Editing The Cheat (1915 film)

{{Short description|1915 film by Cecil B. DeMille}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2015}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = The Cheat
| caption        = 
| image          = The Cheat FilmPoster.jpeg
| director       = [[Cecil B. DeMille]] (uncredited)
| producer       = Cecil B. DeMille<br>[[Jesse L. Lasky]]
| writer         = [[Hector Turnbull]]<br>[[Jeanie MacPherson]]
| starring       = [[Sessue Hayakawa]]<br>[[Fannie Ward]]<br>[[Jack Dean (actor)|Jack Dean]]
| music          = [[Robert Israel (composer)|Robert Israel]] (1994)
| cinematography = [[Alvin Wyckoff]]
| editing        = Cecil B. DeMille
| studio         = Jesse Lasky Feature Plays
| distributor    = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1915|12|13|initial release|1918|11|24|re-release}}
| runtime        = 59 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = [[Silent film|Silent]]<br>English intertitles
| budget         = $17,311<ref name=eyman/>
| gross          = $96,389 (domestic)<ref name=eyman/><br>$40,975 (foreign)<ref name=eyman/>
}}

[[File:The Cheat (1915) by Cecil B. DeMille.webm |thumb|thumbtime=2|upright=1.5|''The Cheat'']]
'''''The Cheat''''' is a 1915 American [[Silent film|silent]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[Cecil B. DeMille]], starring [[Fannie Ward]], [[Sessue Hayakawa]], and [[Jack Dean (actor)|Jack Dean]], Ward's real-life husband.<ref name="afi">{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/14025-THE-CAPTIVE |title=The Cheat |work=afi.com |access-date=March 30, 2024}}</ref>

==Plot==
Edith Hardy is a spoiled society woman who continues to buy expensive clothes even when her husband, Richard, tells her all his money is sunk into a stock speculation and he can't pay her bills until the stock goes up. She even delays paying her maid her wages, and the embarrassed Richard must do so. Edith is also the treasurer of the local Red Cross fund drive for Belgian refugees, which holds a gala dance at the home of Hishuru Tori, a rich Japanese [[ivory]] merchant (or, in the 1918 re-release, Haka Arakau, a rich Burmese ivory merchant). He is an elegant and dangerously sexy man, to whom Edith seems somewhat drawn; he shows her his roomful of treasures, and stamps one of them with a heated brand to show that it belongs to him.

A society friend of the Hardys tells Edith that Richard's speculation will not be profitable and he knows a better one; he then offers to double her money in one day if she gives it to him to invest in the suggested enterprise. Edith, wanting to live lavishly and unwilling to wait for Richard to realize his speculation, takes the $10,000 the Red Cross has raised from her bedroom safe and gives it to the society friend.

The next day, however, her horrified friend tells her his tip was worthless and her money is completely lost. The Red Cross ladies have scheduled the handover of the money to the refugee fund for the day after that. Edith goes to Tori/Arakau to beg for a loan of the money, and he agrees to write her a check in return for her sexual favours the next day. She reluctantly agrees to this, takes his check and is able to give the money to the Red Cross. Then Richard announces elatedly that his investments have paid off and they are very rich. Edith asks him for $10,000, saying it is for a bridge debt, and he writes her a check for the amount with no reproof.

She takes it to Tori/Arakau, but he says she cannot buy her way out of their bargain. When she struggles against his advances, he takes his heated brand used to mark his possessions and brands her with it on the shoulder. In their struggle after that, she finds a gun on the floor and shoots him. She runs away just as Richard, hearing the struggle, bursts into the house. He finds the check he wrote to his wife there. Tori/Arakau is only wounded in the shoulder, not killed; when his servants call the police, Richard declares that he shot him, and Tori/Arakau does not dispute this.

Edith pleads with Tori/Arakau not to press charges, but he refuses to spare Richard. She visits Richard in his jail cell and confesses everything, and he orders her not to tell anyone else  and let him take the blame. At the crowded trial, both he and Tori/Arakau, his arm in a sling, testify that he was the shooter but will not say why. The jury finds Richard guilty.

This is too much for Edith, and she rushes to the witness stand and shouts that she shot Tori/Arakau "and this is my defense". She bares her shoulder and shows everyone in the courtroom the brand on her shoulder. The male spectators are infuriated and rush to the front, clearly intending to lynch Tori/Arakau. The judge protects him and manages to hold them off. He then sets aside the verdict, and the prosecutor withdraws the charges. Richard lovingly and protectively leads the chastened Edith from the courtroom.

==Cast==
* [[Fannie Ward]] as Edith Hardy
* [[Sessue Hayakawa]] as Hishuru Tori (original release) / Haka Arakau (1918 re-release)
* [[Jack Dean (actor)|Jack Dean]] as Richard Hardy
* [[James Neill (actor)|James Neill]] as Jones
* [[Yutaka Abe]] as Tori's Valet
* Dana Ong as District Attorney
* Hazel Childers as Mrs. Reynolds
* Arthur H. Williams as Courtroom Judge (as Judge Arthur H. Williams)
* [[Raymond Hatton]] as Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
* [[Dick La Reno]] as Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
* [[Lucien Littlefield]] as Hardy's Secretary (uncredited)

[[File:The Cheat 1915.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Edith Hardy (Fannie Ward) and Hishuru Tori (Sessue Hayakawa) in ''The Cheat'']]

==Production and release==
''The Cheat'' featured art direction by [[Wilfred Buckland]].<ref name="afi"/>

Upon its release, ''The Cheat'' was both a critical and commercial success. The film's budget was $17,311. It grossed $96,389 domestically and $40,975 in the overseas market. According to Scott Eyman's ''Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille'', the film cost $16,540 to make, and grossed $137,364.<ref name=eyman>{{cite book|last=Eyman|first=Scott|title=Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille|year=2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-439-18041-9|page=113}}</ref>

Upon its release, the character of Hishuru Tori was described as a Japanese ivory merchant. [[Japanese American]]s protested against the film for portraying a Japanese person as sinister. In particular, a Japanese newspaper in Los Angeles, ''[[Rafu Shimpo]]'', waged a campaign against the film and heavily criticized Hayakawa's appearance. When the film was re-released in 1918, the character of Hishuru was renamed "Haka Arakau" and described in the title cards as a "Burmese ivory king". The change of the character's name and nationality were done because Japan was an American ally at the time. Robert Birchard, author of the book ''Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood'', surmised that the character's nationality was changed to Burmese because there were "not enough Burmese in the country to raise a credible protest."<ref name=birchard>{{cite book|last=Birchard|first=Robert|title=Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood|year=2004|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0-813-12324-0|page=70}}</ref> Despite the changes, the film was banned in the [[United Kingdom]] and was never released in Japan.<ref name=eagan/>

The film inspired French film critics to coin the term ''photogenie'' to specify cinema's medium-specific qualities and was filmed with innovative usage of lighting that helped raise awareness of film as a serious art form.

== Critical reception ==
''Moving Picture World'' gave it a glowing review: <blockquote>Space bids me be brief. I cannot, however, omit words of unqualified praise for Fanny Ward, whose impersonation of the social butterfly with the singed wings was a masterly performance. The lighting effects must be mentioned, too. They are beyond all praise in their art, their daring and their originality. There are those deft and subtle touches that we find all the Lasky pictures possess--only here they crowd upon one another. What a delicate but powerful effect was the omission of the bars in the prison scene. The shadow of the bars, the sombre light, the bent head of the prisoner silhouetted against the bare wall--this is but one of the numerous happy touches. ''The Cheat'' is worth advertising to the limit. It is one feature in a hundred.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chalmers Publishing Company |url=http://archive.org/details/movpicwor26chal |title=Moving Picture World (Dec 1915) |date=1915 |publisher=New York, Chalmers Publishing Company |others=New York The Museum of Modern Art Library}}</ref></blockquote>

==Accolades==
The film was nominated for the [[American Film Institute]]'s 2001 list [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/thrills400.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees |access-date=August 20, 2016}}</ref> It was also nominated in the 2007 [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)]] list.

==Remakes and adaptations==
The film was [[The Cheat (1923 film)|remade in 1923]], with [[George Fitzmaurice]] as director and [[Pola Negri]] and [[Jack Holt (actor)|Jack Holt]] starring. In 1931, Paramount [[The Cheat (1931 film)|again remade ''The Cheat'']], with Broadway mogul [[George Abbott]] as director and starring [[Tallulah Bankhead]].<ref name=eagan/>

''The Cheat'' was also remade in France as ''[[Forfaiture]]'' (1937) directed by [[Marcel L'Herbier]]. This version, however, makes significant changes to the original story, even though Hayakawa was cast once again as the sexually predatory Asian man.<ref name=birchard/>

An operatic adaptation of the story, ''La Forfaiture'', with music by [[Camille Erlanger]] and a libretto by [[André de Lorde]] and [[Paul Milliet]], premiered at the [[Opéra-Comique]] in 1921. The first opera to be based on a film scenario, it was not a success, playing only three times.<ref name="Miyao 2007 p. 25">{{cite book | last=Miyao | first=D. | title=Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom | publisher=Duke University Press | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-8223-3969-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ2wHVKG1HcC&pg=PA25 | access-date=May 24, 2022 | page=25}}</ref>

==Preservation and availability==
In 1993, the film was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]].<ref name=eagan>{{cite book|last=Eagan|first=Daniel|title=America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry|year=2010|publisher=Continuum|isbn=978-0-826-42977-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/americasfilmlega0000eaga/page/49 49]|url=https://archive.org/details/americasfilmlega0000eaga/page/49}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Librarian Announces National Film Registry Selections (March 7, 1994) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin|url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/94/9405/film.html|access-date=2020-09-18|website=www.loc.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|access-date=2020-09-18|website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

Copies of ''The Cheat'' are held by: 
* [[George Eastman House]] on [[35 mm movie film]]. This surviving version is the 1918 re-release footage which includes changes to the Hishuru Tori character.<ref>Birchard 2004 pp.69-70</ref>
* [[CINEMATEK | Cinematheque Royale de Belgique]]
* Cineteca Del Friuli in [[Gemona]] on [[16 mm film]]
* [[Library of Congress]] on 35 mm film and [[Laserdisc]]
* [[British Film Institute]]
* [[UCLA Film and Television Archive]] on 35 mm film and video
* [[Academy Film Archive]] on video
* [[Harvard Film Archive]] on 35 mm film<ref name="American Silent Feature Film Database">{{cite web |url=https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.644/ |title=American Silent Feature Film Database: ''The Cheat'' |access-date=March 30, 2024 |publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref>

''The Cheat'', which is now in [[public domain]], was released on DVD in 2002 with another DeMille film ''[[Manslaughter (1922 film)|Manslaughter]]'' (1922) by [[Kino International (company)|Kino International]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Cheat|url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cheat1915.html|publisher=silentera.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=2002 Kino on Video DVD edition|url=http://www.silentera.com/video/cheatHV.html|publisher=silentera.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Wikisource-inline|single=yes}}
* {{AFI film|1815|The Cheat}}
* {{IMDb title|0005078|The Cheat}}
* {{tcmdb title|id=438356}}
* {{Internet Archive film|id=TheCheat|name=The Cheat}}

{{Cecil B. DeMille}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheat (1915 film), The}}
[[Category:1915 films]]
[[Category:1915 drama films]]
[[Category:American silent feature films]]
[[Category:Asian-American drama films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille]]
[[Category:Films shot in California]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Surviving American silent films]]
[[Category:Japan in non-Japanese culture]]
[[Category:Films adapted into operas]]
[[Category:Rediscovered American films]]
[[Category:1910s rediscovered films]]
[[Category:1910s American films]]
[[Category:Silent American drama films]]
[[Category:1910s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language drama films]]