A silent movie directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Sessue Hayakawa, we get to see avarice, lust, and rampant racism at their glorious best. Worst. Whatever.
Hayakawa is excellent in this movie. DeMille lights him as if he were the female star, and he gives a great performance in mime. The version I saw was the 1918 re-release, and the main character had been changed from Japanese to Burmese after a prolonged protest from the Japanese-American community. (This was very simple for a silent film - they just changed a few title cards and the character's name.)
Fanny Ward plays Edith, spendthrift wife of Richard Hardy, young stockbroker. He's got all his money invested in a company and is waiting for the payoff. She insists on continuing to spend thousands of dollars on frocks and lingerie; at one point another man convinces her that Richard has made an error in judgment, so she gives the guy $10,000 from the Red Cross Fund to double her money in the morning. Naturally, it's all lost, and the Red Cross directors ask her to send the ten grand to the Belgians that day.
Edith has been seeing rather a lot of Haka Arakau (Hishuru Tori in the first release), an ivory merchant who is quite wealthy. Although she is not at all in love with him, she is amused by him while her husband spends all his time on investments. Arakau, though, is smitten with Edith. He offers to lend her money, which she at first refuses; she has no way out, though, when the fund she's lost is requested. She agrees to let Arakau lend her the money, but he makes it clear that he requires sexual favors (without ever saying it, of course) in exchange. She agrees rather than face social disgrace (worse in her status than the theft).
Richard is aware of Arakau seeing his wife, he knows there is nothing going on really, but he's disturbed by it. Hayakawa is very good at being very attentive without being over attentive, and Arakau a very handsome, very wealthy man. When Arakau lends her the money, she's saved from exposure; his demands, though, are instant. He demands her presence that night. Richard's money comes in, and she asks for $10,000, so of course he writes her a check (I can't imagine what $10,000 was worth in 1915).
She takes it with her to her rendezvous with Arakau, but he insists on his interest in addition to the money. She fights him, and he picks a hot seal (a chop, in Japanese, I think) from his container of embers (don't we all have a container of embers on our desk?), rips her bodice from her back, and brands her on her left shoulder blade. This is a remarkable scene for its violence and his avarice and lust. Their struggle is completely believable. DeMille lights Hayakawa's face just as he might have lighted Brooks or Dietrich.
Edith shoots Hayakawa in the shoulder, wounding him. Richard, discovering Edith has left home, follows his suspicions to Arakau's home, discovers that his wife has shot the man, and claims to have done the deed himself when the police arrive. Edith visits Richard in jail, and again DeMille uses lighting dramatically to emphasize Richard's wrongful imprisonment and her wrongful freedom.
At the trial, Arakau knows that imprisoning Richard will hurt Edith worse than telling the truth, so he lies and says Richard shot him. Richard takes that stand and confesses. I'm sorry to say that these few minutes tried my credulity: why have a trial when Richard confessed from the beginning? The jury goes out, considers, and returns, and Edith is shown wringing her hands in tension over what in the world the verdict could be. Let me see, the victim says Richard shot him, Richard says he shot him - what could the jury find? Guilty! Big surprise. Edith then goes into hysterics, bares her shoulder to the whole court and says she shot Arakau because of what he did to her. The courtroom erupts in lynching mode, but calms down. The judge sets aside the verdict and the prosecutor sets aside the indictment, and Richard and Edith walk out of the room surrounded by spectators as if at their wedding.
This is a good movie notwithstanding it is silent. Hayakawa shows his talent even this early, but he had to wait for his role in "Bridge On the River Kwai" in 1957 to get his Oscar nomination as Colonel Saito, the sadistic camp commander. DeMille also does very well with his cast of upper crust New Yorkers. The costumes are fascinating. Contrast these clothes with "The Mating Call," which is set in that same time but costumed in the contemporary clothing of the Twenties when it was filmed.
Silent movies get short shrift in America, but "The Cheat" is worth watching for a number of reasons, the best of which is Sessue Hayakawa.