As a youngster I (mis-)spent many hours watching older movies broadcast as Saturday matinee movies on free to air TV. Jerry Lewis films were a favourite and although The Geisha Boy was not his best (perhaps due to the mawkish sentimentality focusing on the Japanese boy) it was memorabl,e mainly for the antics with Harry the rabbit.
I recently bought the film cheaply on DVD and I too noted that the rabbit was obviously treated more roughly than one would expect in today's films and how I was oblivious to this as a child.
No doubt there was an element of trick photography and the occasional use of "puppets" (eg the rabbit sliding down the hotel staircase bannister or the reverse shot of the bunny with an icepack on its head and the ears twitching). I imagine too several different rabbits were used in the film in the same way that Skippy used at least 9 kangaroos and Babe used 48 pigs.
It did look unsafe with obviously a real rabbit on top of a moving car without much restraint (it may have been unceremoniously attached to a board on the taxi roof). When Harry then miraciously re-appeared next to Mr Wooley's trunk the rabbit was unnaturally propped up against the case. It appeared there was an element of trick photography but I wonder if the rabbit was somehow also strapped into position.
When Wooley performs the genie trick with gunpowder in his hotel room it is fairly obvious a stage hand or trainer was behind the couch pushing the little rabbit into view to make it look as if Harry was peering out from behind the furniture. When the explosion happens the rabbit has noticebly been scared by a bright light and noise and is visibly frightened as it runs under the couch. Risibly, it is again obvious when Harry is depicted peering out once more from underneath the sofa, and noticing that the angry Ichiyama is now in the room, that the rabbit is yanked quickly and against it's will back under the furniture by the unseen hand of the stagehand/trainer.
I would imagine the rabbit was not happy being dumped unceremoniously into the Japanese bath. also,after Ichiyama jumps into the bath causing the sight gag tsunami, Wooley and Harry are floating in the wave down the street. The rabbit is afloat in a drawer and is again quite clearly distressed and definitely attempting to get away.
Probably the worst was when Wooley is dropped from a rope ladder dangling from a helicopter into a flooded shell hole on the DMZ in Korea with a satchel. There would have been some careful editing but it does appear the bag is underwater with a live rabbit inside, Wooley quickly retrieves the bag and dumps out the creature. It is all done quickly and no doubt the rabbit was not hurt but it would have distressed the animal and not be done this way today.At several other points a live rabbit is manhandled, rolled around and buffeted in a way film makers would not do today and use CGI or puppets instead.
Don't get me wrong, this film is still a favourite and I still enjoy the humour, especially with Harry - "Don't break up the act, Harry", "Get off the hat!" etc - nor do I think the film makers were seriously negligent. It is just obvious how filming techniques and requirements have changed in the last 50+ years.
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