Cheat

Cheat
Customer Review: The Invention of the Yellow Peril
The Cheat was made in 1915 way after the 1904 indefinite extension of The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act was a culmination to more than thirty years of arguably systematic racism. Strong anti-Chinese feeling had existed ever since the gam saan-haak migration from China during the gold rush, where white miners and prospectors levied taxes and enacted laws to hinder Chinese success. Racial strife amplified as more and more Chinese came into the US, and created a perceived rivalry on the job market. By as early as 1882 the Chinese were hated enough to be banned from coming into the US; the Chinese Exclusion Act, initially only a ten year policy, was extended indefinitely, and by 1902, made permanent. Things change in 1943 (as we will see with Anna May Wong's Lady from Chungking and Bombs over Burma), China was an important ally of the US against Japan. It would be unpatriotic to discriminate against our allies, so we set out to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act. Despite the reprieve, there remained a lasting impact in filmic representations in characters like Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan. "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet," quoth an intertitle in Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat (1915), before the trial for the shooting of a Burmese aristocrat by a protective white assailant - if we only knew! I am still reeling of the irony of a "Burmese" "Oriental" (Sessue Hayakawa - who is actually Japanese) hell bent on claiming Edith Hardy (Fannie Ward) as his own. Despite the vindication of her husband Richard (Jack Dean), my interest in The Cheat is the invention of the "Scheming Yellow Oriental" and the perpetuation (if not invention) of the filmic representation of the "Yellow Peril." Be critical! Miguel Llora
Customer Review: DeMille's Greed
The Cheat is one of Cecil B. deMille's better films. It is about a greedy woman (Fannie Ward) who invests money from a Red Cross charity drive into a company that goes bust. Her husband (Jack Dean) has been working to raise funds for his money-hungry wife, but his investments don't pay off until it is too late for her. She goes to a friend (Sessue Hayakawa) who turns out to be less-than-amicable; he lends her the money under the condition that she become his property. He brands her with his seal, causing her to shoot him. Her husband comes to the rescue and takes the blame for her actions. Sessue Hayakawa is appropriately sinister and aggressive; he is not likable. Fannie Ward plays the greedy, innocently pretty wife. She is good at using subtle emotions fit for the movie screen but in times of crisis she gives way to the more stereotypical stage gestures silent films are known for. Jack Dean is a sweet man, handsome enough and very likable. The audience sympathizes with him. The print is average. There are plenty of artifacts that could have been fixed. However, the print does not hinder the scenery, especially the gorgeous shots of the Japanese garden. This film is accompanied by a short called A Girl's Folly. There is no correlation between this short and the subject of The Cheat, but it is highly entertaining. A Girl's Folly is about filmmaking in the late teens. A girl stumbles upon a group making a film and mistakes them for the real thing, freaks out and ruins the film. Then she tries to become an actress. The title cards are fun and accompanied by cute pictures. This film is in better condition than The Cheat, but it has deteriorated a bit over time.