{{Short description|1957 film by Jesse Hibbs}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Joe Butterfly | image = File:Joe Butterfly.jpg | director = Jesse Hibbs | producer = Aaron Rosenberg | writer = Sy Gomberg<br>Jack Sher<br>Marion Hargrove | based_on = play by Evan Wylie and Jack Ruge | starring = Audie Murphy<br>Burgess Meredith<br>George Nader | music = | cinematography = Irving Glassberg | editing = Milton Carruth | studio = Universal Pictures | distributor = Universal Pictures | released = {{Film date|1957|5|29|New York City|1957|6|12|Los Angeles}} | runtime = 90 minutes | country = United States | language = English | gross = $1.3 million (US rentals)<ref>"Top Grosses of 1957", ''Variety'', 8 January 1958: 30</ref> }} '''''Joe Butterfly''''' is a 1957 American comedy film directed by Jesse Hibbs starring Audie Murphy, George Nader and Keenan Wynn, with Burgess Meredith in the title role as a Japanese man.<ref>[http://www.audiemurphy.com/movies19.htm ''Joe Butterfly''] at Audie Murphy Memorial Site</ref> The movie was action star Murphy's only outright comedy, and it suffered by comparison to the similar ''Teahouse of the August Moon'', released seven months earlier.<ref>Gossett, Sue, ''The Films and Career of Audie Murphy'', Empire Publishing, 1996, p. 82.</ref> The film was based on an unproduced play.<ref>Erickson, Hal ''Military Comedy Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography of Hollywood Releases Since 1918'' McFarland, 30 Jul. 2012 p. 176</ref>
==Plot== The film follows the staff of the Army weekly magazine ''Yank'', who are among the first American troops in Tokyo after Japan's surrender. They are given the difficult task of producing an issue of the magazine in three days. Short on ideas and having to meet the deadline, they enter Japan's black market and come across con artist Joe Butterfly. Butterfly shows them the high life, letting them live in a mansion complete with beautiful girls.
==Cast== * Audie Murphy as Private John Woodley * George Nader as Sergeant Ed Kennedy * Keenan Wynn as Henry Hathaway * Keiko Shima as Chieko * Fred Clark as Colonel E. E. Fuller * John Agar as Sergeant Dick Mason * Charles McGraw as Sergeant Jim McNulty * Shinpei Shimazaki as a little boy * Reiko Higa as False Tokyo Rose * Tatsuo Saitō as father * Chizu Shimazaki as mother * Herbert Anderson as Major Ferguson * Eddie Firestone as Sergeant Oscar Hulick * Frank Chase as Chief Yeoman Saul Bernheim * Harold Goodwin as Colonel Hopper * Willard Willingham as a soldier * Burgess Meredith as Joe Butterfly
==Production== Filming started July 1956. The movie was shot partly in Hong Kong and Japan as well as aboard the USS ''Los Angeles''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uss-la-ca135.org/2infohistory.html|title=USS LA CA-135 Information & History}}</ref>
At one stage the film was not going to be shown in Japan.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Universal not to show 'Joe Butterfly'|url=https://archive.org/details/variety205-1957-02/page/n236/mode/1up?|date=27 February 1957|page=5}}</ref>
According to co-writer Sy Gomberg, Audie Murphy was extremely uncomfortable playing comedy. However, the movie was an enormous hit in Japan, in part because of the Japanese people's admiration for Murphy, and partly because of its sympathetic depiction of the Japanese.<ref name="Graham">Don Graham, ''No Name on the Bullet: The Biography of Audie Murphy'', Penguin, 1989 p 266-267</ref> Following the film, Murphy brought home a 14-year-old Japanese girl who stayed with the Murphys and helped raise their children while she attended school in America.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47248180 |title=QUIET HOME LIFE FOR STAR. |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=22 May 1957 |accessdate=11 July 2012 |page=43 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
The original choice for the title character was meant to be David Wayne who had appeared as Sakini in the stage production of ''Teahouse of the August Moon''. When he was unavailable the role was taken by Burgess Meredith who also played Sakini on stage.<ref>Erickson, Hal ''Military Comedy Films: A Critical Survey and Filmography of Hollywood Releases Since 1918'' McFarland, 30 Jul. 2012 p. 176</ref>
==See also== *List of American films of 1957
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0050564|title=Joe Butterfly}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20141028164352/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/79793/Joe-Butterfly/ ''Joe Butterfly''] at TCMDB
{{Jesse Hibbs}}
Category:1957 films Category:1957 comedy films Category:American CinemaScope films Category:American comedy films Category:American crime films Category:Films set in Tokyo Category:Universal Pictures films Category:Films directed by Jesse Hibbs Category:American films based on plays Category:Films with screenplays by Jack Sher Category:Japan in non-Japanese culture Category:1957 English-language films Category:1957 American films Category:English-language comedy films