Among the first Americans to be allowed into Tokyo after surrender in 1945 are the enlisted correspondents of the military magazine "Yankee" - Sergeant Ed Kennedy (George Nader, HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS), Sergeant Dick Mason (John Agar, TARANTULA), Sergeant Jim McNulty (Charles McGraw, THE THREAT), Yeoman Saul Bernheim (Frank Chase, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN), and trouble magnet photographer Private Joe Woodley (Audie Murphy, THE UNFORGIVEN) - who must publish a surrender issue within three days or surrender a confiscated printing plant to pompous civilian "Trend" magazine correspondent Harold Hathaway (THE NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY's Keenan Wynn, who else) who is, along with other world journalists, looking for a scoop on Tokyo Rose. With living and working quarters a premium in the bombed out city, the "Yankee" team are ousted from their office space by their superior Colonel Fuller (Fred Clark, SUNSET BOULEVARD) whose personal assistant Sergeant Hulick (Eddie Firestone, DUEL) is looking to unload black market hoardings with the help of former houseboy Joe Butterfly (Burgess Meredith, BATMAN: THE MOVIE). Kennedy's discovery of Hulick's illegal dealings leads to Joe getting the magazine quarters in the spacious mansion of his former employer Sakayama (Tatsuo Saitô) and the silence of Hulick when Woodley - shipped home after a scuffle with Hathaway - goes AWOL and turns up in town. When Hathaway discovers their many infractions - including some McHALE'S NAVY-esque appropriation of goods he imported to butter up the brass - he threatens to expose the team, forcing them to offer up Tokyo Rose herself as a scoop and rely on Joe to find them a reasonable facsimile. Probably outdated by the time of its release in the late fifties, JOE BUTTERFLY is a quaint comedy vehicle for Murphy - who has a subplot romance with Sakayama's niece Chieko (Kieko Shima) and raises the blood pressure of Fuller and DENNIS THE MENACE's dad Herbert Anderson as the beleaguered Major Ferguson for whom ignorance is bliss - despite the greater screen time of Nader as the ill-tempered Kennedy who eventually softens to the desperate situation of the Japanese civilians. The casting of Meredith as the broken English-speaking Joe may have been the primary reason why this Universal studio CinemaScope picture has been largely unseen since its theatrical release.