The Ugly American (1963).....supposedly took many liberties with the best selling book it was based on.
BQ never read the book, so we'll confine ourselves to the film alone.
When this movie arrived in theaters, JFK would still be alive and well for at least another 8 months.....
Also alive and well at the time......our belief (and our young President's) that the United States stood on the side of the angels in our global fight against Communism and its brutal true believers seeking to engulf, conquer and enslave the entire world.
That would explain the attitudes and behavior of freshly appointed ambassador Harrison Carter MacWhite (Marlon Brando).
He's been sent to represent the U.S. in the turbulent Southeast Asia country of Sarkhan, which lives under the threat of incursion by its communist neighbor North Sarkhan.
Okaaaaayyyy........take a wild guess as to which real country Sarkhan is a fictitious stand-in for.......
And does any of this sound familiar? We're propping up a corrupt, unpopular regime in South Sarkhan, and commie rebels are sabotaging a spiffy new highway we're co-funding.....
The 'Yankee Go Home' crowd among the local populace makes their displeasure known to MacWhite immediately when they violently mob his limo as soon as he gets off the plane.
He managed to secure the post, much to the displeasure of senators who grilled him at his confirmation hearing. But this ace card got him the gig - his longtime friendship with Sarkhan's beloved,'man-of-the-people' leader Deong (Eiji Okada of "Hiroshima Mon Amour"). They fought the Japanese together in World War 2.
The old pals re-unite but quickly have a bitter, enraged falling out. MacWhite, bristling at Deong's determination to toss out the U.S. supported regime, accuses him of being a communist.
MacWhite, a steadfast, Team USA patriot, launches into ill-advised, bull-headed moves to impose his will (and American interests) on the weak willed Sarkhanese Prime Minister. But it isn't long before Deong and his massive populist crowd are knockin' on the palace front door.
......which of course, doesn't bode well for Deong, MacWhite, the Sarkhanese and the good old U.S. of A.
To all this, the film attaches its idea of a pithy, ironic final zinger. Even as MacWhite publicly admits to the wrongheaded hubris of his Team USA diplomacy in a televised news conference, a suburbanite shuts the TV off.
You could consider this film a preview of coming attractions.......months later, JFK's shot dead and Lyndon Johnson takes the country neck deep into the quicksand of Vietnam. And eventually Americans finally take exception to feeding their young sons into the Southeast Asia meat grinder.
As for the film itself, it's strictly talky, stodgy Universal Studios sausage. Even though some it's filmed in Thailand, it still bears the artificial veneer of the Universal backlot.
Brando's relatively contained performance does offer a sturdy anchor, but his character's conversion to a more realistic worldview never rings true. And the film's have-it-every-which-way message - yes-the-commies-are-evil-but-respect-the-will-of-the-people-we're-trying-to-help.....hardly comes across.....
No wonder that guy shut off his TV in the middle of Brando's blah-blah-blah.....he wouldn't listen till it was too late either.....
2 stars (**).
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