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The Cheat (1915) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   885 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 18% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writers:
Hector Turnbull (scenario) and
Jeanie Macpherson (scenario)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Cheat on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
13 December 1915 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama more
Plot:
A venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Japanese ivory trader to replace the stolen money. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
1 win more
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
DVD Playhouse: April 2009
 (From The Hollywood Interview. 11 April 2009, 11:58 AM, PDT)
This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: April 7, 2009
 (From Rope Of Silicon. 7 April 2009, 1:36 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Pretty good for the era, though it will no doubt offend many today. more (27 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)
Fannie Ward ... Edith Hardy
Sessue Hayakawa ... Hishuru Tori (original release) / Haka Arakau (in 1918 re-release)
Jack Dean ... Richard Hardy
James Neill ... Jones
Yutaka Abe ... Tori's Valet
Dana Ong ... District Attorney
Hazel Childers ... Mrs. Reynolds
Arthur H. Williams ... Courtroom Judge (as Judge Arthur H. Williams)
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
59 min (1994 alternate version)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Silent
Certification:
USA:Not Rated
Company:
Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Camille Erlanger's "La Forfaiture", based on this movie, was the first opera written which was based on a motion picture. more
Goofs:
Continuity: According to the date on the check, the shooting occurred on September 17th. However, the next day's newspaper which reports the crime is dated April 27th. more
Quotes:
Edith Hardy: [lying about how she lost $10,000] I lost it playing bridge- I was afraid to tell you. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic (2004) (TV) more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful.
Pretty good for the era, though it will no doubt offend many today., 24 July 2007
8/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

Given that the film came out in 1915, it's a brilliant film despite its MANY deficiencies. The story was complex, featured excellent (for the time) production values and was quite entertaining---and was a heck of a lot better than the average feature-length film of the day. Unfortunately, it is also filled with stereotypes that would no doubt offend people. While not as bad as his glorification of slavery in BIRTH OF A NATION (also 1915), the image of the Asian in the film is quite vile--though at least DeMille does have an actual Asian actor play the part--something very unusual in Hollywood through the first half of the 20th century.

A well-to-do man is frustrated at his shallow and awful wife, as she spends far in excess of what he earns. She is constantly trying to keep up with her rich society friends and MUST have all the latest fashions. Despite her being told by him that they can't afford it, she spends and spends and the audience no doubt comes to hate the woman. Later, she gets an idea to take money entrusted to her as treasurer of the Red Cross Relief Fund and invest it--thereby getting enough to keep buying herself clothes and returning the money, no one the wiser. Unforuntately for this idiot, her investment tanks and she now owes the fund $10,000!! Not wanting to get caught, she goes to her Asian friend (Sessue Hayakawa) to borrow the money.

Shortly after this, the lady's husband announces that his investments paid off handsomely and they are now rich enough for her to afford all her extravagances. So, she takes $10,000 and tries to pay off Hayakawa--who then tells her he does NOT want the money. Instead he announces that he owns her and is going to brand her to prove she's his property!! This leads to an intense, frightening and violent fight scene where he ultimately brands his mark on her shoulder! In retaliation, she grabs a gun, shoots him (non-fatally) and runs. Her husband then finds the bleeding man and is accused of having tried to kill him. Why Hayakawa doesn't tell the truth is beyond me and the innocent and stupid husband goes on trial. I say "stupid" because he knows his wife did it, but he decides to take the rap instead. Now had she NOT been a selfish fool, I might have understood this, but in this case he just seemed like a chump. I would have let the court hang her had she been my wife!

When the hubby is found guilty by the court, the wife jumps up and announces her own guilt--showing the judge the brand on her shoulder. The judge dismisses the case and the couple is left to live happily ever after. However, at this point, every "decent white man" in the courtroom attempts to kill the evil foreigner and the film ends as a riot ensues!!!

Technically speaking, this is a wonderful and entertaining film. The implication that Asian men are "white slavers", that wives can be shallow idiots and that it's up to decent white men to ignore the law and beat the Asian guy to death is pretty sick--and pretty indicative of the times. That same year brought Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION, in which the "good white men" in the film can't get justice from the courts so they resort to forming the KKK and teaching the Blacks a lesson, and in this one they don't even bother with the robes--they try to kill the man right in the courtroom!!!

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