The Geisha Boy (1958)

A magician (Jerry Lewis) on a USO tour to entertain troops in Japan becomes attached to a fatherless Japanese boy (Robert Hirano). The film is written and directed by Frank Tashlin (THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT) and the film is pure Tashlin. While Lewis is in peak form, the sight gags are clearly Tashlin's doing whether it's a sunburned rabbit, a bath house tidal wave or Lewis catching a baseball with his mouth. The film gets uncomfortably treacly in the last 20 minutes but up until then, it's quite funny and one of Lewis's superior vehicles. The film appears to have been shot in Hollywood (in VistaVision) but you could have fooled me as the Japanese locations look authentic. The score is by Walter Scharf. With Suzanne Pleshette (in her film debut), Sessue Hayakawa (BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI), Nobu McCarthy, Marie McDonald as a temperamental movie star, Barton MacLane and a scene stealing rabbit called Harry Hare.