The Cheat (film)
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the 1915 silent film. For other uses, see Cheat (disambiguation).
The Cheat (1915
1915 in film
The year 1915 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 8 : D.W Griffith's The Birth of a Nation premieres at Clune's Auditorium Los Angeles and breaks box office and film length records, running at a total length of 3 hrs 10 minutes.* June 18 : The Motion Picture Directors...
) is a drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
, starring Fannie Ward
Fannie Ward
Fannie Ward was an American actress of stage and screen, known for comedic roles as well as The Cheat, a sexually–charged 1915 silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille....
, Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
, and Jack Dean, Ward's real-life husband. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Plot
Edith Hardy (Fannie WardFannie Ward
Fannie Ward was an American actress of stage and screen, known for comedic roles as well as The Cheat, a sexually–charged 1915 silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille....
) steals charity money in order to invest it in stocks. When she loses the money, she turns to a wealthy Burmese man (Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
) for a loan. He gives it to her, but when she later attempts to return it, he says the repayment he wants is her. When she resists, he brands her and declares her his property. Edith shoots him. Her husband Richard (Jack Dean) takes the blame for the crime.
Production
Originally, Hayakawa's character was described as a Japanese ivory merchant. Because Japan was an American ally at the time, and because Japanese-Americans protested the portrayal of a Japanese as sinister, the title cards and the character's name were changed. The film cost $16,540 to make, and grossed $137,364.Leading actors Ward and Dean (1874-1950) married in January 1916 and remained married until Dean's death in 1950.
Cast
- Fannie WardFannie WardFannie Ward was an American actress of stage and screen, known for comedic roles as well as The Cheat, a sexually–charged 1915 silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille....
- Edith Hardy - Sessue HayakawaSessue Hayakawawas a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
- Hishuru Tori (original release) / Haka Arakau (in 1918 re-release) - Jack Dean - Richard Hardy
- James NeillJames NeillJames Neill was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 113 films between 1913 and 1930. He was buried in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery. His wife, and frequent costar on stage and screen, was Edythe Chapman. In 1902 the couple starred on Broadway in the play The Red Knight...
- Jones - Yutaka AbeYutaka Abewas a Japanese film director and actor. He went to America to study theater and began acting in Hollywood, appearing in such films as The Cheat with Sessue Hayakawa. He was often billed as "Jack Abbe" or "Jack Yutake Abbe." He returned to Japan in 1925, finding work at the Nikkatsu studio, and soon...
- Tori's Valet - Dana Ong - District Attorney
- Hazel Childers - Mrs. Reynolds
- Arthur H. Williams - Courtroom Judge (as Judge Arthur H. Williams)
- Raymond HattonRaymond HattonRaymond William Hatton was an American movie actor who appeared in almost five hundred movies, including a stint of being paired in 1920s comedies with Wallace Beery....
- Courtroom Spectator (uncredited) - Dick La RenoDick La RenoDick La Reno was an Irish-born American film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 83 films between 1914 and 1931.He was born in Ireland and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Single Handed...
- Courtroom Spectator (uncredited) - Lucien LittlefieldLucien LittlefieldLucien Littlefield was an American actor in the silent film era...
- Hardy's Secretary (uncredited)
Remake
The film was remade in 19231923 in film
-Events:*April 15 - Lee De Forest demonstrates the Phonofilm sound-on-film system at the Rivoli Theater in New York with a series of short musical films featuring vaudeville performers.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1923:U.S.A...
with George Fitzmaurice
George Fitzmaurice
George Fitzmaurice was a film director and producer. Fitzmaurice's career first started as a set designer on stage...
as director and Pola Negri
Pola Negri
Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...
and Jack Holt
Jack Holt (actor)
Jack Holt was an American motion picture actor. He was a leading man of silent and sound films, and was known for his many roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
starring. This version is now lost
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
. In 1931
1931 in film
-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
Paramount again remade The Cheat, with Broadway mogul George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...
as director and starring Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...
.
The Cheat was also remade in France as Forfaiture (1937) directed by Marcel L'Herbier
Marcel L'Herbier
Marcel L'Herbier, Légion d'honneur, was a French film-maker, who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued until the 1950s and he made more than 40 feature films in total...
. This version, however, makes significant changes to the original story even though Hayakawa was cast once again as the sexually predatory Asian man.
External links
- The Cheat at Silentera.com
- DVD listings of The Cheat at silentera.com