6.0
A venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to replace the stolen money.
Fannie Ward
Edith Hardy
Sessue Hayakawa
Hishuru Tori [Haka Arakau]
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
Dick La Reno
Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Lucien Littlefield
Hardy's Secretary (uncredited)
Raymond Hatton
Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Director
Cecil B. DeMille
Scenario Writer, Writer
Jeanie Macpherson
Screenplay
Hector Turnbull
June 6, 2022
6
Vaudevillian Fannie Ward made her cinematic debut here as "Edith", a rather shallow woman married to Jack Dean ("Richard"), a stockbroker. She lives for life's fripperies, and when he starts bemoaning the amounts of money she is frittering away on luxuries, she decides to procure some cash of her own by embezzling $10,000 from a charity she runs. Desperate to return the money, she turns to the distinctly shady Burmese ivory trader "Hishiru Tori" (Sessue Hayakawa) who offers her a deal - but at an horrible price... It has a very theatrical style to it, this production, but that's not a bad thing. It helps us to focus on the characters - with Ward, and particularly the sinister "Tori" - working well to create the atmospheric, shadowy - almost menacing, look of the film. The use of light and shade is also used to good effect for that purpose too, and although the ending runs a bit to melodrama, this story of avarice and repentance is certainly worth an hour of anyone's time.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
Budget:
$17,311.00
Revenue:
$137,365.00