one party has insulated itself behind layers of electronics and automation and is long since a collective suicide. (This story of non-communication comes quite close to the plot of "Solaris," superficial differences notwithstanding - Tarkovsky must surely have known Maetzig's film; he would of course have been familiar with Lem's work beyond "Solaris.") One senses that this English version, with a dubbed soundtrack for American distribution, probably leaves a good many scenes on the cutting-room floor; neither can one tell much about the acting, which, in any case, is of less interest than the strangely realized other world. There is an amusing tracked robot named Omega. The source-print seems well preserved and the format is wide-screen. (A video-tape from a different producer derived from a faded print and cut the image down to television-screen dimensions.) On the strength of the scenic design, this movie should recommend itself to genre aficionados. Anyone who has never seen it is in for a treat.

Pretty cool East-German Sci-Fi
If only I could ever find the original: the dubbed version is just too much. I had to turn the sound off at times. Otherwise it's a sci-fi of surprising quality proving that East Germany has managed some pretty decent films in its 50's and 60's cinematic heyday. I love the genuine PC (not our fake one!) detail: the spaceship crew include an African and a Chinese scientist something unimaginable in Hollywood not only back in its 50's sci-fi schlok era. However, this film is not all peaches and cream: it drags a bit, and at times feels chopped up. I don't know how much of the original was edited out but it feels as if it needs a longer time frame. Overall, fun to watch and compare to other sci-fi films from the same period. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Finally, a widescreen version
I bet I've watched this movie 20 times over the last 10 years between my old VHS copy and later Diamond Entertainment DVD version. I can't explain why, but I love this movie. It's the perfect lay in bed and doze-off-to movie. My recommendation: skip the Diamond fullscreen DVD version (which doesn't have any better quality than VHS tape) and go for the Image version. The only advantage the Diamond DVD has is that it's a double feature with "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", an almost decent dozer. I won't go into the plot or details since other reviews have. I can only say that this is an entirely enjoyable movie for classic sci-fi fans.

For Classic Sci Fi Lovers
I bought this film based on vague childhood memories of neat movie about a dark and mysterious planet being visited by an international crew from Earth. I was not disappointed. Although its translation into English adds a hokey air and a few chuckles due to some rather clumsy dialog, special effects (not high tech) and a generally good story line make this an interesting and highly entertaining film. If you're a SciFi buff, this film is a must.

You get what you pay for
NOT as described by Amazon or the jacket - not the 130 minute original but the 78 minute dubbed version shown in the UK. The same poor quality picture (resolution 720 x 480) and sound as the 2000 release but much cheaper.
Based on Lem's 1951 first novel The Astronauts the theme is pacifist - compare with the also 1959 "On the Beach".
The fuzzy images on the DVD do not do justice to the excellent camerawork and (for the time) special effects.
At this price worth getting to compare with US films of the period.

Make Mine Venus!
Polish science fiction novelist Stanislaw Lem (born 1922) must take pride in the fact that his "Solaris" (1962) has now been twice filmed, first by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) and more recently - also less effectively - by an American director whose name escapes me (2003); yet as early as 1960 Lem's first science fiction novel, "The Astronauts" (1952), had already appeared in an adaptation for the silver screen, directed by an East German, Kurt Maetzig. "First Spaceship on Venus" issued, in fact, from a Polish and East German collaboration, with contributions, in the ensemble of players, from three or four "third world" nations. Viewers will recognize Japanese actress Yoko Tani as the sole female crewmember of the space research vessel "Cosmostrator," the titular "First Spaceship" on earth's putative "twin," Venus. This is a mostly superb film, quite magical in its expressionistic special effects. Enticingly for audiences, almost half of the action takes place on Venus amidst sets that do justice to Lem's insistence that alien life will be incomprehensible to humanity. The story, briefly, is this: in 1985 excavations "to irrigate the Gobi Desert" discover extraterrestrial artifacts, one of which, a glassy "spool," contains the last message sent home from a spaceship engaged in reconnoitering the earth. The narration links this fictional incident to the actual 1908 Tunguska meteor impact. The "spool" has sustained damage and yields only a fraction of its contents, but from this bit scientists determine that the visitors originated on Venus, whereupon the "World Space Agency" determines to mount an expedition there. An international crew take command of the "Cosmostrator." The "Cosmostrator" itself demands some attention as one of the most unusual of silver-screen spaceships of the 1950s and 60s: its central silvery cylinder, housing the crew, is surrounded by four similarly hued cylinders of nearly equal dimension housing the engines; the sum of it is a kind of powerful elegance. But the real interest lies in the Venusian scenario itself. Maetzig gives us a shadowy, smoke-and-gas- shrouded landscape full of weird, half-obliterated shapes. One sequence shows the astronauts moving in their "ground cars" through what appears to be a street of melted skyscrapers; there are also huge underground spaces and indecipherable geodesic spheres and cones. The explorers gradually deduce that, on the verge of dousing the earth with radiation preparatory to invading and occupying it, the Venusians destroyed themselves in a fratricidal atomic war. We see the permanently etched shadows of the victims on a blasted wall. In an extremely alien episode, a lake of organic muck chases the terrestrials up the spiral ramp of a half-fused tower, only to retreat mysteriously before catching them fatally at the summit. The visuals elude adequate verbal description. If anyone knew the work of the 1950s and 60s science fiction illustrator Richard Powers, who did paperback covers in a semi-abstract style full of glassy-metallic quasi-biological and quasi-mechanical shapes, that might serve as a good reference. (Samples of Powers' work can be found on-line, should anyone care to go looking.) At the film's finale, in the prototypical Lem-gambit, the Venusians' automated defenses reverse the planet's gravity-field, hurling the "Cosmostrator" back into space, minus two or three unlucky casualties. Despite the Soviet-era utopian bravura, the mission has accomplished but little - the explorers are, in effect, defeated. Between the human and the non-human no genuine communication seems possible, especially where one party has insulated itself behind layers of electronics and automation and is long since a collective suicide. (This story of non-communication comes quite close to the plot of "Solaris," superficial differences notwithstanding - Tarkovsky must surely have known Maetzig's film; he would of course have been familiar with Lem's work beyond "Solaris.") One senses that this English version, with a dubbed soundtrack for American distribution, probably leaves a good many scenes on the cutting-room floor; neither can one tell much about the acting, which, in any case, is of less interest than the strangely realized other world. There is an amusing tracked robot named Omega. The source-print seems well preserved and the format is wide-screen. (A video-tape from a different producer derived from a faded print and cut the image down to television-screen dimensions.) On the strength of the scenic design, this movie should recommend itself to genre aficionados. Anyone who has never seen it is in for a treat.

Pretty cool East-German Sci-Fi
If only I could ever find the original: the dubbed version is just too much. I had to turn the sound off at times. Otherwise it's a sci-fi of surprising quality proving that East Germany has managed some pretty decent films in its 50's and 60's cinematic heyday. I love the genuine PC (not our fake one!) detail: the spaceship crew include an African and a Chinese scientist something unimaginable in Hollywood not only back in its 50's sci-fi schlok era. However, this film is not all peaches and cream: it drags a bit, and at times feels chopped up. I don't know how much of the original was edited out but it feels as if it needs a longer time frame. Overall, fun to watch and compare to other sci-fi films from the same period. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Finally, a widescreen version
I bet I've watched this movie 20 times over the last 10 years between my old VHS copy and later Diamond Entertainment DVD version. I can't explain why, but I love this movie. It's the perfect lay in bed and doze-off-to movie. My recommendation: skip the Diamond fullscreen DVD version (which doesn't have any better quality than VHS tape) and go for the Image version. The only advantage the Diamond DVD has is that it's a double feature with "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", an almost decent dozer. I won't go into the plot or details since other reviews have. I can only say that this is an entirely enjoyable movie for classic sci-fi fans.

For Classic Sci Fi Lovers
I bought this film based on vague childhood memories of neat movie about a dark and mysterious planet being visited by an international crew from Earth. I was not disappointed. Although its translation into English adds a hokey air and a few chuckles due to some rather clumsy dialog, special effects (not high tech) and a generally good story line make this an interesting and highly entertaining film. If you're a SciFi buff, this film is a must.

You get what you pay for
NOT as described by Amazon or the jacket - not the 130 minute original but the 78 minute dubbed version shown in the UK. The same poor quality picture (resolution 720 x 480) and sound as the 2000 release but much cheaper.
Based on Lem's 1951 first novel The Astronauts the theme is pacifist - compare with the also 1959 "On the Beach".
The fuzzy images on the DVD do not do justice to the excellent camerawork and (for the time) special effects.
At this price worth getting to compare with US films of the period.

Make Mine Venus!
Polish science fiction novelist Stanislaw Lem (born 1922) must take pride in the fact that his "Solaris" (1962) has now been twice filmed, first by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) and more recently - also less effectively - by an American director whose name escapes me (2003); yet as early as 1960 Lem's first science fiction novel, "The Astronauts" (1952), had already appeared in an adaptation for the silver screen, directed by an East German, Kurt Maetzig. "First Spaceship on Venus" issued, in fact, from a Polish and East German collaboration, with contributions, in the ensemble of players, from three or four "third world" nations. Viewers will recognize Japanese actress Yoko Tani as the sole female crewmember of the space research vessel "Cosmostrator," the titular "First Spaceship" on earth's putative "twin," Venus. This is a mostly superb film, quite magical in its expressionistic special effects. Enticingly for audiences, almost half of the action takes place on Venus amidst sets that do justice to Lem's insistence that alien life will be incomprehensible to humanity. The story, briefly, is this: in 1985 excavations "to irrigate the Gobi Desert" discover extraterrestrial artifacts, one of which, a glassy "spool," contains the last message sent home from a spaceship engaged in reconnoitering the earth. The narration links this fictional incident to the actual 1908 Tunguska meteor impact. The "spool" has sustained damage and yields only a fraction of its contents, but from this bit scientists determine that the visitors originated on Venus, whereupon the "World Space Agency" determines to mount an expedition there. An international crew take command of the "Cosmostrator." The "Cosmostrator" itself demands some attention as one of the most unusual of silver-screen spaceships of the 1950s and 60s: its central silvery cylinder, housing the crew, is surrounded by four similarly hued cylinders of nearly equal dimension housing the engines; the sum of it is a kind of powerful elegance. But the real interest lies in the Venusian scenario itself. Maetzig gives us a shadowy, smoke-and-gas- shrouded landscape full of weird, half-obliterated shapes. One sequence shows the astronauts moving in their "ground cars" through what appears to be a street of melted skyscrapers; there are also huge underground spaces and indecipherable geodesic spheres and cones. The explorers gradually deduce that, on the verge of dousing the earth with radiation preparatory to invading and occupying it, the Venusians destroyed themselves in a fratricidal atomic war. We see the permanently etched shadows of the victims on a blasted wall. In an extremely alien episode, a lake of organic muck chases the terrestrials up the spiral ramp of a half-fused tower, only to retreat mysteriously before catching them fatally at the summit. The visuals elude adequate verbal description. If anyone knew the work of the 1950s and 60s science fiction illustrator Richard Powers, who did paperback covers in a semi-abstract style full of glassy-metallic quasi-biological and quasi-mechanical shapes, that might serve as a good reference. (Samples of Powers' work can be found on-line, should anyone care to go looking.) At the film's finale, in the prototypical Lem-gambit, the Venusians' automated defenses reverse the planet's gravity-field, hurling the "Cosmostrator" back into space, minus two or three unlucky casualties. Despite the Soviet-era utopian bravura, the mission has accomplished but little - the explorers are, in effect, defeated. Between the human and the non-human no genuine communication seems possible, especially where one party has insulated itself behind layers of electronics and automation and is long since a collective suicide. (This story of non-communication comes quite close to the plot of "Solaris," superficial differences notwithstanding - Tarkovsky must surely have known Maetzig's film; he would of course have been familiar with Lem's work beyond "Solaris.") One senses that this English version, with a dubbed soundtrack for American distribution, probably leaves a good many scenes on the cutting-room floor; neither can one tell much about the acting, which, in any case, is of less interest than the strangely realized other world. There is an amusing tracked robot named Omega. The source-print seems well preserved and the format is wide-screen. (A video-tape from a different producer derived from a faded print and cut the image down to television-screen dimensions.) On the strength of the scenic design, this movie should recommend itself to genre aficionados. Anyone who has never seen it is in for a treat.

Pretty cool East-German Sci-Fi
If only I could ever find the original: the dubbed version is just too much. I had to turn the sound off at times. Otherwise it's a sci-fi of surprising quality proving that East Germany has managed some pretty decent films in its 50's and 60's cinematic heyday. I love the genuine PC (not our fake one!) detail: the spaceship crew include an African and a Chinese scientist something unimaginable in Hollywood not only back in its 50's sci-fi schlok era. However, this film is not all peaches and cream: it drags a bit, and at times feels chopped up. I don't know how much of the original was edited out but it feels as if it needs a longer time frame. Overall, fun to watch and compare to other sci-fi films from the same period. ... Read more