My Geisha (1962)

The greatest stories are based on deceit, and the deepest romances are forged from secret identities (not to mention the lies we tell ourselves). Think of Shakespeare, his plays within plays that illustrate the larger drama and enrich the plot with shades of emotion. Now, I’m not saying My Geisha, an early ’60s postcard from America’s favorite colony is quite Shakespeare…. The premise and characters are tissue-thin, especially Bob Cummings’ infantile playboy straight out of a Doris Day movie. But it does, at times, rise above its hackneyed plot of an actress assuming an exotic identity to fool her husband (and land a starring role in the show), to reveal a complicated dance of egos between man and wife, and the eventual submergence of her identity to provide his greatest happiness.

Shirley MacClaine plays a successful formula comedienne who is sidelined when her longtime director husband (Yves Montand) wants to film an epic version of Madame Butterfly in Japan complete with an authentic geisha as the lead. She is hurt, but realizes the film will be a chance to prove himself as a great director and not just her husband. But without her starring name attached, the studio slashes the budget and his hopeful opus will be filmed in black and white. With the help of the film’s producer and family friend (Edward G. Robinson), MacClaine trains to be such a convincing geisha that she will even fool her husband and save the film, but to protect his ego he can’t know his authentic geisha is really his meddling wife — at least until the film’s premier when her unmasking will spur publicity and probably win her an Oscar.
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Woman Times Seven (1967)

Only in Italy where divorce is taboo would a film contemplate so deeply about having an affair! The guilt, the consequences, the subtle emotions, and the release. Set in romantic Paris with a Euro-lounge soundtrack by Riz Ortolani, Shirley MacClaine plays it sad, sweet, manipulative, shy, and insane in this vignette film of seven short stories, each with its own take on cheating.
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The Bliss of Mrs Blossom (1968)

If you don’t love Shirley MacClaine then you haven’t seen The Bliss of Mrs Blossom, a surreal skewering of marriage and conventionality. Mrs Blossom adores her stodgy workaholic husband, but also keeps a younger man hidden in the attic for daytime fantasies and romantic romps. Mr Blossom is so busy at the factory saving the world with an inflatable bra that he doesn’t notice for several years! Is polyandry the answer to woman’s happiness?

The gogo ’60s has no shortage of swinger movies and sexual epiphanies, but none are as sweet or as fun as Mrs Blossom. MacClaine is wonderful in a swirl of gauzy gaudy dresses straight from Carnaby Street, spiraling hair pieces, and false eyelashes a mile long. Her lovely cottage home, presumably the result of her many days alone, is practically a fourth character in the film with brightly painted art nouveau flowers and carefully detailed domestic trimmings (like the miniature village tea set). The billiards parlor is a riot of psychedelic purple paisleys, and her paintings are straight out of Yellow Submarine. Contrast with a later trip to a pop-psychiatrist whose office is all blinking lights, metal structures, and industrial gadgetry.
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What a Way to Go! (1964)

Shirley MacClaine is one of the few female stars who was able to get top billing over her male leads. Seeming to flaunt it she appeared in several “vignette” films where she is romantically paired (sequentially) with a string of Hollywood’s top men.
bonus Edith Head Gallery after the jump:
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Sweet Charity (1969)

Charity Valentine wears her heart literally tattooed on her arm, sacrificing herself on the altar of love with one undeserving man after another. Shirley MacClaine plays the quasi-prostitute who dreams of being a secretary, and stealing the role Gwen Verdon created for Neil Simon’s Broadway translation of Fellini’s Nights of Caberia.

The film is ultimately too dark, the characters too post, and it fails as an optimistic Hollywood musical. But New Yorker’s had embraced Gwen Verdon’s hardluck heroine on Broadway as if she were the city itself: mugged, abandoned, but still holding on to hope. Sweet Charity revived Broadway, brought tourists back to the city, and re-opened the venerable Palace Theater. But don’t think this is anyone’s show but Bob Fosse’s.
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