Just saw the interesting silent film "The Cheat" (1915, re-released in 1918)
Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Cast: Fannie Ward (Edith Hardy), Jack Dean (Richard Hardy), Sessue Hayakawa (Haka Arakau), James Neill (Jones), Utako Abe (Arakau's valet), Dana Ong (District Attorney)
Synopsis
Although New York stockbroker Richard Hardy is experiencing financial difficulties until a new investment pays off for 
him, his wife Edith continues her spendthrift ways. Haka Arakau is a Burmese ivory king who is popular with Edith's social set. Although her husband doesn't approve, Arakau spends a great deal of time in Edith's company. As treasurer of the local Red Cross, she is entrusted with $10,000 in funds they have raised.
him, his wife Edith continues her spendthrift ways. Haka Arakau is a Burmese ivory king who is popular with Edith's social set. Although her husband doesn't approve, Arakau spends a great deal of time in Edith's company. As treasurer of the local Red Cross, she is entrusted with $10,000 in funds they have raised.One evening at the Hardys' home, Jones, a friend of Richard's, tells Edith her husband is making an unwise investment and should have invested his money in United Copper stock. Since her husband has cut off her spending, Edith has an idea and gives the man the $10,000 from the Red Cross fund to invest in this stock, explaining that she won the money playing bridge. However, the investment fails, and Edith fears a great scandal. Arakau offers to give her the $10,000 in return for sexual favors. She agrees.
In the meantime, Richard's investment makes them rich. Edith is due to pay her end of the bargain to Arakau that evening. Instead, she gets $10,000 from her husband, on the pretense of paying bridge debts, and goes to repay Arakau. He refuses to accept the money and attempts to rape her. She resists, and he "brands" her on her shoulder with a red-hot iron he uses to mark his possessions. She shoots him and runs away. Richard, being suspicious of his wife, discovers the wounded Arakau, is caught with the gun in his hand and arrested.
In his tribute to silent film, Seductive Cinema (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), James Card, founder of the George Eastman film archive, devoted over three pages solely to "The Cheat" heaping praise on the film. According to Card, he approached Cecil
B. DeMille's daughter, Cecelia, about donating the DeMille collection to Eastman House in 1959, shortly after the director's death. Of the more than 3,000 35mm nitrate positives he obtained were titles such as "Carmen," "Joan the Woman," "A Romance of the Redwoods," "The Little American," "Don't Change Your Husband," "Male and Female," "The Affairs of Anatol," and more. However, of these films, Card said, "But the biggest surprise to me was 'The Cheat' -- a towering masterpiece of 1915." Card said he felt an "evangelistic compulsion" to show the film to "skeptical audiences" and began a series of screenings both in the United States and Europe over the next several years.
B. DeMille's daughter, Cecelia, about donating the DeMille collection to Eastman House in 1959, shortly after the director's death. Of the more than 3,000 35mm nitrate positives he obtained were titles such as "Carmen," "Joan the Woman," "A Romance of the Redwoods," "The Little American," "Don't Change Your Husband," "Male and Female," "The Affairs of Anatol," and more. However, of these films, Card said, "But the biggest surprise to me was 'The Cheat' -- a towering masterpiece of 1915." Card said he felt an "evangelistic compulsion" to show the film to "skeptical audiences" and began a series of screenings both in the United States and Europe over the next several years.Card's enthusiasm is not without justification. "The Cheat" is an amazing film in many respects, especially considering it was made in 1915, an early point in screen development. Although "The Birth of a Nation," also made in 1915, is obviously of much greater scope, "The Cheat" is a more highly polished film, almost betraying the time in which it was made. Card expounded, "The low-key, atmospheric lighting is sophisticated and effective far ahead of its time. The Japanese screens used to silhouette players, who are ripped apart in violence behind them, the screens suddenly spattered with blood, make the film look as though it could have been made by Kurosawa rather than the unappreciated DeMille."
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