# Other Cringeworthy Blackface/Yellowface/Etc. movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 23, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135 "2026-06-23T15:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/41 "2026-06-23T18:19:12Z")
As character stereotypes in a movie they’re definitely problematic, but since they’re aliens does it really matter who plays them? ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/42 "2026-06-23T18:19:37Z")
> [@drewbert](#): > > I’m curious what we think about Peter Sellars’ role in _Murder By Death_. I thought of this when I first started reading this thread (one of my favorite movies, and I saw it last weekend). It also made fun of his not saying prepositions or articles (what is meaning of this). I was wondering about that when I saw it again. I let it go because it was a spoof (along the same lines as Blazing Saddles). ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/43 "2026-06-23T18:23:06Z")
_Dragon Seed_ (1944) – pretty much the whole cast is in “yellowface” “Filmed in 1943 on the MGM lot in Culver City, CA, the film features an unusual assortment of non-Asian actors with odd accents playing Chinese and Japanese: Russian-born and Stanislavski-trained [Akim Tamiroff](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0848667/?ref_=tttrv_tr) as Wu Lien; [Turhan Bey](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001947/?ref_=tttrv_tr), Viennese born son of a Turkish father and Czechoslovakian mother as the middle son, Lao Er Tan; New England patrician [Katharine Hepburn](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000031/?ref_=tttrv_tr) as his wife; American [Aline MacMahon](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0533956/?ref_=tttrv_tr)–no longer one of the wisecracking [Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024069/?ref_=tttrv_tr)–as the wife of Ling Tang; English-born [Henry Travers](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0871287/?ref_=tttrv_tr) (best remembered as Clarence the Angel from [It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/?ref_=tttrv_tr)) as the Third Cousin"; Irish-American [J. Carrol Naish](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0619798/?ref_=tttrv_tr) as the Japanese Kitchen Overseer; and finally Jewish [Robert Lewis](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507673/?ref_=tttrv_tr), co-founder of the Actors Studio and [Meryl Streep](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000658/?ref_=tttrv_tr)’s teacher at the Yale Drama School, as Japanese Capt. Sato.” Given how awful all of the above look, it’s hard to believe: “[Donna Reed](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001656/?ref_=tttrv_tr) was tested for the role of Orchid Tan, but even with make up did not look believable enough to be an Asian character.” - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036777/trivia/?ref\_=tt\_dyk\_trv](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036777/trivia/?ref%5C_=tt_dyk_trv) _Saratoga Trunk_ (1945) – British actress Flora Robson in blackface as a Creole maid with an embarrassing accent - [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038053/characters/nm0733460/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038053/characters/nm0733460/) _The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go_ (1974) – Another flick with James Mason seriously miscast as a Chinese guy. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/44 "2026-06-23T18:23:26Z")
Nitpick: Peter Sell **e** rs. (Peter Sell **a** rs is an American theater director.) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/45 "2026-06-23T18:24:44Z")
“White, Jewish kid from Chicago” Fisher Stevens playing an Indian scientist (in brown face!) in **Short Circuit**. [He regrets it.](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/fisher-stevens-regrets-controversial-short-circuit-role-191051910.html?guccounter=1) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/46 "2026-06-23T18:26:11Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > As character stereotypes in a movie they’re definitely problematic, but since they’re aliens does it really matter who plays them? You are right. They are terrible stereotypes, as well as the Neimodian guys who seemed like really offensive Asian stereotypes. But _who plays them_ isn’t really the issue, so it’s not quite what the OP was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/47 "2026-06-23T18:28:20Z")
How about Tony Randall in [7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057812/)? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/48 "2026-06-23T18:41:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Judge Dee** (1969) – a Granada Television series > > I’d really like to see this series. I love Robert H. van Gulik’s Judge Dee mysteries, set in T’ang dynasty China. This British series was the first adaptation of van Gulik’s stories, but done with what appears to be an all-British cast, including a young Timothy Dalton. I enjoy those written Mysteries. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Gods of Egypt** ( 2016) A lot of European actors (and also Chadwick Boseman) portray the deities of ancient Egypt in one seriously miscast film. Well, in Ptolemaic Egypt, not so miscast. But they’d all have animal heads anyway. > [@griffin1977](#): > > Which is weird for a film that is actively parodying the fascist nature of the book. What possible reason would there be to have a bunch blond blue eyed natives of Argentina i The book is not at all fascist. And a lot of Argentinians are blond with blue eyes. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > That is almost certainly not the case for Cleopatra. We’ve discussed this before, but Cleopatra VII was almost certainly the daughter of Cleopatra V (who was probably identical to Cleopatra VI, a likely phantom Cleopatra) who was very, very unlikely to have been African in any sense but having been born on the continent of Africa. It is in fact likely she was the mother of all of Cleopatra VII’s siblings. She was almost certainly a Ptolemaic scion of some sort and almost certainly mostly Greek with a tiny smidge of Persian generations back. > > Granted late Ptolemaic ancestry is both complicated and obscure Yeah, I was in a Play of Cleopatra once (bit part) and Cleopatra was played by a black haired Columbian beauty, and she looked the part. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > How about Tony Randall in > [7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057812/)? I give that a break, because Dr Lao was also Merlin, and several other worthies. In other words, he was a shapeshifter. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/49 "2026-06-23T18:49:22Z")
Monty Python had at least 2 example of blackface that I can think of. One was _less_ problematic in my personal opinion because, while it was a full on blackface caricature, it was obviously a satire of the trope itself (Attila the Hun’s servant.) But like others have said, even that wouldn’t fly today. The other one seemed, in context, worse to me because it didn’t even look like it was satirizing blackface. It was the cannibal cafe sketch, where there was a restaurant in the middle of the jungle whose customers got randomly attacked by natives. The waiter was in blackface but I always initially mistake him for an Indian rather than an African, since it was _not_ a full on caricature, and there are a lot of facial similarities between subcontinental Indians and Europeans, and partly because I as an American am biased to see Indian British. My only defense of it (other than the concept of the sketch itself) is if they did it because they couldn’t afford another main actor. I had always thought that this was one of the reasons they did other sketches as women, but Google AI disagrees with me. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/50 "2026-06-23T18:52:38Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > But a Black African sneaking into the woodpile in that cultural milieu is highly unlikely Yeah because the concept of “black” people was invented by white people a few milenia later. The people of ancient (and hellenized) Egypt were described as “dark skinned” > [@Tamerlane](#): > > The Ptolemies lived in a virtual Greek bubble internal to Egypt They did, but Cleopatra did not, she spoke Egyptian and her political support came from Egyptians not greeks. Hence why it’s suggested given the uncertainty about who her mother was that she could have been half Egyptian. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/51 "2026-06-23T19:15:39Z")
Mention of Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto and Warner Oland as Charley Chan brings up Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Peter Sellers (and others) as Fu Manchu. But Keye Luke, famous for playing NUmber One Son in the Charley Chan movies, actually got to play Chinese detective himself. He played Mr. Wong (the Boris Karloff role) in \*Phantom of Chinatown (\*1945) – the first time an actor of Chinese descent played Chinese detective. The same year he had a minor role as a “Chinese detective” in the mystery-comedy _How DOOoo You Do_. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/52 "2026-06-23T19:29:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is a Briton of Nigerian ancestry, was cast as Vincent Kapoor in _The Martian_. There was a line in the movie where he says he has a black mother and an Indian father. Which leads to an exchange between his character and Sean Bean’s: Do you believe in God? Well, my mother is Baptist and my father Hindu…so I believe in several. Not relevant - I just love The Martian. ---
**Author:** ![We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/We_re_wolves_not_werewolves)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/53 "2026-06-23T20:07:01Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Both Adele James and Cleopatra have one parent of African descent and one parent of European descent. Almost certainly not the case, as Tamerlane explains, as has been explored on these boards before. The consensus among serious scholars was that Cleopatra was highly likely to have been of pure (or almost pure) Greek descent. So again, a very poor choice of casting Adele James if an attempt at a realistic potrayal was intended. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/54 "2026-06-23T20:15:34Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > They did, but Cleopatra did not, she spoke Egyptian and her political support came from Egyptians not greeks. It came from both, but the Greek support was the key as they controlled the core of the political and military establishment. She was very canny in appealing to broad popular support to cement her position as a female ruler at the expense of her younger brothers. But that is a testament to her political skills and intelligence, not necessarily (or even likely) sentiment. > [@griffin1977](#): > > Hence why it’s suggested given the uncertainty about who her mother was that she could have been half Egyptian. There is literally zero verified evidence to suggest that, just a lot of empty speculation. A lot of ink has been spilt on the topic - there is even a very long [wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnicity_of_Cleopatra) on the debate, because of course there is. But for all intents and purposes it’s a “just-so” story. ETA: But we’re hijacking at this point. I’ll stop 🙂. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/55 "2026-06-23T20:22:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Only this is clearly done deliberately with no intent to denigrate. So is that the problem with \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_-face actors, that they are doing it to make fun of people of that ethnicity? What I remember of discussions of black-face specifically was that it originated with minstrel shows, where white actors would perform in exaggerated black face makeup, and portray black people as shiftless, lazy, stupid and so on. I gather these shows were popular and made a lot of money, so there were apparently two goals served: the racist goal of insulting and making fun of black people, and the commercial goal of profitability. The first I remember hearing reactions against yellow-face acting was probably in the 60s or so, when people wondered why, when there are so many Asian actors around who can’t get work, Asian roles are being done by white people in generally bad makeup. So although there were Asian stereotypes acted by white actors, denigration did not seem to be a significant goal of those roles. Some kind of fairness seemed more to the point, at least at that time. I think @Just_Asking_Questions has some at least useful points that haven’t been discussed yet. How close to the ethnicity portrayed does the actor have to be? For example, these days East Asians (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) are often cross-cast as one of the other ethnicities, even though there is a good deal of ethnic animosity and casual “racism” (because I’m not sure what else to call it) among and between some people of those ethnicities. Is that always okay, even when there are plenty of actors of the “correct” ethnicity available instead of the “incorrect” one that was used? If we assume that denigration is not intended, then, because that would always be wrong, how close does the actor have to be to the role in order to avoid offense? And why, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/56 "2026-06-23T20:35:02Z")
Mrs. Meers in _Thoroughly Modern Millie_ (1967) as played by the white English/Canadian actress Beatrice Lillie – though this is perhaps one level removed from what’s being discussed here? Mrs. Meers the character is herself in yellowface (disguising herself as Chinese), not merely the actress. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/57 "2026-06-23T20:44:03Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Is that always okay, even when there are plenty of actors of the “correct” ethnicity available instead of the “incorrect” one that was used? This is a valid point! As a long time fan of Hawaii 5-0, even as a kid I noticed the reuse of a handful of Asian actors. This also carried over into magnum PI. I started to wonder if there were only a few Asian actors available in all of filmdom: James Hong (the hardest working actor ever), Chinese Mako, Japanese Seth Sakai, Japanese (?) Soon-Tek Oh, Korean, All played various Asian roles, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean and Hawaiian, at least, interchangeably. Somehow, it seems more insulting, from this old white guy’s perspective, to cast them as the wrong ethnicity than say, the same of Michael Ansara. It smacks of “all Asians look alike.” Now using Ross Martin to plan a Hawaiian, or David Opatoshu, to play Chinese, now that’s more bothersome! Why? I don’t know! Maybe because H50 had a larger pool of Asian actors to choose from. (I had a Korean-American coworker who hated the actors in MASH for their terrible spoken Korean. I guess getting Korean actors wasn’t hard, but getting ones that spoke good Korean was! Too many X-generation Americans in the actor pool.) ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/58 "2026-06-23T20:53:00Z")
Joseph Wiseman as _Dr. No._ And FWIW I still thoroughly enjoy Anthony Quinn as _Zorba the Greek_ and Colonel Stavros in _The Guns of Navarone_. And Eli Wallach in _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_. While their appearance played a part in their landing the roles, the main reason was they were _great actors._ Also, Mexican is closer in appearance to Greek (and Ashkenazi to Mexican) than John Wayne is to Mongolian. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/59 "2026-06-23T20:55:14Z")
Jake Gyllenhaal played a Persian prince in "_ **Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time**"._ ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/60 "2026-06-23T21:01:18Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > All played various Asian roles, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean and Hawaiian, at least, interchangeably. Somehow, it seems more insulting, from this old white guy’s perspective, to cast them as the wrong ethnicity than say, the same of Michael Ansara. It smacks of “all Asians look alike.” The Netflix animated film _Over the Moon_ was criticized for casting mostly Korean voice actors as Chinese characters (in a story that takes place in China, based on a Chinese folktale). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=4)