updated: 06/10/2006
Lucy Dell (Shirley MacLaine) is an American actress who disguises herself as a geisha called Yoko Mori to get the part of Madam Butterfly in her husband’s latest film. He, of course, falls for the exotic Yoko Mor.
The Japanese disguise and Geisha makeup by Wally Westmore and Shu Uemura was better than many attempts at making up white Americans as Japanese/Chinese characters (but she still looked like Shirley MacLaine). With the eye-tabs pulling her eyes upwards, this was a particularly uncomfortable makeup. Junjiro Yamada was the wig maker.
Shu Uemura states on his website that:
His first substantial opportunity came during the filming of Paramount‘s My Geisha, starring Shirley MacLaine, when Ms. MacLaine’s makeup artist fell ill and Mr Uemura was called to substitute. Upon completion of Ms. MacLaine’s intricate and laborious geisha makeup, Mr Uemura had transformed the actress’s Caucasian face entirely into a Japanese geisha with Asian features.